Browsarity (YC W10) Allows You To Donate Affiliate Fees To Charity

While I did make and launch <a href="http://browseforacause.com" rel="nofollow">http://browseforacause.com</a> a few months ago (which this may or may not have been inspired from), I welcome this launching - any innovation to donate more money to charity can really only be a good thing.

The problem with all these programs is that its arguable if this generates any value for the company's paying the affiliate fees. Usually a company is not happy with the idea of paying for a customer they already (would have) had.<p>However, sites like skimlinks seem to be growing (and staying in business) which I think surprised alot of people.<p>Lets all not forget that these programs mainly survive around 2 affiliate programs- eBay and Amazon. Getting canned from either would be disaster.

How is this different than Eric Kerr's Browse for a Cause?<p><a href="http://browseforacause.com/" rel="nofollow">http://browseforacause.com/</a><p>(Unless Eric is involved, of course.)

The countdown to their affiliate accounts being shutdown starts now.

While I think this is a really cool idea; I wonder what the investment strategy could possibly be for funding a company like this. I have a really hard time envisioning how you go from this to any kind of exit short of acquhire.<p>(I'm genuinely curious, for anyone who feels like speculating.)

This is very similar to what a local startup here in Ottawa is doing. <a href="http://dogoodhq.com/" rel="nofollow">http://dogoodhq.com/</a> , they replace your normal advertisements with calls to actions, green initiatives and campaigns from charitable organizations. They also have been nominated for a web award at SXSW for technical achievement I believe.

I'm quite surprised that this idea got YC funding. They must have a great team.

Hey I started something like this in high school: shopwisely.org. Glad to know I wasn't crazy (people said I was crazy for doing it).<p>Some things I learned: nonprofits don't like to raise money for no reason, and don't like to raise money to receive 2 months later.<p>The service will have to be super passive because people are lazy and will often forgo an extra step in before purchasing.

Allows <i>you</i> to donate affiliate fees to charity?! Bullshit. Should read: Forces businesses to donate part of their profit margin to charity and browsarity.

Nice!