Starting a Charity in Ontario

[TheNewTeddy]

So, I've been unemployed for a while, but I had a stroke of brilliance. Why not start a charity?

My plan is thus.

I will take a box with a slit and advertise my charity. "Charity Vote".

People will, for as little as $1, get to make a donation, and, vote where the money will go.

At the end of the week, I will tally the donations and the votes. Whatever charity that receives the most votes will get all the donations for the week. Any ballots cast for the winner are then discarded. All ballots for the non-winning charity are kept, and used the next week. This will ensure that every charity should, over time, be able to win at least once.

How will it work?

How will I get paid: I will work a minimum of 44 hours a week. I will pay myself the equal of minimum wage, or, $451 a week. I will reduce this amount as needed so that it is less than 20% of the total donations received that week. Every 6 months, if I've been able to increase donations, I get an $11 a week raise. This is equal to $0.25 cents an hour, and is the raise that McDonalds gives, every 6 months, to employees that are doing their job well.

How will voting work: I will create a ballot with the top 5 or 10 charities in Ontario and people will mark and X and drop it in the box. I will leave a space for write-ins. If any write-in is very popular, I will add it to the ballot.

How will counting work: It might have been a bit confusing from above. Lets use an example. In week 1 I get 200 votes for the Canadian Cancer Society and 150 for the Canadian Red Cross. For week 1 all the donations will then go to the Canadian Cancer Society, and the 200 ballots for said charity are then discarded. Lets say week 2 has identical voting numbers. Remember that only the charity that has won gets it's ballots removed. Thus the week 2 totals are 200 for the Canadian Cancer Society but 300 for the Canadian Red Cross. This is done to ensure that the same single but popular charity does not win week after week.

Who can vote: Anyone who donates at least a dollar will be able to cast a ballot. Only one ballot per person may be cast each day. Each person only gets one ballot regardless of if they donate $1 or $100

The plan would be to star this ASAP. I have all the equipment I need right here in the apartment and could be out on the street on Monday. What I need first is some advice. What are the limits to what I can and can not do without incorporating as a legal charity?

[Topaz]

Sorry to hear you are unemployed but I thought TO. unemployment was very low. As far as charities, I just hear this AM on the radio, that since governments are going after charities, heads of them are asking people to leave money in their Wills for them. They say Boomers are going to inherit large sums of money and they hope to have part of it. Its a wonder the Tories haven't gone after those funds too! What you have described, I've heard people in the US, selling their homes that way.

[Moonlight Graham]

Or people can donate directly to the charity of their choice, bypass your 20% cut, and end up giving 20% more to charities.

[TheNewTeddy]

This is from another forum where I asked for the same advice.

I'd start here at the University I live at. Take my box and my foldy TV-dinner table, stand in one of the crowded hallway areas, and sell.

"Donate to Charity, any charity" "Vote for the charity you like best" etc

Edit - Since I'm mobile, I could take my box elsewhere, perhaps just stand on a street corner. I could try going door to door. Solicit for online donations. There are lots of options for how to get donations. Ideally I go to some place physically, so that I can "close" in public. That is where I open the box, count the money, count the votes, and bring the money to the bank. Ideally I do that in public so that nobody can accuse me of just pocketing it all. I'll suggest a $5 donation, but take $2. The "average" donation, I hope, would be $3.50 and if I get 100 of those a day, I can bring in $2,450 total, of which 20% is $490. I'd say raising $2000 a week for charity is a good goal for a person to have.

Best case scenario, it works so well, that I branch out, and within a few years, someone working for Charity Vote will be knocking on your door.

Worse case scenario, I make $100 all week. Take $20 for myself that I didn't have before, give $80 to the winning charity, and walk away from the whole venture knowing "okay, so that dosn't work"

As for working, I have a disability that makes it very difficult for me to get hired. Best yet, while I'm "too" disabled for getting in to the workforce, I'm not disabled enough for government help.