This document provides a strategic analysis and feasibility assessment for the proposed fundraising platform "HelpingHand". Research found charities spend 1/3-1/2 of funds raised on operational costs. HelpingHand aims to reduce these costs through online fundraising. The target markets are Canada and UK, with a combined annual market size of $15.5-18 billion and online donations comprising $2.3-2.7 billion. Factors like high fundraising ratios, operational inefficiencies, and lack of mobile/online options indicate opportunities for HelpingHand to improve the industry standard. The platform could create new engagement between donors and charities while reducing fundraising costs.

1. Name: HelpingHand

2. 1. Executive summary
The objective of this document is to provide a strategic and feasibility analysis for our proposed
venture “HelpingHand”, an online fundraising platform (“the platform”) and to recommend the next
steps.
The documentcoversthe followingandprovidesrecommendationsfornextsteps:
● Situationanalysis
● Market environmentanalysis
● Market forecast
Our situation analysis confirmed our hypothesis that the fundraising and operational costs of
charities and non-profit organizations tend to be high, taking between one-third to half of all money
raised. The analysis was focused on the charities and non-profit sector within Canada and UK, with
stark similarities between the two jurisdictions. An improved and cost efficient mechanism, such as
our platform would allow these organizations to improve their fundraising ratios by reducing the
administrativeandoperationalcostsassociatedwithfundraising.
The market environment analysis helped us understand better the marco-economic factor and the
size of the market for our platform. Through our external analysis we can conclude that the
charitable and non-profit sector in both our jurisdictions is a sector where our platform would be
successful. Online donations in both our markets is about 15% of the total market size. Combining
the two markets we have a market size range of US$15.5 to 18 billion, of which US$ 2.3 - 2.7 billion
(15%) isour targetmarketsize.
By analyzing the online donation trends and growth in adoption of mobile technology we feel
confident that our platform has the potential of great success. The fastest growing fundraising
mediums are online and mobile, with both registering growth rates higher than traditional mediums.
In addition, by providing a technological solution our platform will gain wider adoption from the 18-
34 demographic. HelpingHand will create a new donation channel and community for the charitable
and non-profitsectorinCanadaandUK.
Our recommendation is to start execute the proposal of HelpingHand and to take action on this blue
ocean which is full of opportunities. Actions shall be taken to drive in usage of donors and NGOs. By
engaging charities and donors, we believe the platform would help transform the charitable eco-
system.
2. Situation analysis
2.1 Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s
standard?

3. At HelpingHand we believe that the operational efficiency of charities’ needs to be raised well above
the global standards currently set. We selected two markets for our venture: The Canadian and UK
charitable industry. We found that contrasting these two markets would offer us the most
informationaboutthe industry,players,donors,regulationsandgovernmentsupport.
Within the UK, for example, the Fair Foundation conducted an independent study of over 5,543
charities, with a total combined income of over £40.7 billion, and found some appalling results with
regards to operational efficiency and how much of their generated income was actually being spent
on the charity programs that they represented. This study uncovered that 292 charities, with an
overall combined income of over £2.4 billion, spent 10% or less on their charitable activities. They
also found that 1,020 charities, with a combined income of over £6 billion, spent less than 50% of
theirmoneyonthe charityprograms that theyran.
Further to this the Fair Foundation conducted another independent study on charities with over £50
million plus income, to see whether these trends on operational efficiency were a by-product of the
charities being much smaller. It was a hypothesis that the larger the charity was the more scalable
their “work effort” would be and therefore the cheaper their relative operational costs would be.
The findings from this study revealed that 17 UK charities, representing a combined annual income
of over £3.5 billion, spent 65% or less of their income on charitable activities over the past 3 financial
years.
This highlights the fact that operational efficiency is a challenge that all charities face, whether they
have an annual income of £0.5 million (the minimum size of charities analysed by the Fair
Foundation in these studies) or whether they are massive charities with annual incomes over £50
millionannually.
These trends of low operational efficiency and therefore low percentages of annual income being
spent on charitable activities by charities is not just a trend seen in the UK. In Canada, where the
charity sector represents approximately 8.1% of the GDP (with an annual turnover of $106 billion),
these trendscanalso be seen.
We researched four of the largest charities by incomes in Canada; World Vision Canada ($442
million), Canadian Cancer Society ($202 million), Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation ($246
million) and Canadian Red Cross ($170 million). Our research reveals that World Vision Canada spent
20% ($61 million) of all funding on non-program activities, Canadian Cancer Society spent 39% ($45
million) of all funding on non-program activities. The Canadian Red Cross spent 32% whereas the
Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation spent a staggering 55% of all funding on non-program
activities.
Based on our research of the 2015 annual reports published by these charities, on average one-third
of all the funding received is spent on non-program related activities. If we analyze the fundraising
segment of the income statement again about one-third or more of the funding received is spent on
raisingthose fundsforthe charitiestouse intheirprograms.

4. 2.2 Which factors that the industry has long competed on
should be eliminated?
Based on our research the largest portion of the non-program related costs for charities in UK and
Canada are due to fundraising. The charitable and non-profit industry competes on how to raise the
most dollars through their various fundraising channels. Fundraising through individuals,
corporations, governments and grants tends to take up the most effort and time for these
companies and their staff. In our view this cost can be reduced through our offering of HelpingHand,
allowing the companies to focus on their core business, i.e. providing international and domestic
charitable programsfortheirtargetmarket.
In both of the countries we researched the governments (federal and provincial) regulate the
charitiesandnon-profitsectors.
In Canada, both registered charities and non-profit organizations must comply with the Income Tax
Act. Depending on the structure of the charity it must comply with either the Federal or the
Provincial laws that focus on legal structure, fundraising and operations of these organizations. In
addition, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recognizes that registered charities in Canada often
depend on donations to carry out their charitable activities, and that appropriate fundraising
activitiesare oftennecessaryforthe sustainabilityof the charitable sector.
The CRA uses the fundraising ratio (determined by dividing fundraising expenditures by fundraising
revenue using the entries from the charity’s Form T3010) as a gauge for the effectiveness of charities’
fundraising activities. According to the CRA website, a ratio of under 35% is unlikely to raise concerns,
a ratio of 35% or above in recent years will on occasion require a more detailed assessment, whereas
a ratio of over70% will raise concernsandrequire the charitytoprovide arationale.
Therefore, providing a technological solution through HelpingHand to these to reduced their
fundraising ratio will not only allow these charities to spend more on their programs but ensure
regulatory and legal compliance. In our opinion, if we can eliminate the cost of fundraising for these
charities it will go a long way in helping these organizations and their employees focus on their core
business.
2.3 Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s
standard?
HelpingHand aims to create a new way for charities to increase spending on their charitable
programsby reducingthe administrative andoperationsexpenses.
The pursuit of excellence is the driving force for HelpingHand to succeed among the competition by
improving customer service, satisfaction and loyalty. This can only be achieved when customers,
both donors and the cause, receive excellent but yet cost effective service especially in case of small-
and mid-size charityorganizationsthatoftenoperate withthinmargins.
A significant hindrance in achieving excellence is the disadvantage when it comes to leveraging the
latest technology innovations by such organizations. By following the model of new generation of

5. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, HelpingHand can help minimize operating costs and improve
the operational effectiveness.
Traditionally, charities are using premises-based equipment, the de facto administrative and
accounting solutions, carrying a high total cost of ownership (TCO). This is because most new, and
even many mainstream, hardware systems and software solutions come with a steep price tag, and
require sophisticatedtechnical skillstofullymaintainandutilizethem.
HelpingHand’s use of SaaS model is appealing to the charity organizations as it lets them save money
in multiple ways. Such as, the solutions could offer a free trial for some period, lets say 30-day,
which enables them to get a feel for the software capabilities without even requiring them to buy
supporting hardware. This mitigates the risk of wasting money on both hardware and software that
won’tbe used.
HelpingHand will enable industry to benefit from SaaS’s pay-as-you-go subscription pricing model. It
permits the organizations to pay for software incrementally, based on actual usage levels. This
represents a cost savings over having to pay upfront for a perpetual software license. By utilizing this
advantage,charitieswillbe able tospendthatmoneyonthe real cause since the beginning.
2.4 Which factors should be created that the industry has never
offered?
In the fundraising market, both the donors andNPOs have desired expectations for their fundraising.
Our technologysolutionwouldcreate the mechanismforthese charitiestomeettheseexpectations.
With the suggested technology solution, donors can now review the charity and donation
requirements as needed. The solution reduces and in some cases will eliminate the cost of
fundraising. In addition, the donors can review the charity proposals on the go. They can review it
on the train or during transportation. They can review donation options during lunch time or while
theyare waitingforfriendsmeet-up. Theycanmake theirdonationeverywhere.
The donor experience on our platform can be very quick and convenient. Meanwhile, it will be very
interactive and rich in content. Videos and multimedia would be triggered so the donors can be
engagedandwell informedonthe charityprogrambefore theymake adonation.
This would likely create a higher response rate than the traditional channel. Through the platform,
donors can have more empathy and alignment towards the program. This would help donor be
more engagedinlongterm.
Beside the value to the donors, this long term engagement of donor indeed benefits the NPOs and
should arouse more long term income rather than one-off donation. The NPOs could also reach the
long tail that they will never reach through traditional channels. Those never stop by a charity booth
or those never read mailers can be attracted online. Donation would expect to be increased, while
the cost-vs-donation ration should be highly raised. These values created to the NPOs would have
neverhappenedbefore.

6. 3. Market environment analysis
3.1 Marco-economic analysis
● Socio-Cultural
Every year, millions of people donate money to charitable organizations. Canadian, in general, are
considered generous by international standards as they give away a higher than average portion of
their income and reserve time for charitable causes. Various socio-cultural factors such as gender,
age andreligiousassociationinfluence generositylevel amonggroupsof people.
For instance, people who are more religiously active are more inclined to donate and, on average,
they make larger donations. Similar to that, trends have been seen that donations tend to increase
withage.Anotherinterestingfactiswomenare slightlymore likelytogive thanmen.
Considering such socio-cultural differences, the general adoption of latest technologies around
cryptocurrency and a targeted campaign to promote use of HelpingHand in such groups can prove to
be successfactor.
● Technological
The technological advancements in payments industry around distributed ledger and cryptocurrency,
blockchain, is opening door to a new era of low cost funds transfer. Central banks across the globe
are putting effort to position their countries at the forefront of emerging blockchain and
decentralizedtechnologies.
The Central Bank of Canada is developing a digital version of the Canadian dollar, CAD-coin, based on
blockchain technology. The authority is testing a system in which participants would post cash to be
held by the bank that would then be converted into CAD-coin. Verified counterparties would then
processtransactions,andthe central bankwouldreserve the righttodestroyCAD-coinsasneeded.
The adaption of such a technology by general public in Canada will play a key role in HelpingHand’s
success.
● Economical
The Canadian economy is currently experiencing some minor adjustment processes following the
collapse in commodity prices. Despite this, data shows that Canada’s economy is stable and the
country’s GDP saw rose for the first time in January in April. Data also shows that after a decrease in
spendinginMarch,consumerspendinghasbeenincreasingeversince.

7. Prior to the vote to leave the EU, the pace of UK economic growth was slowing. Following the
referendum the pace of UK economic growth hasfurther decreased. Despite this, UK GDP (per head)
finallyreturnedtothe pre-recessionlevelsin2015 and people are now able tospendmore money.
The increase in GDP for both Canada and the UK is beneficial for HelpingHand as individuals have
more disposable incometospendoncharitycauses.
● Environmental
The main environmental issues that Canada currently faces are acid rain, pollution of lakes and
timber extraction. Acid Rain is caused by the pollution and damages the environment by killing
plants,damagingtreesandpollutinglakesandconsequentlyfish.
The main environmental issues that the UK is suffering from are; Air pollution, climate change and
waste disposal. Of these main environmental issues that the two regions are experiencing,
HelpingHand is most likely to contribute towards acid rain, the pollution of the Great Lakes and air
pollution. This is because HelpingHand will use energy and the production of some of this energy
may come from unsustainable, or un-environmentally friendly, sources. To counter this HelpingHand
couldcommitto using80% renewable energytoreduce these growingpollutionproblems.
● Political
Both Canada’s and the UK’s political environments are well established with strong links to other
countries for trade, security and environmental issues. Canada has a Westminster style federal
parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy whereas the UK is a unitary state with a
devolvedsystemof government.
The political environment of both countries fully supports charitable organizations and provide a
vast amount of benefits and support, for example through tax breaks. The main political pain point
that Canadian charities face is the strict rules regarding the correct filing of the T3010 Registered
Charity Information Return Form that is due in 6 months after the charity’s year-end. Failure to
submit the T3010 form, on time, results in the charity being deregistered and losing its charitable
status.
Likewise in the UK charities will be deregistered abruptly if HMRC tax relief forms are not filled in
correctlyand promptly.
● Legal
While we are focusingonmarketsinUK and Canada and the legal requirementinthesetwo
countries.
In UK, the legal and regulatory is not that strict. It is subject to a self-regulatory system which sets
and enforces clear standards of conduct for fundraising. The Code of Fundraising Practice can be
referred. Meanwhile, the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) currently supervises charities’

8. compliance with the Code and adjudicates on complaints, but a new Fundraising Regulator will take
overthisrole thissummer,2016.
In Canada, charities and non-profits has legal obligations. Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) released
Fundraising by Registered Charities Guidance: CG-013 in 2012 The Guidance provides general advice
for charities to follow and is based on the legal principle, established by case law, that fundraising
must be seen as a necessary means-to-an-end for a charitable purpose, rather than an end-in-itself.
In this regard, it is possible for a charity to engage in fundraising activities, provided that the
fundraising is ancillary and incidental to the primary purpose of achieving the charity’s purposes. In
more simple wordings,we mustcompliance withthe fundraisingguidance andlaw.
● Ethical
There are several ethical considerationsforthe fundraisingmarket.
1. Ensuring there is a proper issuance of official donation receipts from the charities, and we
shouldeliminate non-qualifieddoneesfromourplatform.
2. Creating a policy for avoidance of abusive tax shelter schemes, fraudulent receipting and
charityscams.
3. Fundraising in a responsible manner, consistent with the ethical obligations of stewardship
and all applicable law.
4. Fundraising solicitations on behalf of the charity shall be truthful and accurately describe the
charity’sactivitiesandthe intendeduse of donatedfunds.
5. The charity shall not exploit its beneficiaries. It shall be sensitive in describing those it serves
(whether using graphics, images or text) and fairly represent their needs and how these
needswill be addressed.
3.2 Market analysis
● Market Size
To estimate and triangulate the market size we are going to use three metrics listed below and
source data from government sources. The Canadian market for HelpingHand is between C$12.5 to
13.5 billion (US$9.5 to 10.5 billion). The UK market for HelpingHand is between £4.5 - 5.5 billion
(US$6.0 to 7.5 billion). Combining the two markets we have a market size range of US$15.5 to 18
billion for the charity industry of that online givingis about 15% giving us a combined market size for
our venture of approximatelyUS$2.3 - 2.7 billion.
Metrics Canada1
UK2
Potential customerswithinmarket 84% of the population
donates= 30 millionbased
58% of the population
donates= 38 millionbased
1
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2012001/article/11637-eng.htm
2
https://data.ncvo.org.uk/a/almanac12/what-are-the-main-trends-in-charitable-giving/

9. on 2015 census on 2015 census
Average $ customerwillingtopay
for product/service
C$420 - 440 per year £10 - 12 permonth
Frequencyof purchase Once a year 12 timesa year
Market Size Range C$12.5 - 13.5 billion £4.5 - 5.5 billion
Online giving% C$2 billion(~15%)3
15% of donors4
● Market Growth Rate
From the 2015 Charitable Giving Report5
, the overall donations in US increased 1.3% while online
donations grew by 9.2% in 2015. The online growth rate is higher than the overall, and this can be a
baseline of the global online donation growth rate that we will use as a proxy for UK and Canadian
markets.
In UK, according to Blackbaud report of UK online giving trends6
, online giving and digital fundraising
are continuing to grow.. When comparing the data for a sample set of organizations over a five year
period (January 2010 to December 2014), the average online donation in the UK has risen by 20%.
The average online donation in 2014 was £63.69, up from £52.87 in 2010. Even amazing that if we
remove the impact of the Ice Bucket challenge that reduce online giving, the 2014 figure was 49%
increase from2010.
In Canada, as per The Blackbaud Index Canada7
, the Canadian NPOs grew at 6.7% while the online
donations grew by 7.3 % in 2015. Even during economic hard-times, the online giving grew 3.6%
while the overall donationsdecreased5.2% YOY inJune 2016.
● Market Profitability
To gauge the market profitability we assessed the competitive dynamics of the charitable donation
platforms within Canada and UK. The Canadian market is less competitive that the UK market based
on the number of rival platforms offering similar service. In Canada, the most prominent platform
that is similar to HelpingHand is “Canada Helps” (https://www.canadahelps.org/en/). Their fee
structure ishighlightedbelow:
Source of donation Active Users Passive Users
Credit/Debit/Paypal 3.5% 4.9%
3
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1360
4
https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/caf-ukgiving2014.pdf?sfvrsn=4
5
http://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/2015-charitable-giving-report-fundraising-continues-to-grow/#
6
https://www.blackbaud.co.uk/ukonlinegivingtrends
7
https://www.blackbaud.ca/nonprofit-resources/blackbaud-index

10. Securities8
2.0% - 3.0% 2.0% - 3.0%
In UK, there is a much higher number of donations platforms that charge a combination of
commissions(2-10%) andadditional charges.
Platform Name CommissionTaken Additional charges
Feesand VAT (per
£1,000 donations +
GiftAid)
JustGiving 5% £15 permonth £79
VirginMoneyGiving 2% £120 sign-upfee £35
EveryClick 4-4.8% None £59
The Big Give 4% None £50
Bmycharity None £150 sign-up £16
GlobalGivingUK 10% None £125
CAFdonate None None £45
LocalGiving
3% (+2% donationto
partnercharity) £72 peryear £95
MyDonate None None 15p – £15
Others companies that offer donation platform or service that are part of larger technology
companies9
:
Name CommissionTaken Additional charges
Google Grants 2.9% $0.30 pertransaction
Razoo 4.9% None
NetworkforGood’sDonateNow Multiple options Multiple options
PayPal Donations 2.2% $0.30 pertransaction
FirstGiving 2.5% 5.0% (support)
8
3% fee applies to donations less than $10,000; 2.5% fee applies to donations betw een $10,000-$49,999; 2.25% fee applies to
donations betw een $50,000-$99,999; 2% fee applies to donations $100,000+
9
http://nonprofithub.org/nonprofit-technology/5-online-donation-tools-to-delight-your-donors/

11. ● DistributionChannels
The activity of donating money can be categorized in two parts to understand its distribution
channels. Firstly, a donor wants to give away some amount to a charitable cause which is received by
a non-profit organization. As a second step, such an organization arranges to distribute funds or
consumablestopeople inneedatthe receivingend.
Charity organizations are constantly on the lookout to build their donor base. HelpingHand is an
intended platform to facilities first part of the donation process aiming at donors by providing a
smoothand easywayof givingawaymoney.
In the US, statistics has shown a shifting trend of donors using mobile devices as an emerging
channel. As its seen that revenue from major fundraising events decreased almost 2.5% last year.
While, nearly 10% of donations have started coming from mobile devices, and 16.6% of donors who
supportfroman email are doingso on theirdevice.
Nonprofits have an average of 4.4 staff members responsible for technology in some way, a number
that increases or decreases in correlation with the size of the organization. Here again,
HelpingHand’s platform will provide a way to reduce funds collection cost by reducing total cost of
ownership(TCO) of technologyinfrastructure.
● Market Trends
Through our research and analysis of the charitable and non-profit industry in Canada and UK we
have noticeda fewkeymarkettrends:
1. Charitable donations continue to grow year over year both within individual and corporate
giving
2. Donors are offering increased support to arts, education, environment and community, in
additiontothe bellwethercausessuchas disease,childnutritionandhealth
3. Economic conditions and slow global wage growth has impacted charitable donations, with
donationsamountsstill belowthe 2007-2008 levels
4. Donors have started to explore charitable vehicles and platforms that offer easy access to
multiple charitiesandreducesthe costof donating.
5. Technology and social media are driving growth for individual giving, particularly for
small/mediumnonprofitorganizations.
6. Crowdfunding and mobile giving are two of the fastest growing fundraising source and tool
for some non-profitorganizations.
7. Fundraising is changing to become targeted, project or program driven and not blanket
fundraising and is being challenged by impact investing, venture philanthropy, social
enterprise toname afew.

12. ● Key SuccessFactors
It is key for HelpingHand to resolve the catch-22 problem to ensure the platform has sufficient
charities as well as high usage of donors. Therefore, the promotion and marketing must be on both
sides.
HelpingHand needs to put a tremendous effort to promote the values bringing to the NPOS and
charities: improve their operation efficiency, to increase their investment-donation ratio, and to
enhance the long term engagement of the donors. Meanwhile, we need to ensure we have
sufficient donors on our platforms to attract the charities joining our platform. If no donors and
charitiesare not makingdonationthroughus,theywill notcome tous.
On the other hand, to attract donors, money may not be their first consideration. The quality of the
platform should be a key factor of attracting and maintaining donors. For example, we can provide
a platform that donors can donate money in a convenient way to multiple NPOs with just a few
clicks, or donors can receive periodic and holistic update of charities and programs through joining
the platform.
4. Market forecast
4.1 Main drivers of demand for HelpingHand
HelpingHand is a fundraising platform, which can be accessed in app-form, which aims to be
mutually beneficial for both the donor and charities. HelpingHand will increase the penetration that
charities have with their donors whilst also providing donors with more transparency on where their
money is being spent. This will lead to increasing trust and engagement of donors within the
charitable andnon-profitsector.
The maindriversof demand forHelpingHandcanbe summarizedasthe following;
1. Empathy: both individual and corporate donors feeling the need to donate moneyfor causes
that theyhave an emotional orpersonal connection towards.
2. Frustration: donors getting frustrated with the general lack of transparency that charities
have when it comes to their spending. For example, recent studies by the Fair Foundation in
the UK reveal an overall decrease in public support for charities owing to the lack of
transparencyonthe operational efficienciesof the charitiestheyare donatingto.
3. Digitization: there is an increasing appetite for online donation, in particular through social-
media-like platforms. Online donations based on our research is the fastest growing medium
for charities.
Out of our proposed market size US$ 2.3 - 2.7 billion an untapped source and potentially a large
future driver of demand, is the younger population – in particular the 18-34 old age bracket.
Through our research we have statistics from Canada and US that indicate a fall in donations for
younger age brackets. According to the research by Imagine Canada the percentage of donors aged

13. 35 to 44 decreased by 8 percent, while the percentage of donors aged 25 to 34 decreased by 2
percent10
.
The goal of HelpingHand would be to provide a medium such as web/mobile application that would
provide easy, transparent and efficient access to the charitable and non-profit sector. An application
that would be fit for purpose will be immensely popular with this “untapped” generation as the only
8% of these individuals have donated to charity this year. Additional research has indicated that this
segment would have a higher propensity to donate if the process was accessible through an app-
based platform. Of this age-group 55% of them already manage their money through banking apps
and 89% regularlystayconnectedwiththe worldthroughsocial mediaapps.
4.2 Macro-economic factors that could be most impactful
According the Giving USA Foundation the three factors that have the strongest relationship to
individualcharitablegiving11
:
1. Income: represented by the Gross Domestic Product. Higher income countries and segments
of the populationtendtodonate more thanlowerincome countriesandsegments
2. Wealth: represented by the S&P 500 index. Households and corporations are more likely to
give whenthe stockmarketisup.
3. Tax policy: higher tax deductions result in higher charitable donations. In addition, countries
with favourable tax policies tend to see a higher proportion of donation from households
and corporations.
4. Interest Rates: diverts funding and promotes purchases of large ticket items such as houses,
cars, electronicsandtravel.
5. Unemployment: there is a direct and causative correlation between in the reduction in
labourforce participationratesandreductionindonations
6. Demographics of population: older generations generally donate more to charity than
youngergenerations;andare more consistentintheirdonations
To further research which macro-economic factors are most important for our venture we reviewed
the research on Canadian Charities published by University of Calgary12
. According to their research
the growthin charitable givingcanbe attributedto:
1. Higher Income: Major portion of the growth in charitable giving is from higher income
households. Tax policies in Canada such as those that allow donations of publicly traded
securitiesisfavorabletothisincome bracket.
2. Tax policyfor individuals:The benefitsof tax incentivesfordifferentgroupsof taxpayers.
3. Tax policy for charities: The differences in the operations and needs of charities based on
size andmission,andhowcharitiesmaybe differentiallyaffectedbychangesintax policies
10
The percentage of donors aged 35 to 44 decreased by 8%, w hile the percentage of donors aged 25 to 34 decreased by 2%.
11
https://www.blackbaud.com/files/resources/downloads/04_12_Macroeconomics_of_Fundraising_Whitepaper.pdf
12
http://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/charitable-giving-canada.pdf

14. Based on this and additional research that was conducted by the team we believe that the most
impactful and important marco-economic factors within our two jurisdictions of Canada and UK for
our venture HelpingHandtobe:
1. Income growthof the population
2. Tax policyforhouseholdsandcorporations
3. Wealthgrowthfor householdsandcorporations
4.3 HelpingHand likelihood of success
HelpingHand is a platform connecting the donors and charities. On-one-hand, NPOs will not utilize
this platform without sufficient donors. On-the-other-hand, donors will not be attracted to the
platform when there is limited choice of charities. This is a typical Catch-22 problem of an online
platformwhenstartup.
To increase donors utilizing our platform, we need to do some viral marketing online, example
promotion on social media such as Twitter, Facebook and especially Instagram for the younger
generation. We can arouse empathy on social network, and promote our brand name of the quality
and efficiency on donation to reach our target market segment who are likely a mass population of
social media.
To attract donors at the initial stage, we can also provide “money incentives” to arouse noise in the
public. What we mean is that we can commit an extra donation on top say 50 cents for every 5
dollar donated. This would generate the awareness of the brand in public. Furthermore, there can
be joint events with retail chains so that HelpingHand can donate for every dollar a registered donor
spent. All these shouldattractnewtrafficsontoourplatformquick.
However, to maintain donors’ usage and engage the donor populations, money may not be their
first consideration. The quality of the platform should be a key factor of maintaining donors. For
example, we can provide a platform that donors can donate money in a convenient way to multiple
NPOs with just a few clicks, or donors can receive periodic and holistic update of charities and
programsof howmuch and where the moneyare spendingthroughjoiningthe platform.
Furthermore, we can engage our clients if we can connect our platform with Google Wallet or PayPal
or other similar tools. Younger adults may carry less cash with them now but much rely on credit
card and e-payment. This could help the donors find it more convenient and remain on HelpingHand.
If we have a huge number of donors and show sufficient operation efficient gain to work with
HelpingHand, we have high confidence that the charities and NPOs would be joining our platform,
especially those smaller charities fund which does not have their own resource to promote online
fundraising even though they may already know that this is the trend. We can persuade a few small
NPOs at initial as a start and perform “experiment” to ensure the idea works while we can fine tune
our plan while executing. We can even invite several NPOs at initial to work together with usfree to
ensure we will have aproducton the shelf forthe comingdonorsand charities.

15. There is a high chance of success, provided that HelpingHand executes it right while able to tune and
pivot quickly whenever necessary. Even there are competitions, there are a lot more of
opportunities in this blue ocean. Even though they may not acquire a dominating market share, a
portion with a reasonable size would give a sufficient space to generate profit while help NPOs to
connect donors with better operation efficiency. As long as it can acquire the market share fast with
the engagementof donorsandcharities,HelpingHandwouldbe agreatsuccess.
5. Recommendations
The analysis in this report confirms for us that our venture is in a relatively large blue ocean and we
have the opportunity to gain a significant foothold in online donations. The prospects of
HelpingHandishuge andbrightif we can catch the wave.
To proceed, HelpingHand should start approaching the NPOs. Suggest HelpingHand should
volunteer to create online and mobile fundraising channel for one or a few small NPO in order to
create the success story as well as to experiment the cost efficiency improvement. We should
prepare forpivotingorfine tune ourdirectionbase onthe findingsthroughthese executions.
Meanwhile, effort should be put to attract donors and drive in the usage volume. Viral marketing
can be adopted on social media for our target segment of young adults. Incentive, such as top-up of
donation, can be used at initial to attract donors. Joint events with retail chains can also create
noise and promote our brand. Dashboard and other multi-media could engage the donors after they
are onboard.
With a platform linking up significant amounts of donors and charities, we believe this proposal can
be a huge successwhile transformingthe eco-systemof charitybusiness.