When I created Room4Rent I realised it was important for the business to donate money to a charity. However I was having trouble thinking of a charity that stood out in my mind so instead I decided to come up with my own. This blog post is the 2 page business plan I wrote for my charity idea. I haven’t had the time to start the charity so I was hoping someone else would feel passionate about the idea and want to give it a go. Please note that the name Rebuild limited does not exist, it was just the first thing that came to my mind when I was writing the plan.

Rebuild Limited

Summary

Imagine, your son or daughter is brutally murdered. Your world is turned upside down. You spend 6 weeks in a distant city for the trial. You re-mortgage your home twice to pay for the expenses. You’ve lost your loved one, your income and your life and what support do you get in New Zealand? Very little, read this article for more information... http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4086095/Families-of-victims-miss-out

Rebuild is a unique non for profit organisation which allows New Zealanders to micro loan and donate money to the families of murder victims through an online platform and call centre. Kiwis are known for their generosity, we donate to many charity organisations around the world, however sometimes we forget to take care of our own.

The question has been raised as to why micro-loans and not just donations? The reason behind loaning families money is that some families do not want to accept donations but still need financial assistance. Micro loans bridge this gap as they provide an opportunity for the family to raise the necessary funds and pay back the loans when they are financially stable.

Market Opportunity

Kiwis are extremely generous people. In the year 2007-2008 2,176,000 (60.3%) of the nation donated money or goods and 1,217,000 (33.8%) volunteered their time for charities. Research on the New Zealand non-profit sector has estimated total philanthropic giving at $1.6 billion, of which $850 million was personal giving (Jones, N. 2008). This research shows the potential in the non-profit market. The strength of Rebuild is its uniqueness. We are the only organisation which provides this service in New Zealand. Another strength is Rebuild’s ability to gain national exposure through the mass media. Homicide investigations, subsequent trials and victim funerals are at the front of all news stories. Rebuild can use the mass media as a platform for marketing the organisation by getting the media to feature the organisation in their news coverage. This will dramatically reduce marketing expenses and allow Rebuild to spread resources across more families.

Objectives

Rebuild aims to provide families of all murder victims $10,000 support, through loans or donations, in our first year. Within 3 years we envisage providing up to $50,000 support for families of murder victims. After 5 years we want to broaden our support to include victims of all serious crime. Within 10 years Rebuild will hope to fulfill our goal of providing financial support to all victims of disaster.

Target Market

Research shows Females aged 40–49 have the highest levels of any population group to donate money or goods to an appeal, followed by females 30–39 and females 50–59. Males show a low tendency to donate money or goods to an appeal, relative to females across all age groups. From this research we have determined that our target market is females aged 30 and above.

Product

Rebuild accepts donations and loans through an online platform and a call centre. Development of the website will be outsourced. The call centre will be manned by volunteers.

Operations

Rebuild’s main revenue stream is taken as a small percentage of all loans and donations made through the website and call centre. Another revenue stream comes from selling the advertising space on our website. Initially our overheads will be small as we will be employing volunteers to run the organisation. Once we have sufficient cash flow from our operations we will investigate employing a paid team of experts to handle the increasing amount of communications.

Finance

We require a $200,000 corporate sponsorship to begin the organisation. These costs will cover the creation of the organisation, development of the website, cost of setting up the call centre, and legal fees. The value of sponsoring Rebuild is the positive effect it will have on a corporation’s public image and branding. The initial sponsorship is to last for 5 years. After 5 years we will investigate whether we require more sponsorship funding.

Reference

Jones, N. (2008).The Promoting Generosity Project: How Do New Zealanders Give? Wellington, New Zealand: Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector.

It may seem strange to fit a charity plan into the structure of a business plan, however this was the structure that was set out for our university assignment so i went with it.

If you want to talk about this charity please send me an email samjanett@room4rent.co.nz

If this blog post interested you please retweet or like it.

Sam