What is Netgood?
Modern political fundraising is an arms race, where parties compete for scarce donations to buy ads, canvassers and ultimately, votes. In this landscape, most donations are wasted, because money that goes to both candidates ends up not helping either; akin to giving both football teams an extra seven points.
Our service changes political donations from a zero-sum game to a positive-sum game. NetGood is a matching platform that allows political donors to use their donations to offset donations to the rival candidate, with the “netted” proceeds going to a charity selected by each user.
As an example, assume there are two donors: Meli, who supports Trump and veterans, and Isabel, who supports Biden and cancer research. If Isabel uses NetGood to make a $100 donation, she can select “Biden” as her candidate and “St. Jude*” as her charity. If Meli then donates $40, she can select “Trump” as her candidate and “Wounded Warrior*” as her charity. When Meli's donation is processed, it will be netted with Isabel's donation. When the donation is netted, all of Meli's $40 will be sent to the Wounded Warrior and $40 of Isabel's will be sent to St. Jude. Isabel will have a remaining balance of $60 in the queue, which will be netted if more donations are made to Trump. If the donation has been outstanding for a week without being netted, it will be sent to her candidate.
By netting donations, we expect a similar contribution to a candidate's probability of success (by decreasing the donations that would have gone to their rival), but with an additional benefit of funding charitable causes. Our offering of charities is being developed, but the foundational principle will be that they are non-partisan.
The next step for our organization is to beta test our platform. Apply for participation in the beta test here.
*Note that the charity list has not been finalized, and these are for illustrative purposes only. St. Jude and Wounded Warrior may not be on the charity menu.