Our maxims

betterplace is a decision.

I recognise my own potential to change the world – and use it!

betterplace gives everybody the power to act.

Big or small, regularly or as a one-off, on your own doorstep or on the other side of the world.

betterplace is founded on trust.

The best decisions and interactions come from a strong basis of transparency.

betterplace connects people as equals.

People join together in direct exchange to make a place better together.

betterplace makes big out of small.

Even the smallest good deed has an impact. It can bring a sense of pride and self-confience to go further – and it encourages others to act.

Our three-step approach

1. betterplace.org increases overall donations to the social sector by making donating easier and the results more tangible.

• Just pick your favourite project: No matter what it’s for or where it is – even on your own doorstep. With our map, search and filter functions you’ll be able to sort through the thousands of projects worldwide to find just the one you most want to support.
• Giving concrete help: betterplace.org makes what precisely a project needs clear and tangible. For example, the project “New school for Bamako/Mali” has a list of needs including “1 textbook” and “5 pencils”. Concrete information like this increases willingness to donate because it avoids the sense of “My couple of euros won’t make any difference”. Yes it will: “1 textbook”.
• See the difference you’ve made: After you’ve donated get direct feedback from the project on the ground, in the form of blog-entries, photos and videos.
• Achieve more together: You can also team up with friends or colleagues for a fundraising event , making a difference together.
• Lend a helping hand – even just on the side: betterplace.org lowers the barriers to social engagement, by creating opportunities to help or donate which “can’t hurt”, don’t take much time and which are fun. Donating by text message for example or stopping on your way home to spend an hour reading to the residents of the old people’s home around the corner.

2. betterplace.org increases the efficiency in the social sector, because donations reach the projects that need them without deductions.

• Reducing advertising costs: betterplace.org saves projects and charity-organisations the costs of printing and postage, as well as expensive telephone operators and programmers – our platform is free to use. Which is great, because in recent years the organisations registered with the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI) spent on average more than ten percent of donations and membership revenue on fundraising. This money was spent in many cases on mailing flyers and cold-calling to attract new donors.
• Reducing administration costs: Clearly administration costs money. But thanks to the internet it can be made more efficient. That’s where betterplace.org makes a big difference to organisations in terms of the transparency and ability to track where money goes, which is built into the platform, the pressure on those organisations to make their admin costs public, and the new means of communicating.
• betterplace.org is a bridge between supporters and projects – but without a toll booth. We are financed by private and institutional partners, and well by providing professional services to companies. But not through fees on projects. Here you can read more about how betterplace.org finances itself.

3. betterplace.org increases effectiveness in the social sector, because more donations go to those projects which have shown themselves to have a greater impact.

• Hidden gems: betterplace.org is an open marketplace. On betterplace.org projects get the chance to pitch themselves which up until now would have got pushed off the radar, drowned out by the large and aggressively-marketed charities – the so called “Long Tail of Charity”. These projects lose their anonymity through betterplace.org and can appeal worldwide for support. Without an advertising budget, but with quality.
• Evaluation from more angles via our “Web of Trust”: Projects can take advantage of lots of trust-building factors, and not just through the conventional channels (e.g. DZI Spendensiegel, charitable status granted by the Finance Ministry, evaluation reports, etc). On top of that, betterplace.org gives a voice to everyone involved in the project. For example a backpacker who has seen the project herself and can report about it on the platform. Furthermore, any other user can put open questions to a project, discuss and rate it.
• Transparent comparison: On betterplace.org you can see how usefully the donations received so far have been invested. You can see who was involved, how much money was needed where and what for. So you can decide strategically where your money goes: to the project with the biggest impact.