The Daily Tell

When it comes to philanthropy, "crowdsourcing" has become another model for finding donors in an increasingly difficult financial market.

Now, a California-based company is taking the concept of crowdsourcing in a different direction, which could help nonprofits build a donation base. The company, 3banana, has recently launched its Share to Win campaign, which its owner has touted as an experiment in philanthropy and crowdsourcing.

"It’s not the usual campaign of trying to raise money from a lot of people in small increments over a social network," Steve Brown, CEO of 3banana, wrote recently on his blog. "We are doing it the other way around: We committed to donate $10,000, and we will allocate the money to five charitable organizations serving unmet needs in health, education and the environment."

Through the contest, five nonprofits will end up divvying up the $10,000 reward. The top nonprofit will get $5,000, a runner-up will receive $2,000, and three honorable mention nonprofits will get $1,000 each.

In order to enter the contest, nonprofits can visit the company’s website and sign up for a notebook. Through the notebook, which is free-of-charge, nonprofits need to answer why it is their particular cause is one people should care about.

Once they compose the note, they can share it with other through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Furthermore, nonprofits can e-mail their notes out in order to drum up support.

The winner of the contest is determined by the note that gets the most comments. One of the advantages of the contest is that it can attract support for a cause without requiring people to donate right off the bat. All they have to do is speak their minds about it.

Being able to develop a new base for nonprofits is important, especially when they consider the fact that the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University recently reported that fundraisers feel the current atmosphere for donations is at its lowest since the center began its studies in 1998. Furthermore, 86 percent of fundraisers said the economy was having a negative impact on their ability to collect money.