ProBueno – Raise Money for Charity

Charitable contributions don’t have to be financial. With ProBueno, people can use their skills and talents to help nonprofit organizations. The web-based platform encourages users to collect money for things like baking cookies, teaching piano lessons, and coding applications, and then put that money toward the greater good.

Offer up your own services through the ProBueno platform, and you can immediately start generating donations for your talents and skills. Select the nonprofit you care about most, choose the skill you’d like to offer, then click “Count me in.” Although ProBueno will set a pre-determined price for your skill, you can edit that price (along with the rest of your listing) to better reflect whatever it is you’re able to give. Type up a description of your offer, select the number of “spots” you’re willing to sell (i.e., the number of cookies you’re willing to bake or apps you’re willing to code) and the price for each spot.

Users who stumble across your offer while browsing the ProBueno site can purchase your service via credit card, and the money ProBueno collects on your behalf will be donated directly to the charity of your choice. Hosts are responsible for arranging the logistics of the services they sell, and ProBueno doesn’t charge credit cards until a service is complete.

Practical Uses:

• Teach music lessons over Skype, and give the proceeds to a nonprofit
• Sell your cookies and donate the money to charity
• Pay someone to teach you a new language
• Get a professional editor to read over your resume

Insider Tips:

• People can raise money for more than 1.2 million nonprofit organizations
• Credit cards are processed the day after a fundraiser is complete
• Buyers have 24 hours to request a refund if they’re unhappy with the service they’ve purchased
• ProBueno has partnered with FirstGiving to handle the processing of donations

What we liked:

• ProBueno lets users select the charity they want to raise money for
• People can sell virtually any type of skill or product through ProBueno
• With ProBueno, anyone can raise money for charity
• ProBueno offers discounts as a way to encourage new buyers to take part in the service

What we didn’t like:

• Donations through ProBueno are not generally tax deductible

Alternatives:

• None

Company Info:

• Launched: March 2013
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Founded by: Ryan Kabir and Michel Rbeiz
• Web site: http://www.probueno.com

Costs:

• Free for nonprofits for up to $1,000
• ProBueno collects $3 (for its services) and $4.25 (for processing) for every $100 in donations beyond $1,000