Games for Charity

Hi everyone,

I want to turn www.dungeonsoffear.com into a charity organization that sells indie games to help various charities around the world.

To do this, I plan a major web design change, as well as changing the site organization.

My question is, what is the best way to make sure people don't think it is a scam?

Thanks

Get a Registered Charity number.

Still wouldn't mean no scam though, people have still run scams through registered charities.

How do I get that?

It's a small detail maybe but the title -dungeons of fear- doesn't meet your plans IMO.

I was just about to say that too :D

If you want to support charities around the world just ask them if you can put links and images in your games for thier charities. This way you dont need a charity number and can make it so they get the money direct.

I definitely thought of the name being an issue. I was considering buying another domain name for just the games and such and then keep DOF for information about the charity, development, and whatever else that's "behind the scenes."

I like the idea EdzUp. Do you mean just put info about charities in my games and let the player take it upon himself to donate; kind of like raising awareness? Or am I misunderstood?

yeah just ask the charities if you want to put thier logos on the game, for TileCascade I just put a request asking if you liked it donate to a animal charity that is near the users.

I think I'll do that. That way I don't have to buy another domain, but can still try to use my skills for the good of humanity.

My folks used to do voluntary work for a registered charity... then they found out it was a massive scam and the intended beneficiaries were getting hardly anything. They reported it to the charities commission who made a real half-arsed effort. Result: the scam continues.

I think there is some trust factor to overcome. Ditch your domain name and choose something more befitting of a charitable disposition, it is much too dark and doom-filled, which runs contrary to you trying to be giving or kind.

As to the trust aspect, I think if you can get a few people to submit games to you and then actually sell some and then display information about what money was earned and how much of it has been raised so far and where it's been sent to and for use in what, then I think people will have a place to start trusting more. Once you grow larger this won't be so much of an issue, so to begin with you need some people willing to stick their neck out more than the average person.

You also need to make sure your site has a charitable feel to it, welcoming and safe.

I think the idea of games for charity in general is very good and is right up there with the likes of open-source software, so good luck to you.

Hello again,

I started on the website for the organization. My plan is to encourage developers to donate games to the site, where all proceeds from the sales will be given to the charity they choose.

EDIT:
I went ahead and did the entire website, and I would really like some feedback.

The FODFC Homepage (EDIT: LINK MOVED TO BOTTOM OF PAGE)

Thanks in advance.

At the moment it is far too basic and the blue text is unreadable. You will need a lot more content and a cleaner more professional look.

There's a girl in my city who needs a liver transplant. Why don't you give money to her, instead of buying Red Cross' executives another house?

in my experience, not a good idea to hand someone money.... pay for the liver transplant instead of giving her money ;)

Thanks ImaginaryHuman. The blue text was what I was most worried about.

Is this project outside the range of what HTML can do? Because if so, I need to start looking for outside help, as HTML is all I know.

Not a failing of HTML...

Ouch...

Ok well I'll go back and try again. Be back in a couple of days.

Thanks to all.

Ok I know I said I'd be back in a couple of days but first I did some quick work, and wanted to get some reactions.

I ditched the weird blue text and replaced it with some typical H2 headers, and added an external stylesheet to the entire thing. Hopefully this will create a better effect.


I realize this, and I plan to add more info as it comes together, I just wanted to throw the design out there.

Now for the revised look:
The FODFC Website

A better thing for you to do would be to find one of the Major CMS systems and use that. Then you can focus on content rather than layout.

I use SMF Forums with TinyPortal for my website and it works nice and is one of the easiest CMS solutions to use in my opinion. And, modding it has been very easy once you get an understanding of the underlying code.

Of course, what you use will be affected by the OS your site is running on, and the technologies available to you. PHP, ASP, MySQL, MSSQL, etc...

That link you posted is a 404.

Ok its running now, sorry about that.

I think it definitely needs more elaborate text on the title, but I can do that later.

To TaskMaster:
I don't have time to learn PHP, ASP, Java, or other languages. If that is what I'm going to need to make this a success, I will turn to other web developers that would like to donate their time and effort to this cause.

But I will look into it if I absolutely cannot produce an acceptable website using HTML/CSS.

I am not saying you have to know the language. You have to know what language runs on the web server so you can pick a CMS that will work on it.

With a CMS, all you have to know is what content you want. You don't even have to know HTML if you don't want to. Most of them use a WYSIWYG editor nowadays.

I'm not using my own server, would that be a problem?

No, just know what the server supports and what you are allowed to use.

Ok, but as I said before, I'll first try HTML with CSS.

You could always have a live feed from purchased products to the main page, and show certified donation payments as they are made (scan reciepts, post images of them as well)

Your very best bet would be to also have a forum, so people can read user comments on whether it is a scam or not.

I have never personally paid for any software or donated to anything that didn't have a forum. I require them so I can verify claims through user comments, and I think a lot of other people look for the same thing.

Yes but a forum that has 0 users and comments (as it will be when it is launched) is almost scarier to a consumer in my opinion.

I planed to scan reciepts or whatever else the charity can offer for validation of donation.

Hi I'm back with a new site design. What does everyone think?

New site design

Cool?

A lota plain. I like the tabs though.

I wanted to keep it simple and professional.

Would some images help?

Sauer, can I make a simple suggestion? Instead of spending a lot of time and effort trying to get other people to put up money to support a charity. Why not find a local charity helping people in your area and volounteer with them even if it's only for a few hours each week? You'd be surprised what a difference even a small contribution can make and how rewarding it is. It will probably take up less time than running a game for free and supporting it and getting people to give money.

In the end your much more likely to really help people this way and you know your efforts are really helping people and not going to line someone else's pockets. If you don't think there are any places you can volounteer then ask around, you'll find things you can do almost everywhere.

Just a thought,

Darkheart

I volunteer regularly in my community. What I'm trying to do is pool together the talents of game developers and take advantage of a the rapidly growing game industry. It's something that I don't believe has been done yet, but I believe could have wild success.

In fact, I may choose to support one of my local charities with one of the games I donate. The charities can be local to the developer or worldwide.

I know there are a lot of skeptics out there... I'm just trying to globalize my efforts, and I think everyone here could do a lot of good in our world.

Thanks for all the comments so far.