Benefacting: a revolution in nonprofit

Benefacting, a nonprofit organization started by Trevor Little and Brad Lindsay, offers students an innovative approach to raising money for charity by creating an online marketplace to sell services and goods.

Benefacting has been a work in progress for Little and Lindsay for three years, and the online market place recently launched this April. This online market place serves as a place for people to offer traditional services like babysitting or washing a car to more imaginative services like providing a Rock N Roll oldies show or leading a personalized yoga session.

"We want people to be creative," Little said. "They can offer practical services like doing someone's taxes or walking their dog or babysitting, but it can really be anything. We want to encourage people to think outside the box."

The main theme of this nonprofit is that people can get ordinary items or services while making a change. Essentially everyone involved wins because the "actor" gives back, the "sponsor" receives a service, and the charity receives funds.

Little came up with the idea after he felt like he was not making a difference working at his current job. Little looked at other outside volunteer opportunities and saw that none of them fit his talents. Little knew he was good at building websites and Benefacting stemmed from this passion. Essentially, Little made the first "benefaction".

"Since I'm good at building websites, it came about as a way for me to help other people, and I hoped that would compound itself into people helping others by doing what they are passionate about," Little said.

Little has ambitious goals for the nonprofit. Little's short term goals include bringing in more money for charity to compensate all of his volunteer hours, introducing Benefacting to other states, and adding national charities. A long-term goal of Little's is changing the way people think about shopping by Benefacting becoming an immediate source that people think of for supplying goods and services. Little also wanted people to realize that everyone has a skill or good they can offer to make a difference.

Little said, "We would like people to start thinking about the money they are spending on the things they need as money that could go further and benefit a charity. We want people to realize they could have the power to change the world if they spent their money in a certain way."

One success story of Benefacting is the story of Raleigh's Church of Apostles. The church's pastor sold watercolor paintings on Benefacting's online market. All of the money raised through people purchasing the paintings went to build freshwater wells in Rwanda.

Little said, "To our knowledge, there are no other nonprofits just like it. This is something new that has never been done before. We think that it can really change the landscape of volunteering and giving back and sort of open up a whole new avenue for people to make a difference."

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Benefacting: a revolution in nonprofit