There are many online or online/offline sweepstakes that contain a philanthropic option for entry. We applaud those platforms and sweepstakes administrators for their passion for philanthropy and charity.

Some websites that run charity sweeps are for-profit entities, Some are B-Corps (public benefit corporation) and others are nonprofits. At the time of the launch of SweepsForACause by Giving Forward, Inc. we believe we are the only online-centric sweepstakes where each sweepstakes:

1. Allows entrants to choose the nonprofit beneficiary who will receive the bulk of the donation unless they were sent to the website by a nonprofit or other partner who did not want to offer choice. In order to accommodate use of the platform by nonprofits, there is a setting used by nonprofits and selected partners where the selected nonprofit benefiting from a donation is not easily changed. This setting is used as part of the inbound URL to assure our nonprofit partners that working with us does not result in significant donor loss and rather a maximization of donations.
2. The sweepstakes winner receives a prize AND Giving Forward also makes an additional donation to the nonprofit selected by the winner at the time of their entry.

Giving Forward’s objective for Sweeps For A Cause is that sweepstakes make giving fun, increasing donations by involving more donors and higher donation levels. We create win-win-win-win partnerships (pun intended) between businesses, philanthropists (doing matching donations to increase donation sizes), nonprofits (sending over their lapsed donors so that we can gamify them into action) and entrants/donors. As the catalyst and the digital glue that makes it possible we deliver a significant net-positive to the world as a social-impact nonprofit.

More about some of the sweepstakes who inspired us to launch Sweeps For A Cause.

• OMAZE, the leader in charity sweepstakes is a for-profit company founded in July 2012 by Matthew Pohlson and Ryan Cummins. OMAZE has generated millions for nonprofit causes across categories and has pioneered “big prize” philanthropic sweepstakes. They have raised a significant level of investor capital (as of the launch of Sweeps For A Cause, OMAZE has raised $127Million in funding over 7 rounds according to Crunchbase). Clearly the founders, venture capitalists, angels and other investors believe that it is quite possible to do well by doing good. According to Similarweb, the OMAZE website routinely receives over 3 million US visitors a month.
• Prizeo is part of Charity Network, owned by Todd Wagner. The Charity Network has other websites dedicated to fundraising. We love what they have built!!
• TapKat is a platform, similar to Prizeo where organizations can spin up their own sweepstakes. Steve Volk founded TapKat and the Shelby American Collection car museum in Boulder, Colorado, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit he has close ties to has successfully used the platform, which seems to be how the platform originated.
• CharityStars was founded in 2013 in Milan by three entrepreneurs under the age of 30—Francesco Nazari Fusetti, Manuela Ravalli and Domenico Gravagno. Since that time they have also innovated with AidCoin, the “Made In Italy” charity cryptocurrency ICO for complete transparency in donating. Over €11M has been raised for national and international charities, according to their website. That's really interesting.
• Bikers Against Drunk Driving routinely holds online/offline sweepstakes in a more raffle-style.
• OneCountry has given away for than $3.5 million in prizes according to their website. They give extra entries for volunteerism, but we aren’t sure how much they are donating.
• WinTogether was founded by Tony Dimatteo who is also CEO of Lottery.com. We look forward to watching this initiative closely.