I've considered the idea of putting together an organization to promote concern for the suffering of small animals in the wild. Right now, though, I work at a regular job with the intention of making money that I can use for whatever purposes my older-and-wiser self decides would be best, possibly including the startup costs for such a group later on.

This raises the question: Would I be better off working on a wild-animal organization now and raising money as most charities do? Or is it more efficient for me to "raise money" by working and self-funding? To answer this, I'm curious to get a sense of how much ordinary startup charities earn through fundraising with one person-year of effort. Is this on the order of $10K? $50K? $100K? I'm sure it varies a lot, and the returns are probably highly skewed, but it would be helpful to hear some basic "rule of thumb" values from people with experience. Then I could compare this against the amount I can save through regular work (currently on the order of $50K before costs of living).

Charity fund-raising has a 500% return-on-investment on average. I think the main question is whether or not you're better off hiring someone to work in your stead. On the one hand, you can probably hire multiple people for what you make. On the other, they won't believe in the cause or understand it as much as you do.

I suppose it depends on what method your using. I don't know what methods work well.

I suppose you should probably try to find people who agree with you and help them learn more about it, and then hire them to fund raise.

DanielLC, I think you're on the right track in your comments. As far as, "you can probably hire multiple people for what you make," I'm not sure about that: I would guess that a good full-time fundraiser actually costs more than $50K per year. (Any ideas on specific numbers?) Of course, the bigger problem at the moment is that there isn't even an organization for which to raise funds -- someone needs to create that first! If that someone were to be myself, the question would remain as to whether I should do it now or wait until later and accumulate cash for living expenses and startup capital in the mean time.

Considering the average return-on-investment, it seems likely that you're best off starting early. Your first fundraiser should net you enough to pay for it and four more. You'd be losing a huge amount not starting it.

I've read that there are companies that can be hired for fund raising, some of which charge on commission. Theoretically, if you use one of those, no start-up costs will be required.

Still, it seems like there must be some catch. If non-profits were that easy, everyone would do it. I assume you still pay yourself, so people would still get a profit off of it. I'd recommend finding a small charity and asking them for advice.

i don't have any answer to this interesting question Alan.

However, 'd like to raise a topic only tangentially related. Suppose, hypothetically, that you perform some service for money such as journalism. Ordinarily, you write articles to newspapers who, in turn, pay you. Suppose you asked them to donate money to charity instead of paying you. Would they offer more on account of the good PR that this might confer them. i.e. could you say "don't pay me $20 an hour for my services. Pay Oxfam $30 an hour for my services". Alternatively, would this be easier if you performed some service for individuals, for example cleaning or cooking?

Of course, you need to maintain some bare minimum level of income for yourself, but perhaps money could be raised for charity in this way at least in some professions?

Interesting idea, RyanCarey. I bet it could work, and perhaps people have even done it in some smaller companies where that kind of arrangement could be made informally. Similarly, big companies often have a "matching gifts" program, which is essentially the same thing: The employee gets "paid more" in the sense that her gifts to charity are matched up to some limit.

The company won't have to pay taxes on the money donated. I think you do beyond a certain amount. It's probably worth asking about.