Facebook and Email
At the end of the silo-creation process, after you have published your silo, you have options for connecting to the social networks. Sharing to Facebook is easy. Simply click on the appropriate links and follow the on-screen instructions. Because causes that appeal to people can go viral, social network and email promotions can have a tremendous impact.
You can also pull contacts from your email provider to configure a message with links to your Silo, and send it from siloz.com.
Local Periodicals' 'Events' Sections
A silo to raise money for Girl Scouts is no less an 'event' than a car wash: the result is the same. So, have at it!
Newsletters
If you are the administrator of a community silo, mention your silo in your organization's newsletter, blog, Facebook page, and on any other medium you publish.
Business Card Templates and Sign Up Sheets
If you start a silo for a church, it may be that you don't already have the email addresses, or may not have already 'friended' (on Facebook), your members. In that case, particularly if you meet regularly (as with a church, Meetup, club, school association, fraternity or sorority, or youth sports team), we invite you to use our more traditional promotional methods: document templates. These can be produced from a silo's administration console, and will pre-populate a template with your silo's information.
Business-Card-Size Flyers You can download a Microsoft Word (.doc) template, purchase some Avery 5376 perforated card-stock paper at any office supply store, and hand out wallet-size cards with your particular Silos' web address.
Sign-Up Sheets Self-explanatory. Download the form, enter your specific Silo's information, and ask members to share their email addresses with you, so that they can be invited to the Silo.
Word of Mouth
Don't forget to tell people you already know, and those you meet, about your silo. Ask them to check out your silo on siloz.com. If you are the admin of a community silo, be sure to let other members of your organization know about the silo, and ask them to be vocal about it with anyone interested in your organizations work or purpose.
siloz is meant to be about people in a given region helping themselves, and helping each other. Upon request, we may be able to accommodate certain national non-profits, that have a presence in a given region, and that meet certain other criteria (below).
Our target demographic, our market, is people with strong, local, social bonds, supporting causes that directly impact them. The American Heart Association, as worthy as it is, would never be a community silo candidate.
They are in a given region, but their profile is national. Their budget is massive. Their efficiency is lower than a grass-roots community organization, because they have a larger operational overhead. They are a faceless, large-scale institution. The average person, in our estimation, has few strong social bonds with these organizations and institutions. Moreover, $5,000 raised for them will not have the same positive impact as $5,000 raised for a local Girl Scout troop.
To be clear: we are not understating the importance of what they do, criticizing their efficiency, or questioning their value to society. We're saying donating to an organization like that is materially different in its impact, and aesthetically different on a subtle emotional level, than, say, donating to a local youth group. We facilitate the latter.
We have outlined below the criteria we use to permit, either national non-profits to run a silo.
In short: we don't want a national non-profit to create a silo to pay for operating expenses or executive salaries; we want to help churches, little leagues, local chapters of the YMCA, Girl Scouts, at-risk youth programs, local schools, local libraries, etc.
siloz is about giving in a maximally helpful way: in your immediate community, to people you know, and organizations you regularly, and closely, interact with. Please email us at info@siloz.com to request consideration for a chapter or office of a national non-profit to run a silo in a given region.
It is central to our mission, and to our reputation, that we operate legally. We have implemented several security features, including:
Our design itself, especially as it applies to personal silos, is a security feature. The only way to propagate a personal silo is either through Facebook, or via email, by sharing the unique URL. Ergo, the only way you'd even know of a personal silo is through someone you know, personally. This chain may be traced back to the original source, and creates a sort of 'web of accountability', where the agents of the promotion of a silo are, in essence, vouching for its authenticity.
siloz is a for-profit technology provider and is not a professional fund-raising organization, fund-raising counsel, a fund-raising advisor, a fund-raising manager, a fund-raising planner, a commercial co-venturer, or a fund-raising solicitor.
siloz provides only tools for organizations to conduct their own fundraisers, and/or prepare soliciting materials, makes no representations about the veracity of a fund-raiser, and never executes any aspect of a fund-raising effort.
The Modal Charitable Solicitations Act says you cannot be a charitable adviser or counsel, without registering, which siloz does not want or need to do. What constitutes advising as it regards a charity?
Advising is:
…for a fee, as the above regard solicitation.
Note, there is a difference between:
All are tax-exempt. All are registered 501(c)3 organizations. However, we are restricted only in our interactions with charitable organizations.
Essentially the law was enacted to prevent charlatans from collecting money on behalf of (and/or exploiting) non-profits, without being registered (which is presumably a disincentive for such abuses).
Typically, the regulatory burden is less for a person who doesn't actually conduct the solicitation but only advises the nonprofit organization. Note, however, that the Model Solicitations Act (1986) did not specify that a fund-raising counsel never has custody or control of the contributions. Accordingly, some states have added such a requirement to their definition of this role, sometimes renaming it to fund-raising consultant.
Like much of the law, case law informs these matters. siloz is invested in operating legally. Should anybody inquire, The Charleston Principles, an advisory guideline on solicitation of charitable giving, indicates that technology providers who do not charge excessively for their service, are less likely to be seen as charitable advisors. We charge around 7%.
Finally, there are some states, such as Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, where the legal standards a slightly different.
In Massachusetts, though we do not “…conduct, produce, promote, underwrite or arrange a…performance…or the sale to the public of a good advertised in conjunction with a charitable organization…” we could putatively be considered a commercial co-venturer if we did not allow the proceeds and fund-raising venture to be entirely controlled by a given organization, which we do. ( Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 68, § 18).
In Rhode Island, the standard is similar; however, since the fund-raising venture itself is controlled by agents of a given charitable organization, we do not qualify as either counsel or a solicitor, for fund-raising purposes. (R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-53-1).
Silos break down into two main categories or types: personal, and community.
Community silos require the silo administrator to be functioning in some official capacity, as a school representative, church administrator or minister, youth sports league commissioner, etc. Community silos are appropriate whenever a collection of people is joined in the following ways:
1. By membership in a club, team, organization, league, class, group (example: youth soccer league) and/or
2. By association through a shared investment or shared beneficiary status (example: community playground), and/or
3. By association through living in the close proximity (example: neighborhood cleanup project), and
4. The central way the group is defined is not as family and open to the public. (Note: family reunions are always personal silos)
Everything else is a personal silo.
The idea behind segregating personal and community silos is a security feature: you essentially have to be invited to a personal silo, whereas community silos are visible on the site, and open for anyone to join.
A stranger should not be able to pledge an item to benefit a person's grandmother's funeral expenses. That invites unwanted associations and fraud.
We have implemented several security features, including:
Note: while the items benefiting a personal silo are visible to all on the site (and searchable on the Internet), the members, and the silo itself, are invisible. The only way to propagate a personal silo is either through Facebook, or via email, by sharing the unique URL. Ergo, the only way you'd even know of a personal silo is through someone you know, personally. This chain may be traced back to the original source, and creates a sort of 'web of accountability', where the agents of the promotion of a silo are, in essence, vouching for its authenticity.
No personal silo donation or pledge is ever a tax-deductible gift.
Only community silos with a banner indicating an organization's EIN (employer identification number) have been verified by our site as a 501(c)3 organization, and, therefore, able to provide a receipt for a gift, waiving taxes for that amount, for the donor/pledger.
This verified status (checked with http://www.realsearch.com/) is displayed in the silo's banner (see below). Any silo not bearing this seal (gold star) is not verified by us, and cannot provide a receipt for a charitable gift.
siloz is much like an 'online church rummage sale', where people pledge the sale of items and remittance of donations to a silo's administrator (creator), in a fund-raising effort. Every item listed on the site benefits some fund-raiser (called a 'silo').
On the site, you can create a silo, pledge items or donate to a silo (join as a member), or simply shop. About 93% of the money you spend on any item on the site goes to the silo it benefits.
Select the 'Create Silo' button at the top of the page. Follow the prompts.
Personal silos are not visible on the site and are not visible in an Internet search, and only items benefiting community silos indicate which silo they benefit. These are security features, preventing a person from, say, falsely claiming they have a child dying from cancer, and inviting strangers to pledge items or money. Personal silos can be shared through their unique URL (web address), and thus are self-monitoring, since the only way you would know about it is through someone you know, who learned about it, in turn, from someone he or she knows, back to the silo administrator.
siloz uses such transparency, and a half-dozen other checks and balances to maximize transparency and accountability for a safe, effective, fun, fund-raising experience for personal and community causes alike.
Select the 'Search Silos' button in the navigation bar on the home page. You will see silos on a map, and in the grid on the left of the screen. Hover over silos on a map for more information. Select an object to be taken to a Silo's Detail Page. On the Silo Detail Page, select 'Donate' or 'Sell for This Silo' and follow the prompts.
After you pledge an item or indicate that you will make a donation, you are free to sell your item on siloz or elsewhere, and to send your money to your silo administrator in any way you choose.
When an item sells (on siloz or elsewhere), you change the status of your item to 'item sold', or 'payment sent' as the case may be. When the money is received by the silo administrator, he or she changes the status to 'payment received'.
Since items are not for sale on the site, but only represented, it is up to silo members to keep the status of pledged items up-to-date.
Personal silos are always free. We charge community silo administrators 7% of whatever money they report collecting.
A silo begins or starts when the silo administrator creates it.
A silo lasts up to 30 days.
To learn more about corporate participation in a silo, contact us at info@siloz.com.
To fully understand your obligations a silo web application user, see our Terms of Use, in the footer.
A silo administrators principal obligations are to 1) accurately represent his or her fund-raiser, 2) conform to the values of the site (legality, respect, goodwill and inclusiveness) and 3) spend the money raised by a silo appropriately (on the item or items or services that were represented to the members).
Silo members' principal obligations are 1) make an earnest effort to sell pledge items (on siloz.com or elsewhere – we don't discourage duplicate listings, as, in that event, we are simply a place to represent and track pledges, in addition to a sales forum), 2) conform to the values of the site (legality, respect, goodwill and inclusiveness) , and 3) update the status of your pledged items and remit payment to a silo administrator, promptly.
In all likelihood, you created a personal silo, which is never visible on the site. Only the items benefiting that silo are visible. On the individual item 'plates', in the 'benefiting' field, it should read: 'personal silo'.
You must pledge an item or make a donation to the silo you are administrating in order to be considered a 'member' and not an administrator.
Silos cannot be extended.
A silo administrator may only run one silo at a time, and one silo in a 90-day period.
A silo administrator may only run one silo in any 90-day period.
Only a silo administrator may remove people or items. Items or membership that do not conform to the spirit of a given silo, or of siloz.com, maybe be apt for a warning from a silo administrator.
We ask that you issue a warning and/or use discretion in editing silo membership and member pledges (particularly for a community silo – which is intended to be open to the public), as the administrator him- or herself may run afoul of our spirit of inclusiveness and goodwill. Under no circumstances should personal feelings influence this action.
To remove a member, go to the silo administrator 'dashboard', select the 'members' tab, and select the red 'x' on a given member's plate.
To remove an item, go to the silo administrator 'dashboard', select the 'items' tab, and select the red 'x' on a given item's plate.
Note: If you delete a member with pledged items in either 'pledged' or 'item sold' status, you will delete those items, as well. Donations (in any status), or items in 'funds sent' or 'funds received' status will remain in the silo.
siloz.com will never feature advertisements.
siloz.com makes money by charging a nominal fee to community silo administrators. By definition, these are individuals operating in some official capacity. Our fee is 7% of the total amount collected (as reported by the silo administrator).
siloz prohibits fundraisers for political, racial, heritage foundations or causes, or any organization whose purpose or reputation is associated with an ethos we deem contrary to our mission of legality, respect, goodwill, and inclusiveness. For more information, see our Terms of Use.
You have several options for reporting a silo that does not conform to our Terms of Use (viewable in the footer of any page on the site). Also, see our FAQ articles on which silo types are banned, flagging, and security for more information.
Multiple Options For Reporting: Flagging and Our 'Contact Us' Form
Flagging
Flaggable infractions include:
Multiple flags by different users, in any of these categories will get an (any) item or silo suspended.
Note: only community silos are required to exercise tact and taste; an offensive personal silo that is otherwise not in violation of our Terms of Use is acceptable. If you know of this silo, and don't like what they're doing, simply exit (by requesting from the administrator that you be removed from the silo).
Contact Us
You may also report silos (personal or community) that do not conform to our standards of legality, respect, goodwill, and inclusiveness by using the 'contact us' link in the footer of every page, and appropriately completing the form. As a public endeavor, and because a silo administrator is representing siloz.com to the public, a community silo (or listed item) must meet a higher standard of tact and/taste in addition to the aforementioned. Community silos and items that do not meet this additional standard should likewise be reported using the 'contact us' link in the site's footer.
Personal silos that are tasteless or not tactful, but otherwise not in violation of our Terms of Use, are not fit to be canceled (things like fraternity parties or bachelor parties or bachelorette parties). We would advise that you simply exit that silo (done by requesting to be deleted to your silo's administrator).
Fraud and Misrepresentation, Fraud and Scams (Items or Silos)
We take abuse of public and private trust very seriously, and will fully cooperate with disciplinary and law enforcement personnel in the interest of keeping siloz a safe place for good people to do good work.
If you believe a breach involves misrepresentation, fraud, or another type of scam, we invite you to telephone us directly at: 510-842-6077, or email us at info@siloz.com.
Please be prepared with your username, relationship to the silo (if any), the silo title and ID number.
If the breach is at all questionable, you can simply flag a silo. Flaggable infractions include:
If you are a silo administrator, you can cancel your silo. The option to do this is in the administration console for your silo.
If you are a member, you can exit a silo by requesting that a silo administrator delete you. Note: if this happens, any donations and funds in the 'funds sent' or 'funds received' status will remain (in their respective tab on a silo page), though the member 'plate' will disappear.
If you delete an item (only possible if it is not in 'funds sent' or 'funds received' status), you can re-post your item.
The various statuses for pledged items are:
Note: Items cannot be deleted, by either a silo administrator or a pledging member, when they are in either the 'funds sent' or 'funds received' status.
The various statuses for donations are:
For more information on how to make donations or payment, do a search for the relevant FAQ article.
Donations are only accepted through PayPal. Your silo administrator should have provided an email address associated with the PayPal account that will receive donations. Simply select the 'Donate' button in the upper-right-hand corner of the silo page, follow the instructions on the new page.
Donations are completely safe, and handled through PayPal. The only risk assumed with this online transaction is that your silo administrator is fit to run a given silo. We have implemented safeguards for both personal and community silos, but we ask that you use your 'Internet street smarts' when making pledges or donations. We offer no refunds or guarantees, and make no representations, as to the identity of a silo or silo administrator.
On the silo detail page, to pledge items, simply select 'sell for this silo' and follow the prompts.
While donations can only be accepted through PayPal, there are multiple ways to make payment to a silo administrator:
…Please be sure to include the name of the silo, and your username, so your administrator can give you credit! Remember: if you send a money order, keep your money order stub! That way, if it gets lost in the mail, you can recover your funds.
a) Go to http://www.paypal.com. Log in or create an account. Note: you will be charged a nominal (c. 3%) fee if you use a credit or debit card. To avoid a fee, associate your bank account with PayPal, and follow the instructions below.
b) Select 'Send Money'.
c) Enter the silo administrator's email address, and the amount you wish to remit, along with the silo name and the title/item number you are sending payment for.
d) Select 'Personal' tab, and 'Other' radial button, and select 'Continue' at the bottom of the screen. If you do not have a credit/debit card on file with PayPal, you will be prompted for one.
To avoid PayPal fees. Before finalizing payment, select 'eCheck' option, and enter your bank account information. Payment will then be drawn from your bank account, with no fees incurred.
There are six types of flags in use on siloz.com. These apply to both silos and items for sale on the site.
Note: only community silos and item listings are required to exercise tact and taste; an offensive personal silo that is otherwise not in violation of our Terms of Use is acceptable. If you know of this silo, and don't like what they're doing, simply exit (by requesting from the administrator that you be removed from the silo).
There is no limit to how much a silo can state as its goal.
There is no limit to how many members are permitted to join a silo.
If you have an active silo, you cannot delete your account. You must first cancel your silo.
If you are a silo member or non-pledging/donating account-holder, you can delete your account from the User Account menu. Select 'delete account'.
siloz.com is a privately-held, for-profit company. We provide a technology service for private and public fund-raising, in observance of state and federal laws and advisories. For more information, see the FAQ article on legality, or the Terms of Use.
siloz.com will never go public, as long as it's owned by the founder and CEO, Zackery West.
For business inquiries, select 'contact us' from the footer, and appropriately complete the form.
Feedback is welcome. In the 'contact us' section of the footer, select the type of contact you're making (feedback), and complete the form.
A silo 'purpose' is the financial objective of the silo. The 'description' describes the organization running the silo.
Refunds (to silo administrators – our only fiscal point of contact) may be requested by using the 'contact us' link in the footer of every page, and appropriately completing the form.
Silo administrators are accountable to silo members for all money raised by a silo. If a silo surpasses its goal, members are expected (but not required) to cease in their fund-raising effort. In this event, silo administrators are expected (but not required) to return the overage to contributors on the proportionate basis of members' contributions. siloz offers no recourse or legal remedy for silo members who contributed to a silo that failed to meet, met, or exceeded its fund-raising goal.
siloz is designed to be completely transparent. If an item sells, as reported by the pledging member, it is expected that the social pressure and desire to honor a pledge and retain credibility will be sufficient motivators (if good will itself isn't).
The site is meant to inspire good feelings: goodwill, voluntarily undertaken. Therefore, we offer no recourse for pledging members who refuse to remit payment. They are visible by everyone in the silo.
We are constantly learning from our mistakes, and your feedback. siloz is a business, and any business decision should be informed by practicality, if not profitability. Ergo, we cannot guarantee we will ever exist outside the United States, but we'd like to believe the same model that makes us viable here applies in other countries – that, the world over, people are invested in helping each other.
A person may join a silo outside his or her region, but it's not recommended unless it's a personal silo.
Community silos are, by definition, public or regional entities (typically non-profit) that leverage proximity and existing social networks for 1) security, and 2) performance. The idea is: it's your church, or your kid's little league team.
If you learn of a community silo through a trusted friend who can vouch for the veracity of a silo and the fitness of a silo administrator to run a silo, it's up to you. Use your discretion (what we call your 'Internet street smarts').
Under no circumstances should a buyer coordinate with a seller to receive a shipped item, or make payment to a seller in any way other than in-person. siloz is meant to operate regionally, buying and selling in local markets (ideally – especially as it informs community silos), near the actual silo.
Since items and silos are, by definition, different objects, they will not always geographically overlap. Use discretion when joining a silo that is not in your region. If you must do this, personal silos may be safer, since it's someone you know who can vouch for a silo's legitimacy.
See the FAQ article on joining a silo in another region for more information.
Once begun, a silo's purpose, title, goal, or category cannot be changed, for security reasons. You must cancel your silo and start over.
The Law
501(c)(3) exemptions apply to corporations, and any community chest, fund, cooperating association or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, to foster national or international amateur sports competition, to promote the arts, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals.
siloz' Criteria: Verifiable EIN Showing Non-Profit Status With the IRS
Organizations may or may not have an EIN (employer identification number), which we then verify (when the silo administrator creates a silo), that authenticates 501(c)3 status; a regional organization without a verified EIN indicating non-profit status can create a community silo, but cannot offer tax-deductible receipts for pledges or donations.
siloz' Criteria: Community
siloz is intended to leverage existing relationships in regional communities; it is about communities taking care of themselves and each other. When you log in, you see your community on the map, complete with items and silos.
National non-profits, with or without 501(c)3 status must meet separate criteria to qualify for a community silo. Among other requirements, they must have a regional office, and not intend the funds for operating costs. While national non-profits headquartered in Washington, D.C., or New York, New York, (and without regional offices) may be worthy organizations, it is inconsistent with siloz' function (and an invitation for fraud) to permit them to create silos either a) in their own region, since their location is arbitrary and their span is national, or b) to permit them to create silos in other regions.
For more information, see the FAQ article: 'Can National Non-Profits Create Community Silos?'
siloz is a technology provider for users to fund-raise. We have built in safeguards, encouraged our users to exercise skepticism when joining a silo, and empowered our users to police the site, themselves. Still, humans are inventive, and we cannot guarantee every silo administrator is honest and reliable.
See our FAQ article on 'Security Features' of the site for more information.
For either personal silos or community silos, siloz offers no legal or financial remedy for abuse of trust or misappropriation of funds raised on the part of the silo administrator. See our 'Terms of Use' for more information.
Remedies Offered by The Law
Community silo administrators are liable for criminal fraud / misrepresentation charges for abusing public trust and misappropriating public funds. This may include suspension of 501(c)3 status for their organization. We invite members of a silo to judiciously exercise options to remedy a situation of abuse or suspected abuse, including:
There may be a civil remedy at law for personal silo administrators who abuse their membership's trust or misappropriate funds. Depending on the circumstance, such an administrator may be guilty of panhandling, or the tort (to be pursued in a municipal court) of breach of a duty to honor the expectation of silo members to honestly handle funds raised.
Note: siloz recommends you consult with an attorney before pursuing legal remedy for abuse.
There are two types of silos: personal and community.
In short: community silos are official organizations, in your region, which typically enjoy non-profit status: churches, youth sports organizations, schools, neighborhood cleanup campaigns, etc. Personal silos benefit a family or individual's personal interests: family reunions, college funds, travel funds, wedding funds, gifts, events, etc.
See the FAQ article on personal vs. community silos.
If you come across a personal silo you suspect of being miscategorized, flag it, and notify us (provide the silo ID number).
Glaring examples of miscategorized 'community silos' include: