Released on: January 17, 2008, 11:57 am

Press Release Author: echoDonations.org

Industry: Non Profit

Press Release Summary: Business executives put technical prowess to work by helping
charities help themselves.

Press Release Body: CINCINNATI, OH, January 16, 2008 – A group of Cincinnati based
social entrepreneurs are tackling the two most significant challenges to the
survival of every nonprofit: raising money and gaining donor loyalty. How? By
providing the
technology and tools necessary to do so in a world engulfed by digital trends.

Possessing all the vim, vigor, and business savvy of business entrepreneurs, social
entrepreneurs are a slight variation of the breed; they measure their success in
terms of social impact rather than profit and return.

A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses
entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social
change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and
return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have
on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen
groups, many also work in the private and governmental sectors.

Every year, nonprofits face the challenge of having to work harder and spend more
money to raise the same amount of fundraising support as the year before. However,
increasing the frequency of direct mail solicitations or telephone fundraising is
not only expensive, but involves risks. Overbearing solicitations can
drive donors away, and in turn be cost prohibitive to the nonprofit. Therefore, the
nonprofit industry needs new fundraising tools and communication methods to enhance
their ability to communicate, raise money, and increase donor loyalty.

A local entrepreneur, Christopher Hytry Derrington, CEO of Alta Financial
Technologies, set out to help solve this critical nonprofit issue. He assembled a
diverse team of Cincinnati executives to explore all possible options using the
latest business and technology tools. After two years of research and development,
Alta created a new fundraising tool specially designed to create donor loyalty. This
tool enables donors to earn cash rewards from their donations year after year. The
team of entrepreneurs took a well-established trust method called a charitable
mutual fund, put it on the internet by using the latest technology, and made it
available to the general public.
“No longer is earning cash rewards income and tax breaks from donations exclusively
reserved for the high network individuals,” Hytry Derrington said. “Now nonprofits
of all sizes and donor demographics can offer their donors cash rewards for their
loyalty.”

Until now, charitable mutual fund models have required high maintenance overhead
that made them available only to large dollar donors. Smaller, or “average,”
donations were not cost effective in this trust due to the high costs of setting up
and managing the charitable fund. As a result, the general public, or the largest
segment of a typical donor base, was not being given the same compelling loyalty
reward opportunities as the wealthy.

echoDonations.org, a web site created by Alta Financial Technologies, accepts
donations as low as $25 to any U.S. 501(c)3 charity – currently 1.3 million on file
with the IRS. All donations, large and small, that come through echoDonations.org™
are combined in an online charitable mutual fund, which is
invested and monitored for performance in the market. As the charitable mutual
fund builds investment return, annual Lifetime Cash Rewards™ are distributed to
donors and charities while building an endowment for the charity. The benefit to
nonprofits is exponential by way of the annual cash received and through the
increased donor loyalty gained from receiving their rewards.
“The new technology offered through echoDonations.org is an impressive lead to
the future of online giving,” said Drew Fink, Board Member of nonprofitSherpa.org,
an organization dedicated to helping nonprofits through technology and innovation.
“This innovative idea is has enormous potential not only in the realm of nonprofit
organizations, but of any educational organization in search of loyal donors for
steady financial support.”
About echodonations.org™
echoDonations.org™, the nation’s leading online charitable mutual fund, is a
national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping charities start or grow their
online fundraising programs by offering loyalty building cash rewards for donors to
give more. More information is available at www.echoDonations.org.
About Alta Financial Technologies
Alta Financial Technologies™, Inc. is a financial services technology company whose
patent-pending back-office products and services enables the creation of web
based, paperless, mutual funds targeting specific demographics such as nonprofit
donors. More information is available at www.altafinancialtechnologies.com.



Web Site: http://www.echodonations.org

Contact Details: Christopher Hytry Derrington
513.276.4332, ext 102.
chris@echodonations.org