MeaningfulWins hopes to make it easier for fantasy players looking to donate money to charities.
The site founded by entrepreneur John Ellis and Thad Levine, Texas Rangers assistant GM, makes it simple for fantasy football players to donate the league's wining purse to a charity of choice. In addition, the funds donated to charity are tax deductible.
"We started the site because we love keeping in touch through fantasy sports, and believe in giving back," says co-founder John Ellis. "The reason it went from an idea to a real business is that because everyone we spoke to about the idea, from college friends to MLB hall of Famers said 'how can I help?'"
How it Works
Meaningful Wins has a nonprofit partner foundation that receives league entry fees as donations. League players designate a charity they want to support and once the season over the Meaningful Wins Foundation delivers the league pay outs to the winning nonprofits.
Meaningful Wins works with all the major game provides including Yahoo!, ESPN, CBS and CBS Sports. Owners will sign up and register their league to Meaningful Wins. Each league owner will then pick their favorite charity. The winner of the league will have the league's purse go to the winner's charity of choice. The other league owners will still get their donation amount available to be tax deducted.
To pay for the cost of the service that Meaningful Wins is offering a 7.75% fee is collected in order to pay for operating expenses such as credit card fees.
Support
To help promote the site, Meaningful Wins has contacted their celebrity network in sports. Already baseball players like Greg Maddux and John Burkett have endorsed their support. "We knew many organizations that needed the $1,200 from our hundred dollar league a lot more than we did and had an idea we could direct some billions in fantasy sports to people in need," added Ellis. This site has also gathered the help of Non Profits to help support the site such as Doctor's Without Border, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and the Operation Smile.
GoalsMeaningful Wins hopes that they can sign up 500 leagues that will register their winnings to charities. As they are starting this venture, Meaningful Wins hopes to setup partnerships will be vital to help spread the word about the site. Finally, the site hopes to deliver a fun and easy to user experience so that can continue year after year.
Summary
It is good to see these type of ventures and acts of charities especially involving fantasy sports. There are other escrow services out there already such as LeagueSafe so a partnership with that company would make sense. In addition, a continued partnership with the traditional league game providers would help. It would be interesting if any daily fantasy game providers would be willing to partner up considering there major appeal for playing is for money to the player.
