SMILINGSTART - CHANGE HOMEPAGE, CHANGING LIVES

INN News Desk

A novel website that aims to change the lives of thousands of underprivileged kids through an innovative process that diverts money spent on online advertising towards charitable causes.

SmilingStart.com is a social venture and an innovative charitable fundraising movement that redirects the money spent on online advertising towards charitable causes.
How SmilingStart functions is quite simple and user-friendly. Users simply set SmilingStart.com as their browser homepage, select a charity to support, sign up and each day receive beautiful wallpaper on their browser homepage. This wallpaper is sponsored by a brand which pays money to have its wallpaper displayed on the user homepage. 75% of the revenue is then donated to the charity selected by the users and 25% is retained by SmilingStart for sustenance and growth.

SmilingStart has partnered with three prominent charities – The Akshaya Patra Foundation, K.C Mahindra Education Trust and Pratham. These charities are very carefully selected and due diligence has been done to ensure their credibility. 

It has been a very encouraging start. We have been live for 31 days and have 168 supporters signed up so far. This has helped raise donations worth Rs. 4828 enabling 506 Mid-day meals for school kids, 264 days of education for under-privileged girls, 364 days in shelter for street kids. This has been achieved with zero marketing spent. 

We are trying to harness the huge space available on the browser homepage and divert ad spends towards charitable causes. The homepage now has the power to help feed children, educate underprivileged girls and provide shelter for street kids.

Benefits
Individuals:

• A new way to give that costs nothing.
• A beautifully simple way to feel good every-day.
• Opportunity to do good by diverting advertising money to charitable cause.
• Make use of the homepage, which was probably lying unutilized anyways.
• Support charities which are credible and extremely transparent.
• Be part of a larger movement that uplifts society.

Charities:

• Receive new funding 
• Activate new supporters
• Raise awareness about their causes.

Advertisers: 

• Standout in the clutter: Be the first and the only one to reach the customer every-time when he/her starts browsing
• Be Memorable: Beautiful full screen wallpaper which the audience will never miss
• Reiterate the ad multiple times in a day
• Positive Image: Align your brand with the most trusted NGOs
• Add-on to CSR and tax benefits

Legal Entity
SmilingStart.com is a venture of Thalia Technologies Pvt Ltd which is a profit driven organization with an intense social objective. The profit motive encourages efficiency and innovation and the social motive brings satisfaction of contributing to the society. We strive to maximize every cent of investment and minimize expenses incurred in creating and delivering value. The project is funded by the owner’s personal savings and family funds.

Pilot Campaign
SmilingStart.com was launched on 1st April 2013 with a Pilot Campaign. During the initial period of few months we will are running advertisements free of cost. The donations come from our private sponsors (details on website) and the entire amount goes to the charities. We have a target to achieve 10,000 signups during this period.