A Madison Heights-based start-up believes it has a new way to harness large amounts of new capital for the non-profit world.
TerraYebo's MyInchofTheEarth.com is a micro-funding site for nonprofits that enables users to claim any virtual inch of the earth or ocean, share why that place is important, and choose a nonprofit that either supports the preservation of that place or a nonprofit that does good in the world. The idea is to let people's life experiences at different institutions (such as their alma mater) or places (a national park) prompt them to give small amounts to non-profits that fund them.
"Our philosophy is a little bit of money from a lot of people can change the direction of the world," says Dan Glisky, president of
TerraYebo. "It allows a user to own their own experience and it inspires people to give. When organizers send mail it doesn't really inspire people to give."
Organizations that have already signed up for
MyInchofTheEarth.com as a fundraising platform include The National Park Foundation, CURE International, VH1 Save the Music, Veterans of Foreign War Foundation and The Pink Fund.
"We're solving a major issue for a lot of non-profits in how they get funded," Glisky says. He adds that TerraYebo's platform is "going to allow non-profits to get sustainable funding."
The 3-year-old company has recently doubled its staff to four people, including adding Glisky to its executive team. Previously he served as the CEO and co-founder of Digital 10 Media, a digital-out-of-home media company. Glisky will oversee the national rollout of MyInchofTheEarth.com, which is currently going through a soft launch.
Source: Dan Glisky, president of TerraYebo
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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