Questions

Why should I donate when I already pay taxes?

At the current tax systems are high administration costs, high depts with sometimes high interest rates need to get paid back, governments do corruption and money laundering for example through coal and weapon support and local projects too rarely get funded.

By concrete donations projects can get funded for which governments usually don’t have enough money for. It’s ensured that the governments don’t use the donations to repay any depts or do money laundering with it. A lot of money that was before untaxed can get accessed.

Do the rich people decide what gets build?

Not completely. The process of donating to governments is very old and is sticked to a lot of backroom politics. We make it only as easy, transparent and democratic as possible. We have two voting steps: first the citizens vote, then the governments. The tax deductibility is in most countries only for work income. The rich people usually made their money with investment returns. Nevertheless we are relying on the rich people’s money to be able to face humanities challenges.

Does every donation count?

Yes. Every donation counts. The more money gets donated, the higher is the incentive to apply to the biddings to implement the projects.

Get richer regions better funded?

Not completely. Through the process of donating the governments can save money in richer regions which can be used in poorer regions.

How can you offer your service without any commission?

We can offer the service without any commission because we let the governments treasurers administrate the money, who are paid by taxes, so 100% of the funds can go directly into the projects. We only communicate the treasurers bank accounts.

Are my donations to the projects tax-deductible?

Whether the donations are tax-deductible depends on the country and the institution responsible for the project and the country of the donator. In Germany donations to governments are usually tax-deductible. Means donators get on up to 20% of the work income their taxes back when they donate them to charitable projects.

Don’t I sabotage the local governments financially through the tax deductibility of donations?

Usually the national governments repay the taxes. But that differs from country to country.

Which suggestions get set public?

We only set the suggestions public which conform our community guidelines. We develop and iterate them with our community. In addition is a filter planned that first only makes a link shareable and after a certain voting score the suggestions get set public completely.

In which row do the governments consider the suggestions?

We demand in the row of the best voting score an answer from the governments on the suggestions.

Is everybody able to vote everywhere?

We plan a filter that distinguishes local votes from general votes. Only local votes are counted in the row of answer from the government requests.

How long does it take until a government replies to a suggestion?

It can last years until a suggestion gets a response. It is the duty for governments in some countries like Germany to accept or reject the suggestions because we legally form them as petitions and the German petition law obliges the governments to consider the petitions. But they don’t need to state a reason for their decision.

Will there be the necessity of identity card verification?

Yes. Otherwise votings could get manipulated. In addition this increases the incentive for a possitive communication because people can get legally prosecuted.

Will there be the opportunity for crypto donations?

We want to enable crypto donations. This is especially interesting in regions with a high currency inflation rate. And interesting for the tracibility of funds in regions with corruption.

Can organisations also raise funds on LocalDonation?

Yes. There will also be the opportunity for example for associations, living communities, the church and kibbutzim to collect and manage donations with adjustable community moderation and monetization.

Is the software open source?

Yes. The software is open source. On that way everybody can develop new features, adjust the platform to his local regulations or needs.

How do you make money?

We accept voluntary donations and sell merchandise. Furthermore we want to show selected advertisement and sell premium versions with some extra features. There we place value on making the listing of suggestions and crowdfunding campaigns not buyable. Premium features could be for example: no advertisement, a special listing for donations, a voluntary premium-tag in the profile, a dark mode and further app-icons. In addition there will be the opportunity to buy extra stickers which can be added to posts. For us is very important that all important features always stay for free. We will not pay any income to investors. We will use all money to improve the product.