Readers of our Facebook page will already have seen a post mentioning Deal Effect. It’s a concept that is new to Ireland and could, the founders hope, revolutionise charitable giving. Here’s how. www.DealEffect.ie launches on the 29th of October. It’s a site that offers daily deal offers across a number of goods and services to the Irish public — but that’s not all. This site is also an online fundraising platform for the Irish charity and non-profit sector. It delivers back 11 per cent of all revenue to participating Irish charities. In practice then, if you, the consumer, register with www.DealEffect.ie, you will receive daily deal offers of between 50 per cent and 90 per cent discount. That could mean hotels, restaurants, festivals, events, retail offers and more. If you take up a deal your chosen charity will receive 11 per cent of that deal. And it could be us! Friends of Londiani is one of the first charities to partner with DealEffect.ie, which means your trip to a restaurant, outing to a concert or stay in a hotel might raise funds for FOL as well as be a good deal for you. Most importantly perhaps, this fundraising platform has a target: to donate €2.1 million to the charity sector over the next three years. Imagine what that could mean to Ireland’s charities. If you’d like a better idea of how the concept works, do have a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1PsOEMGVEI. And, before we forget, there’s another incentive to sign up at www.dealeffect.ie well before the launch (apart from the opportunity to help FOL of course). Everyone who registers on the site before October the 29th will be entered into a draw for a free iPad mini! We’ll be telling you more about this initiative again soon: not just what it can offer shoppers but what it could mean for the charity and non-profit sectors at a time when government cuts and household economies call for innovative thinking. And Deal Effect certainly is innovative. The Deal Effect slogan is ‘Buy, Donate, Enjoy’. We do hope you will.