During a local fundraiser for a soccer team, one of the parents had a close connection with a local winery. To help raise $2,000 for a team trip (and to garnish more attention for his product), the local winery offered the soccer team $3.00 for every bottle that they could sell. Since it was alcohol everything had to be done via e-mail with PDF flyers and the winery took care of the payments and handled the delivery of the product. The KEY sentence in the PDF flyer said: "Even if you don't like or drink wine, please help us by passing this e-mail onto 3 people in your e-mail box. Thank you."

That simple request started a wave of e-mails that spread not only to our community but throughout the United States. The proof that we had uncovered a concept that was easy and that worked was that the soccer fundraisers sold wine to people they didn't know, in states they had never visited! This guerilla marketing meets social networking was easy, effective and profitable. In less than 2 1/2 weeks, the soccer club raised $3,330 and they never left their computer, never washed a car, nor had a door slammed in their face when they approached with a box of candy or wrapping paper.

This is the premise that led to the founding of GotCause - a local community marketplace where day-to-day consumer spending at local businesses creates funding for local causes - all in a safe and secure environment.

GotCause is made up of three major elements: buyers, merchants, and fundraisers. Each cause provides the binding for the GotCause community via social networking.

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