“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” From the French for (roughly): there’s a form for that.
Answer these 17 simple questions to create your own commercial co-venture program:
1. What is your company’s full name, street address, URL and contact.
2. What is the Charity’s full name, street address, URL and contact.
3. What is the name of the Promotion?
4. During what time period will the Promotion run?
5. In what states will the Promotion run?
a. If you selected AL, HI, IL, MA, MS and/or SC, you will need to register as a commercial co-venturer and/or register your promotion.
b. If you selected AL and/or MA, you will need to provide a surety bond with your registration.
6. Is the Charity registered in all of the states identified in No. 5? (Note: a charity is not required to register in about 10 states.)
a. If yes, yay!
b. If no:
i. Can they get registered before the start date? It may take at least a month or so.
ii. Is the Promotion online? You may be able to rely upon the Charleston Principles if the Charity only solicits online in any particular state.
iii. Are you willing to void the states where the Charity is not registered?
iv. Are you willing to find a new Charity?
7. What is the product or service being sold? (Be specific.)
8. How will the product or service be sold? (E.g., online, in store, etc.)
9. What is the per unit dollar amount or per unit percentage of the purchase price to be donated to the Charity? (You can’t get away with “proceeds from sales”.)
10. Do you have a maximum donation?
a. If yes, is it high enough so that most (all) of the purchases will actually trigger a donation?
11. Do you have a minimum donation?
a. If yes, is it low enough so that most of the purchases will actually trigger a donation?
12. If you answered “yes” to Nos. 10 and 11: Is there a sufficient gap between the minimum and maximum donations so that most purchases will actually trigger a donation?
13. What is a reasonable estimate of the number of products expected to be sold during the Promotion?
14. What type of advertising will you do? (print ads, online, on product, in store, mailers, email, etc.)?
15. When and how do you intend to provide the donation to the Charity?
16. Are there any other companies co-sponsoring the Promotion?
a. If yes, they will also need to have contracts with the Charity.
17. Are there any other Charities involved in the Promotion?
a. If yes, you will need a contract with each Charity.
That basically covers the information you will need to provide to your lawyers to get going on the legal work for the Promotion. Of course every Promotion is different, but “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
