The problem: Youth organizations (such as sports teams) are constantly in need of funds. Many of them send their members out to beg for funds, or try to sell overpriced luxury goods (which really isn't any different from begging). While I'd like to support these youth organizations, I don't want to encourage begging, and I often have no reason to believe that these kids aren't scamming me.

The solution: The kids should perform community service in exchange for the donations (by cleaning up public spaces or building infrastructure in parks). If a group of responsible adults in the community organized the donation collection and confirmed that the work was actually done, it could really encourage donors to give money.

The details: I imagine a website, with a page dedicated to each fund-raising project. It would describe the project, provide "before and after" pictures, provide contact organization for the adult organizer of the activity (coach, etc), and a way to provide donations over the web. Various ancillary services could be provided (such as printing out donation forms to be handed out, and suggestions for new projects). The website could be driven by Drupal or some other open-source community-building software.

What do you think of this idea or comment?
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