Bring legal cases to me, I will donate 100% of my cut of the fee to a charity of your choice

By Brad West @ 2022-09-11T15:49 (+50)

I am a lawyer that practices near Chicago, Illinois and I also started a 501c3 charity called the Consumer Power Initiative. CPI is interested in using our economic power to benefit charities.

To that end, I would like to donate 100% of my cut of any business I bring in to the charity of the choice to whoever brings in the business. I get a third of our firm's fee for business that I bring in. Thus, in a personal injury case, we would get a third of any money generated, so I would generate my cut (a ninth) to the charity of your choice. In an hourly case, I would get a third  of the fees generated.

Randall Wolff & Associates  is the firm I work for and we do a great job for our clients; you can check out our high score on Google Reviews. We would love to take your personal injury, worker's compensation, bankruptcy, or divorce cases. We also would be interested in seeing if we can help you with commercial disputes. 

I would like EAs more generally to do stuff like this. Are you a professional where rainmaking could be valuable to your business and are interested in helping effective charities anyway? Make it explicitly known that you will direct your cut of the fees to a specific charity, or a charity of their choice. Earning to Give can be much more effective if you use the fact that you donate your earnings to generate business.

If you would like to do this, please initiate any conversations about representation by either emailing brad@rwolfflaw.com or calling 847-222-9465 and speaking with Brad West first. It needs to be clear that I generated the business for me (and thus your charity) to get the fee.

If you're interested in learning more about the Consumer Power Initiative, check out our newsletter. Also check out BOAS, a company in the EU that sells sustainable baby products and directs all profits to charities.

CPI Newsletter: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jXeT6SHoLoaXfkoT_7YCSgpMGHTiDwFU&authuser=volake1%40gmail.com&usp=drive_fs

BOAS website: boas.co

Brad West @ 2022-09-12T00:20 (+7)

I'd also like to mention that if any EAs are doing something like this, I'd like to know. The Consumer Power Initiative website is going to be done soon, and we'd like to list individuals and companies that are working for effective charities rather than themselves or traditional investors.

david_reinstein @ 2022-09-11T19:23 (+7)

Thank you for doing this. This is sort of like what I had in mind for the corporate skills bake sale, but more direct. 

Brad West @ 2022-09-11T21:51 (+6)

Thanks David.

I have been interested in how altruists can use the economy to do good for a while. It would be really great if we could have lawyers, realtors, life insurance sales people, etc. using a commitment to direct fresh and commissions to charities to get a competitive advantage in generating business.

I like your corporate skills bake sale idea... Why not just have professionals do the work they're good at and explicitly donate the fees generated? This model is an example of what I call Guided Consumption. I know you commented on one of my more recent posts laying out Guided Consumption from the perspective of various agents, and thanks for helping me clarify a point in my formulas. I like this earlier one a bit better as an introduction if you hadn't had a chance to read it yet.

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/WMiGwDoqEyswaE6hN/making-trillions-for-effective-charities-through-the

As I can see you're someone interested in using your economic insights toward altruistic ends, I'd really appreciate the opportunity to discuss the broader project of my nonprofit with you sometime. I think it would be well worth the time you direct towards it.

Brad@consumerpowerinitiative.org

david_reinstein @ 2022-09-22T19:13 (+2)

Why not just have professionals do the work they're good at and explicitly donate the fees generated?

Essentially that’s what I was proposing but

  1. making the donations direct/public to generate goodwill from “clients” and overcome their reluctance to pay for things/companies they might otherwise find a bit repugnant

  2. Leveraging existing corporate pro bono initiatives and incentives

And for both of these points I see a benefit in focusing on “noncore” business. For 1, for the reasons above, and for 2, bc the employer/firm might be reluctant to have its regular income diverted to charity

Brad West @ 2022-09-22T19:24 (+3)

I know you were proposing it... I was paraphrasing it with agreement .

Yeah, it's a great idea to come up with ways in which business resources can be used to serve worthy ends consistently with traditional shareholder and stakeholder interests.

Of course, I'd rather go much further and just get equity in the hands of charities than have to do all the skating around nonaligned stakeholders. I think if the relevant counterparties are aware of this fact, in many contexts it will, at the very least, be worth the acquisition cost. In some contexts, it could be revolutionary.

Kirsten @ 2022-09-12T12:53 (+2)

I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, I see a clear connection to EA; on the other hand, it feels like you're using the EA Forum to advertise an unrelated business. I'm not sure if I really would want a lot of other people to do this too.

Brad West @ 2022-09-12T13:00 (+1)

The Consumer Power Initiative will be providing a platform through its website under development for businesses that help charities. We wouldn't want the EA forum to become flooded with stuff like this. If the business generated is supporting effective charities, we want people to know how they can do business in a way that helps them.

But this post here doesn't simply generate money for effective charities if I get leads, it also provides a model that others can follow.