Q. What is socialmarkets?
A. socialmarkets is a website that provides information about the effectiveness of non-profit organizations. We tell you how much ‘bang for the buck’ they offer their donors. We also allow you to help influence that 'bang' -- in real time -- by weighing in on which issues you think deserve the most attention, and have the greatest value.

Q. What is ‘social capital’?
A. ’Social capital is the benefit society receives when people invest money and other resources to advance social goals. A social goal might be saving the environment or improving literacy. Government and foundation funding, and your donations of time and money are all forms of social capital. All told, the US spends billions of dollars each year on charities and other social programs, but we rarely know if this money creates the social capital we expect. This is because very few organizations provide the metrics we need to determine whether the money is well-spent. socialmarkets encourages organizations to provide metrics, gathers the best metrics available, and compiles them in our customized ‘outcomes reports’.

Q. What is the ‘social capital marketplace’?
A. The social capital marketplace is similar to the regular financial marketplace where you use the best information available to invest in companies that you hope will offer a good return on your investment. The difference is that we deal with ‘social capital’ and tell you where you can expect a good ‘social return on investment’ in a non-profit cause.

Q. What is a ‘social return on investment’ or SROI?
A. The concept of ‘social return on investment’ or SROI is an economic tool that we’ve adapted for the web. SROI includes financial (e.g. dollars) and non-financial indicators (e.g. environmental impact) to determine how much social value an organization creates, relative to the money it spends. You can also think of it as a way of assigning a dollar value to a societal benefit. If you’d like to know more, see our ‘Impact Metrics’ section.

Q. How does SocialMarkets calculate a ‘Social Return on Investment’ or SROI?
A. To help you understand the impact of a non-profit, we use the outcomes they tells us they seek, and their level of success in producing these outcomes. For example, a homelessness support charity will state that ‘eviction prevention in New York City” is an outcome they pursue, and then provide us with data about their rates of success.

Q. How do I know that the metrics on socialmarkets.org are correct?
A. You don't. What you can know is that we are working with both non-profits and their supporters to make the metrics as 'correct' as they can be, and that we are completely open and transparent about what we know and what we don't. We require nonprofits to provide verified data about their project listings on socialmarkets.org, and source the data we take from public documents (for more on this topic see discussion.)

Q. How is socialmarkets different from sites like GuideStar and Charity Navigator that also evaluate non-profits?
A. Other websites do little more than offer reports based on the data that charities are legally required to provide the US government (IRS Form 990). This data tells you how much a charity spends but not what it does; it certainly doesn’t tell you anything how much impact it’s having. socialmarkets is different because we ask organizations to share both their measurable goals and how successful they’ve been in meeting them. This is the only way to determine if an organization is spending donor dollars wisely. In some cases you’ll see that more expenditure means more impact, while other cases seem tell a different story.

Q. Does socialmarkets focus on groups working in particular areas?
A. Yes, in the short term. We plan to cover the entire non-profit space, but that will take time. Meanwhile, we may focus on areas that are interesting because their outcomes metrics are particularly well-developed (like carbon trading) or particularly not (like poetry reading.)

Q. How do you select non-profits for your listings?
A. Sometimes we find the non-profit and sometimes they find us, but the consistent requirement is that they have clear outcomes and a way of measuring their success in pursuing them.

Q. What is the leaderboard?
A. Every socialmarkets user has their own private portfolio of social investments (i.e. donations) they make at the site. We maintain a site-wide ranking of portfolios earning the highest social returns (SROI) on a 'leaderboard'.

Q. How do I search the listings?
A. We group listings by areas of interest, which we call 'markets'. For example, you will find River Reclamation projects in the “Environment” market and Eviction Prevention projects in 'Social Services'. When you hit the ‘Browse’ button you’ll find our list of markets. Just click on the market you’re interested in to see the related listings we offer. You can click on a listing to learn more about it and the organization behind it.

Q. What does it mean if a nonprofit has a high ranking?
A. It means that the organization offers a good social return on investment (SROI). It is a high impact group working on issues the public thinks are important.

Q. Why should I rate an outcome?
A. You should rate an outcome because your opinion helps determine an outcome's social return on investment (SROI). Everyone should have a voice in determining where social dollars should be spent, and your input at socialmarkets is a great way to make yours heard.

Q. How do I rate an outcome?
A. When you click Rate and select an outcome you feel strongly about, you can manually adjust our customized scales to indicate how important the outcome is to you.

Q. How do I donate money to the organization I’ve selected?
A. Just click on the "Donate" or "Fund" links within each listing. This will take you to Google Checkout, where you can provide all the information needed to process your donation.

Q. What am I funding when I make a donation?
A. Your donation is meant to fund the specific project discussed in the listing that you selected. You should note that while the funds the non-profit receives from you are ear-marked for each specific project, they are not formally restricted (for more on this topic see discussion.)

Q. I notice that SocialMarkets offers an option to add two extra charges to my donation. What are they? Do I have to pay them?
A. No, they are optional. When funding a specific project, you can elect to add an additional 15% as a donation to the organization's general operating costs (i.e. 'overhead'). You can also elect to give 10% of your donation to socialmarkets to help support this site.

Q. Why shouldn’t I just give my money directly to an organization I like?
A. If you want to give directly to a non-profit, we won't stand in you way. In fact, since we provide links to the websites of the non-profits we work with, you can even navigate to their site from ours. Our hope is that you think our innovative approach to giving is useful enough for you to stick with us. Your participation here at socialmarkets has no additional costs, but has many additional benefits (for more on this topic see discussion.)

Q. Is there a minimum donation amount?
A. No. You can donate as little or as much as you would like.

Q. Can I get a refund on donation I have made?
A. Refunding donations is sometimes possible, but is increasingly difficult as the time since donation passes. Please contact us at < a href="mailto:support@socialmarkets.org">support@socialmarkets.org as early as possible, and we will do what we can.

Q. Can I donate to a non-profit located outside the United States on the site?
A. We are only able to process donations for US registered non-profits but hope to expand our listings to international regions as soon as we are able.

Q. What if I am having trouble logging on to the socialmarkets website?
A. We're in closed beta right now demonstrating our site to nonprofits and other interested parties. This means that in order for you to register, we have to have given you a beta invitation code. If you don't have one, just wait until late August when we release our beta to the world.