Just read an article in the NY Times from 12/2/12 that addressed the issue of how much of that money raised for charity really goes to the charity.
I certainly wonder that myself when I give - so thought I should address it for our Songs for Sandy initiative.
First of all, I chose the Red Cross to partner with because its spends 92% of its money on programs, not administrative expenses, fundraising etc (according to Charity Navigator). It is also doing an amazing job for Sandy victims.
Second of all, our numbers.
We are selling five songs for $5 - so $1/each. From that, we pay the artists who choose to receive royalties 18 cents - 9 cents for the use of the recording, 9 cents for the use of the intellectual property of the song itself. 2 of the 5 songwriting teams elected to donate their royalties.
Paypal takes 6 cents per unit.
Hope Sings is taking zero for admin, overhead - nothing.
So here's the math:
$1.00 - paypal = $.94
$.94 - royalties = $.76 net per song
2 songs w/no royalties - $.94 x 2 = $1.88
3 songs w/royalties - $.76 x 3 = $2.28
total net proceeds of a five song package (with minimum $5.00 payment) = $4.16
Hope Sings MATCHES that - so your $5.00 purchase results in a donation of $8.32 to the Red Cross.
PLUS you help emerging singer-songwriters AND get five fun songs to boot.
Not bad (we think).
What do YOU think?