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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Business idea proposal: Earth to Hearth

After to weeks of rigorous presentations, I have finally decided to propose we, as a wealthy board of philanthropists, back Meagan McGinnes' Earth to Hearth start-up website.

The website builds on what is already available for the food environmentalists. It takes websites like PeTA, Farm Sanctuary Shop and the USDA website, which work to inform the public about making sustainable food choices focusing on specific aspects of the food industry, and it brings it all together to one website. The website not only informs the public about food sustainability — including food miles, animal cruelty and healthy food options — but it also provides a platform to "activate" site members.

I believe there is a huge market for environmental websites, and this one brings together all aspects of food sustainability — which is a shift from all other websites driven by very specific agendas. The name works perfectly and is easy to remember.

Perhaps the only issue I found was the amount of content projected to be on the website vs. the number of staffers working to produce it. I thought having news articles, interactives, glossaries, calculators and a calendar (plus some other things) was a bit too much work for two or three staffers — plus the skills needed are of a broad range if people are going to be writing news articles and working with code creating interactives.

Also, the company did not present a projected budget for after the first year. Hopefully by then more staffers would be hired? Would they be paid more as an incentive to stay?

But these are small issues that can be resolved by taking another look at the proposal. Overall, I think it is a good idea and the perfect nonprofit start-up to invest in.

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