Frequently Asked, Really Good Questions
How does it work?
STEP ONE - Hundreds of Chicago non-profit organizations urge their supporters to join SaveChicago.org. Once all those supporters become members, we’ll have formed the first-ever unified group of local shoppers on the internet.
STEP TWO - Chicago businesses, excited by this new critical mass of local, online consumers, flock to SaveChicago.org to upload their best, most up-to-the-minute sale inventory.
STEP THREE - SaveChicago.org then takes half the money these local businesses spend to upload sales and gives it back to the non-profits who brought us those members in the first place.
In other words, we’re taking local advertising revenue and using it to fund non-profit organizations.
Chicago residents save money, non-profits make money, and businesses can stop paying for junk mail, prints ads, and search placement.
This is a pretty big idea, but we guarantee—you’ll get the hang of it once you start your free trial and save tons of money.
So, SaveChicago.org is a fund-raising company?
Yes and No. We either save money or make money for three completely different sorts of customers.
1. Consumers have grown accustomed to finding deep discounts on mail-order products over the internet. With SaveChicago.org they can find those deep discounts at the dozens of businesses they visit in their own neighborhood, and around the city.
2. Local businesses can finally use the internet to reach paying subscribers in their own neighborhood. A subscriber is the most desired advertising target because they're determined to get their money's worth. We're the cheapest, fastest, and most effective advertising vehicle available to local businesses.
3. Non-profits will receive half the revenue that local businesses spend to post sales on SaveChicago.org. We're making traditional fund-raising techniques obsolete by giving non-profits a way to earn recurring monthly revenue simply by mobilizing their supporters. If a supporter stays a member from month to month, that non-profit gets a percentage of the pool of advertising revenue every month.
So no, we're not a fund-raising company. We're actually creating a paradigm that keeps local advertising dollars local, sustainable, and injects them back into our economy via Chicago's non-profit organizations.
Why should I be a member?
We're providing local businesses a way to effectively use the internet for the first time so they can offer you amazing deals for a few days, or even a few hours. The only way you knew about a deep discount from a local store before was if you happened to be walking down the street at the right time.
The majority of goods and services you buy on a daily basis are from stores in your own neighborhood. Consider your local hair salon, dry cleaner, health club, hardware store, dog-groomer, tax preparer, ice cream shop, or any of the other twenty stores you visit in your own neighborhood on a regular basis. Before SaveChicago.org, these local stores couldn’t use the ease and flexibilty of the Internet to tell you what they had on sale that day, or even that minute.
We thought: “There ought to be a single website where local merchants could upload all their sales in real time. Local residents would then be more likely to buy local because they're actually saving money.”
The way we’ve set up SaveChicago, merchants can upload up-to-the-minute sales, deals, giveaways, etc. like they could never do with print ads or junk mail—and members save a bundle by taking advantage of these sales.
BONUS NO. 1: Being a member will mean that more local businesses will want to upload sales and more money will go to your favorite non-profit organization(s).
BONUS NO. 2: Since we’re saving merchants a lot of money (goodbye expensive junk mail), a deal which used to be 15% off might now be 30% off, thanks to SaveChicago.org.
What’s up with a local merchant "uploading a sale?"
Handy "markers" appear on a local map of your neighborhood at the exact address of a merchant anytime they post a sale.
If you click on a marker, a little bubble will appear that shows you some quick info about a particular sale. To go to a full-page explanation of the discount being offered, click the "view more details" link inside that bubble.
If you’re not interested in that particular offer, just click on as many markers as you need to until you find exactly what you want. If there are too many markers on your screen, narrow your search by un-checking some categories or just zoom in closer. Also, you'll be able to drag the map with your mouse all over Chicago to see what's on sale anywhere in the city.
How do non-profit companies make money here?
We’ve developed the first fund-raising tool in history that offers recurring revenue from a one-time fund-raising effort. (How many chocolate bars can say that?)
Let’s say SaveChicago.org has 100,000 members. Let’s say a certain arts organization brought us 1,000 members out of that 100,000. That would mean they’ve brought us 1% of our members and therefore will receive 1% of the pool of money. That “pool of money” is defined as half of the dollars merchants spend to post their sales.
We keep a running total of which non-profit brought what percentage of the members. Each month, each registered non-profit receives a check equal to that percentage of the pool. That arts group never has to bring us another member—they still earn monthly revenue as long as the people they have brought to us in the past are still paying members. Their percentage of the pool will most likely go down as more members sign up, but the pool of money will get bigger and bigger.
How do I know my favorite non-profit is making money?
Well, we can’t tell you how much they make without their permission. Call them up and ask them if they’re receiving a check every month.
Of course, the best way to ensure that your non-profit is making money with SaveChicago.org is to encourage them to spread the word about us. Again, the more members a non-profit signs up, the more money they’ll make.
My next-door neighbors own a restaurant. How can they advertise here?
All they have to do is click the “register your local business now” link on the homepage to create an account. Once they create their own username and password, input the address of the restaurant, and buy an ad credit, they can post an ad.
A marker can appear on the local map instantly, or at any later date of their choice. Our drop down calendar allows them to pick the exact date the ad should go live.
For more information on how to place an ad, go to the Merchant Page.
Hi. I’m the neighbor with the restaurant. Why should I advertise here?
We’re so glad you asked! Here are nine good reasons:
1. You’ve now got a chance to advertise to people who have paid money for the right to view what’s on sale in your neighborhood. These people are determined to get their money’s worth—and are always on the lookout for ways to do that. A more desirable advertising target doesn’t exist online, in print, on television, or anywhere else.
2. NEVER TALK TO A SALESMAN AGAIN! Our merchant dashboard gives you total control over how and when you reach your customers. You never have to submit something before a deadline, get an invoice, or suffer through lead-time. Our system is entirely 100% automated and state-of-the-art. You log on and control everything yourself. Five minutes with this system and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. If reservations look slim for Friday night dinner, post a deal immediately on SaveChicago.org (1/2 price wine, anyone?) and have new customers that same night. After all, people who are within walking distance will be browsing for something fun to do that also happens to be a great deal.
3. Change or edit your sale as many times as you want. If you have an ad running for one week, you can log on again and again and edit it in any way that you choose. In fact, you can completely change it from one product to another as many times as you wish. If today it's a certain entree you have on sale, tomorrow it can be wine, and the next day it can be a bonus on gift card purchases. When you buy one week of advertising, you are free to use that week in any way that you desire. Also, if you want to take the ad down for a day or two during that week, all you have to do is deactivate it and it will be hidden from the public.
4. We equalize the ad power of small businesses to that of the national chains. Your marker is no smaller or less prevalent than that of a national retailer. You can’t be out-bought by larger advertising budgets to reach people in your own neighborhood. It’s a whole new ballgame, thanks to SaveChicago.org.
5. Our members are here to save money, sure, but they’re also interested in changing the world for the better. By using us, their favorite non-profit is making money and they're saving it. The bottom line is that they're loyal. Their loyalty to our site is reason enough to never need to advertise anywhere else.
6. Your ad dollars remain local and sustainable. The money might even end up in the pocket of someone who’ll dine at your restaurant again. With other companies, your advertising money will end up in California and never come back.
7. Half the money you spend for each ad goes back into the community. The non-profits you love (schools, arts organizations, religious institutions, charities) will all benefit because you chose an incredibly effective advertising tool.
8. You spent all that money on a website, so wouldn't it be nice if people actually saw it? The name of the game on the internet is traffic. The only way to generate traffic is to drive it. When you post a sale, the link to your website is right there in the ad so they'll be able to click on over and finally see what your site looks like. The days of bidding on keywords are over. Why try to win at a guessing game with consumers over what keywords they're going to search for? If you don't mind us asking, how's that working out?
9. Would you like to save as much as 90% over other advertising vehicles? We're not only the most effective advertising vehicle out there, we're also one of the most inexpensive. A miniscule 1/24th of a page ad in The Chicago Reader (tm) will cost you $137 (magnifying glass not included).
One week on SaveChicago.org costs you $49. And if you buy in advance you'll receive a discount that can make the price of an ad go down to as little as $11 to $15 per week. If your business has one location -- an entire year of advertising on SaveChicago.org can cost you as little as $799.
A year of advertising for a 1/4 page ad in the paper can cost you close to $40,000. If you want to advertise in the really big Chicago papers, try doubling or tripling that number.
On the homepage, it said that if I refer a business, I’ll make money. Explain.
Yep. Here’s how it works.
How do you pay me?
We’ll send you a check every month or after you earn at least $20.
You’re more than welcome to hustle and earn a lot more than that, of course. Some people will make it a full-time gig. After you earn $600 in a year, we must send you a 1099 tax form to let Uncle Sam know how fruitful our relationship has been.
This is all very cool, but I live in Portland.
The next step in all of this is a national site that's currently gearing up for launch.
As long as non-profits in other cities register with us and then promote memberships, they’ll get the percentage of the pool equal to the percentage of total members they’ve brought. Obviously, local businesses in those cities will have to start advertising for those members to get their money’s worth.
If Portland businesses start bringing their dollars to the table, Portland’s non-profits should be able to bring enough members to pull out their rightful chunk of the money. Local ad dollars will be re-injected into local economies all across the country.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. Where does this all stop? How big of a consumer demographic can you put together? 50 million people? Just how many billions of dollars do you think you can funnel back to non-profit organizations and into local communities?
Those are the questions we’re asking, too.
I really like this idea. This could be big.
In case you haven’t noticed, people in this country are starting to care about the words “local” and “sustainable” again. So far, people mainly associate these concepts with the food they eat. Farmers markets are returning to their former glory as more and more American citizens realize that the best food for their bodies, the local economy, and the environment, is food that doesn’t have to travel around the world to get to their tables.
Well, how about our advertising dollars? Shouldn’t we try to keep that commodity local and sustainable, too? Shouldn’t the money that our local merchants spend to reach us stay in our own community? When a clothing boutique buys a Google ad, not a penny of that ad money stays in Chicago—it’s on its way to California before you can say “point and click.”
SaveChicago.org re-injects the ad dollars from local merchants back into our community via non-profit organizations. Those groups then spend the money pursuing their non-profit missions, which then helps our community on an entirely different level.
Could this be big? Yes, people are getting really excited about this concept—you’re not the only one.
We believe a seismic shift is about to occur in America. People want desperately to support their local communities by keeping their spending close to home. However, a consumer’s sense of charity will only take the local and sustainable movement so far. That movement’s potential is limited as long as it costs more to buy local. SaveChicago.org offers us the chance to buy local because it’s cheaper.
Everyone who uses SaveChicago.org either makes money or saves money. Members, local merchants, and non-profits will keep coming back because of what’s in it for them, not because of what’s in it for someone else.
Hiring?
We’re definitely on the lookout for good people with all kinds of skill-sets. For more information on how to be a part of our rapidly growing company, email
After reading all that, I still want to cancel my membership or my merchant account. How do I do that?
What’s for dinner?
Hm, excuse me while I check for a hyper-local sale.