Dearelder.com
This post has been updated quite a bit, thanks to additional information provided by David Bateman. Although I doubt that he, or DealElder.com, would endorse my conclusions. Read the whole thing.
Near the top of my list of yucky dishonest (after trading emails with David I don’t think that DearElder is “dishonest”, although I question the way that they raise donations) Utah businesses is the esteemed missionary mail service Dearelder.com
A quick primer for those not familiar with Mormon missionary work: when a young man or woman becomes a missionary they go to a Missionary Training Center (MTC) to learn all about missionary work (albeit unpaid work). While studying in the MTC they do not have access to email. So, the only form of communication is by postal mail, or, through a service such as Dearelder.com, which receives and delivers email via more traditional means to the MTC.
So…a couple years ago I used Dearelder.com to write a sibling who was in the MTC. After sending the email off from their site I was greeted by a screen which asked me for a donation. Being grateful for the free service I donated something like $5 or $10.
Ha. Little did I know that I was donating not only to ensure the survival of a free mail system for missionaries, but I was funding David Bateman’s other startup company, Property Solutions International. [see below for explanation] Much to my surprise I read several months later that Bateman and his company Property Solutions International had won a college entrepreneurial contest.
The victory continues a magical trend of financing for Property Solutions, which produces Web-based software called VantageXP for apartment complex management. The idea also won the $50,000 grand prize in BYU’s business-plan competition in April. Bateman then launched the company with $160,000 in seed money he rolled over from his profits earned by DearElder.com, a Web-based LDS missionary-correspondence business he started with Zimmer.
Magical trend indeed.
According to a BYU Newsnet article from 2002, they didn’t even plan on making money off of Dearelder.com:
Zimmer and Bateman don’t plan on making money from DearElder.com. Their purpose was to gain experience in business operations while offering a useful service.
Marketing has proved to be a bit difficult. The budget is small and the service is free. Advertising is the only source of income, Zimmer said.
And yet the magical trend continues to this day. If you send a letter using Dearelder.com you get this little plea:
DearElder.com is funded entirely by Donations and Sponsors.
Would you like to make a donation to help DearElder.com continue to provide this service? You can make a fast, secure and encrypted credit card donation. You may also send us a donation through the mail.
Heh.
Maybe David Bateman is starting another company and needs cash from willing, ignorant, and easily duped Mormons?
Who knows.
UPDATE: This story has been Pulsed!
UPDATE II: provojoe over at ProvoPulse is following up with DearElder…so far he’s just gotten the duck and weave from the webmaster…
UPDATE III: The ProvoPulse article is down, due to an email received from David Bateman. However, I am standing by the original premise of the article: that donations to DearElder ended up helping the funding of Property Solutions. In the mean time, we are waiting for further clarification from David on specifics.
Explanation: Here is part of an email that I sent David Bateman which explains how I feel that donations inevitably helped provide the capital for Property Solutions. I began by responding to the contention that DearElder never presented itself as a non-profit organization:
I would agree that you do not explicitly claim to be a 501(c)3 or similar organization. But the way that DearElder asks for donations leaves a strong impression to the contrary. Examining the Internet Archive Wayback Machine it is apparent that you have used the following language to raise funds previously:“We are currently using an HP 695C for our printing and it cannot handle the amount of letters we are receiving. Any money donated will help us with the purchase a new printer.”
“www.DearElder.com would not be possible without contributions.
100% of all donations will help fund this website!”Hence, it is perfectly understandable that you have comments on your site from users referring to DearElder as a “cause”, not a “business”:
“I hope to be able to afford to donate to help the cause soon.”
“It was a pleasure to be able to contribute financially to your great
cause, and I was glad to hear that you were able to get your machine!”I even remember receiving an email which was asking for donations to cover the cost of the machine that prints/folds/envelopes the letters.
…
Nevertheless, it still appears to me that DearElder was funded through the use of donations (bought a new printer, bought a machine to print/fold/envelope, offered a free service that attracted visitors to your site, etc). On the DearElder donation page in October 2001 it said “www.DearElder.com would not be possible without contributions”.
And from what you’ve explained it was from exploitation of DearElder (selling care packages to current visitors, etc) that you provided the seed money for Property Solutions. Hence, if it were not for DearElder, you would not have been able to provide the $160-200K for Property Solutions. And if it were not for donations, DearElder wouldn’t have been possible (according to the web site).
Am I going wrong here?
Thanks much for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you so that this can be cleared up to both your satisfaction and mine.
David was kind enough to explain the following:
When we started, we didn’t have any revenue generating initiatives and donations did help pay for some make shift equipment that was used to send letters at no cost to missionaries. We have never used that equipment to send letters that DearElder.com has ever generated any profit from. We have never made a dime off the free letters we have sent. Long before we started selling care packages, we replaced the used equipment that was purchased with money from donations with equipment purchased by me personally.
The printers and other equipment we use now were funded by proceeds from care package sales, even though they are used to promote free services to family and friends of missionaries.
It is heartening to hear that the infrastructure of DearElder is entirely funded by the revenues of the business rather than donations, which I think is what David is saying.
Still, I am not sure why DearElder continues to ask for donations. On their web site it states:
DearElder provides a way for families and friends to keep in close contact with the missionaries they love for free. These services are made possible by your generous donations.
DearElder also sponsors non-profit organizations, and provides a free way for parents of Latin Missionaries in Central and South America to write their missionaries.
100% of all donations will help fund these programs!
From what David has told me it seems that DearElder does a lot of good work, especially in Latin America, a place that I love (and will hopefully travel back to soon :)).
But perhaps an analogy will explain my position…
Let’s imagine that after hearing about how difficult it is for the troops in Iraq to get postal mail, I set up a web site where friends and family members can email them for free. At first the traffic to the site is slow, but eventually it picks up and exceeds my wildest expectations. I pay for this free service by asking for donations from people who send the letters.
As time goes on I realize that can make money by offering to send “care packages” to the troops in Iraq for a small fee. I also start capitalizing on the tremendous traffic to my web site by selling banner ads on the site.
Drawn to the site by the ability to send free letters to their loved ones, many visitors decide to send care packages, click on banner ads, etc. As time progresses the site becomes incredibly profitable.
At some point I personally believe that I should stop asking for donations to fund the “free letter” feature. In essence, this is what drew people to the site to start with: the promise to send free letters. I wouldn’t feel good if I kept asking people to donate in order to perpetuate what essentially had become a marketing tool.
Hopefully the parallel to DearElder.com is obvious.
I just personally don’t believe that having donations fund a marketing tool that is driving a business, which in turn is funding funded another business, is a very good idea. In fact, I think it is yucky.
10 Responses to “Dearelder.com”
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[…] emails with David I don’t think that DearElder is “dishonest”, although I question the way that they raise donations) Utah businesses is the esteemed mis […]
One thing is certain. Having talked to David Bateman personallY, he is a Jerk. I don’t think anyone who has dealt with him would argue that point.
I found your comments very interesting. I really appreciated using the “free” service provided by DearElder.com to deliver letters to my missionary son. I did feel guilty not contributing each time I wrote a letter to my son at the MTC through this service, but now that my son has left the MTC and in Mexico, I signed up for the “pouch-plus” program offered by this website. I did have one concern, however in my experience: My son had received some letters from the parents of another Elder Smith who was not him. Unfortunately the other parents’ letters were included on the back side of letters from me. In one of these other letters, a father wrote to his son (also named Elder Smith) about the young man’s mother going through serious cancer treatment. My son had told me he had received some wrong letters addressed to him from “DearElder.com”, but it wasn’t until I received all his letters back in a big package he mailed to us prior to leaving for Mexico, that I read some of those other letters. I felt bad for the other Elder Smith who did not receive the loving letters from both his Mother and Father, and the letter that explained his Mother’s personal trial of going through chemotherapy. I think a good lesson is if you want privacy, and to be more certain the letter isn’t attached to another missionary’s letter by the same name, a letter should be sent out by regular mail. Of course the MTC mail postal clerks can make mistakes too, but these letters from the parents of the other Elder Smith were included in the same envelope with my son’s letters. Sorry it took so many words to explain the problem.
There is nothing wrong with someone trying to take a service such as this one and making a seperate entity out of it to make a living. To be honest with you if I would have thought of this idea I would have charged everyone a small fee for each letter. So for this company to give free all the letters and just ask for a donation is very generous. You should be saying thank you and not finding fault.
It is very important that dearelder.com does do what it says it will do. Mistakes in delivery to people of the same name must be avoided, and a code should be allocated to each elder so that this does not happen.
Suppose an elder received the wrong letter saying his parents had been involved in a serious car accident?
This would be totally unacceptable. A proper con- tingency plan shoulod be in place in the event of an avalance of mail, such as Christmas. Carol Smart
hola elder manjares ojala este bien …y termine su mision con exito
Crybabies go get a life. Someone who comes up with a great idea like dearelder.com deserves to make a decent living. More power to them.
As to the other criticism, families shouldnt be sending bad news out to their missionaries out in the field. If they need to come home then contact the mission office or stake pres. Dont burden the missionary with something that they can do little about. If you need a blessing, go to your hometeacher, not your out of state missionary.
Use your brain!
Agreed, as long as they don’t do it under the auspices that they are some sort of charitable organization…not a profit driven business.
Sounds like a bit (or alot) of jealousy at play here. I’ve used and love the service, and cannot perceive any hint of dishonesty on the part of dearelder.com. As we approach the top of the prosperity cycle, increasingly we’ll see those who rather than being productive themselves attempt to tear down those who are indeed being productive. Keep up the good work David Bateman.
Not at all.
Me too. In fact, I donated at least once to the service back when I was using it to write to siblings in the mission field.
My only point was that the line they drew, or didn’t draw, between “charity” and business was way too blurry.
I haven’t visited the site in ages, but you used to be able to read quotes from folks who donated and you would see things like, “So glad I could help the cause!” Heh. They didn’t realize that there was a business behind this “cause”.
To me that is fundamentally different, for example, than McDonald’s having coin collection bins for the Ronald McDonald House. There is a clear separation between business and non-profit in McDonald’s case.
I certainly wouldn’t categorize myself as “unproductive” (how or why you would is, well, kind of odd).
But you’re absolutely right in general terms. The trend to punish the productive elements in the economy is especially obvious in the rhetoric of some presidential campaigns (”shared sacrifice, shared prosperity”, etc).