Planetvista- Supporting Artists & Charities

My name is Oliver Kluwe and I founded Planetvista just one week ago. As a photographer I hugely enjoy taking part in contests and display my work to others. My other main interest is the environment. I started studying environmental sciences at the Open University.

Bringing together photography and doing something for the environment at the same time was my dream for a long time. That's why I launched http://www.planetvista.org

For a start I have ten different contests on the website. They are for these charities:

Cat Protection, Horse Trust, Rainbow Trust for Children, Robin Wood, Save Japan Dolphins, Survival International, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Trees for Cities, Water Aid and the Woodland Trust. I plan to add more contests every month.

Photographers can submit their photos to the contest for a small fee (£2 each or in bulk at a discount). 1/3 of this money raises the prize money for the winner of the contest, 1/3 goes to the charity of the particular contest and 1/3 goes to my company.

Every photo also gets its own little shop (Example: https://www.getonic.com/Popshop/211582/7535) where people can share on the social media or buy a download of the photo. The price of £4.99 is split as mentioned above.

Last not least I am looking for businesses/sponsors to support specific contests and/or specific artists. The money is again split as mentioned above. A renowned ethical advertising agency has already signaled their strong interest in working with me and we are signing a cooperation contract soon.

The charities are supporting my cause and are looking forward to get their donations at the end of the contests.

I need your help

The hardest thing about launching an online business is always to get known. A mix of good contacts within the social media and targeted advertising is essential. I have done my homework with the social media, have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Planetvista ), run two groups on facebook and one community on Google+. I also have a Twitter- and Pinterest account. My "followers" sum up to about a 1,000 people.

To set up the business I have invested heavily into computer hardware and software to have the technical abilities to run a modern business.

What I need help with is the advertising and the running costs for the business to overcome the first critical months until I get known on a wide basis and to build incentives for photographers to join the projects (start-up prize money).

This includes online advertising, advertising in newspapers & magazines as well as printing brochures. The running costs include several subscriptions like Adobe Creative Cloud.

The Impact

Your contribution, no matter how small, will help this good cause get on its way. It will help artists to earn some money as it is very hard to sell your art in our times. It supports a much needed creativity and can help to ensure that we will continue to be able to see these wonderful pieces of art in the future.

The biggest part of my project is supporting charities. My website can help raising the awareness of the problems that the various charities are tackling. People don't do a plain donation. They might help the charity by buying a download of a photo which will always remind them of the cause of the charity. And if they don't have the money to spend they might just share the work on their social network to raise awareness.

This way the whole project goes viral and we can reach lots and lots of people and really make a big change.

With your contribution you will help putting the project on a solid financial basis and help us supporting artists and charities. It's a win-win-win situation for all of us.

I invite every contributor to submit a free photo to take part in one of the contests. Just get in touch with me if you would like to take part.

Other Ways You Can Help

I know that we are living in hard times and money is tight. If you just can't contribute any money you can also support us by visiting the website, go to the contests and just vote for your favourite photos and share them on your social network to let people see what we are doing.

I thank you very much for your support in my name, in the name of the participating artists and in the name of the various charities. Thank you.