Find ways for everyone to benifit different businesses, organizations, and individuals often have seemingly unrelated interests and needs.  These constitute unrecognized opportunity and untapped potential.

Here.  Let's walk through a few simple examples together.

Say you're a small business owner.  Your business goes "Cinderella Success".  You start with a tiny table at a local market, and turn it into an impressive franchise.  But times change, competition moves in, and its time to move on.  You develop a new idea, a new product, something unique, something interesting, something along the lines of what we are looking for.  But to reach the fullest potential, your new product has to start off as a new brand, a new business.  Your situation wont allow you to simply stick your new product along side your old product in existing outlets.  You're old product's existing customer base, and traffic pulling power, won’t be able to directly transfer over to your new brand very well.  But you still need to get your product in front of people.  You've already thought about the flea market, maybe you've even considered a little table at your local First Firday event.  What you need is to drive traffic.  Preferably, free traffic.

You don't have to pay for your traffic.  You can get your traffic for free.

How?  You have something else besides money to bring to a table.  Your intangibles.  You're old product's customer base, popularity, and traffic pulling power which wouldn't translate directly over to the new product just needs a way to translate to it indirectly.  And it won't cost you a dime if you bring it to the right people.  As the franchise owner, you have clout.  You have reputation.  People know you, and they know your old brand.  What you can bring to a table, is equity.  Maybe there's a table out there that can get all the free traffic your new brand could eat.  All they need to get it for you, is a little equity.  They're a table full of powerful ideas, but they're having a hard time getting anyone to take them seriously.

What you need is what they have - Traffic.
What they need is what you have - Equity.

Say you're a non-profit  You're non-profit is young, but you've had enough time to grow strong and get it done right.  You work hard to be the best at serving the demographic group you serve.  And you're the best at it!  You love to show it too.  Your ideas are creative, your concepts interesting, your results unexpectedly exceptional.  Your the kind of organization that would use social media to construct a building.  Those are the kinds of ideas we look for.  But you worked very hard to get to where you are.  You know the risks, and too many people depend on you.  You can't put the whole organizational reputation you've built, and all the people you serve, in jeapordy for just one individual.  Nor, can you provide any one case with resources your organization wasn't set up to provide to all.  It doesn't matter how special that person is, or how injust his or her situation.

Now you have a case at your door step.  And it's a tough one.  It's the kind of situation no one really expects to happen.  The kind of story that would make a profesional have a hard time staying neutral.  The facts of the story, as they're presented, have all the audiance moving impact of a scene from a movie.  The kind of story we look for.  You're not set-up to provide the resources they need directly, and no one you can think of will be able, or willing, to do it either.

Let's say this one case need a whole lot of money.  The person in need themselves has several ways for raising the funds, but his ideas require endorsement, and logistical support.  And you can't afford to give it.  You can't put the reputation you've built on the line by backing such controversial approaches should they fail.  The damage to your non-profit's reputation would be too great and although the benifit of success might be great as well, your not in a position to asses the risks.

You don't have to take those risks.  A 3rd party will absorb it for you.

Say, your case just needs someone to support their plan.  You don't want to endorse the idea, but would be more than happy if a third party gave the endorsement and support, while assuming the risk.  Alievating you of any "reputation and equity" issues.  The only thing being asked of you're organization is verification the situation is real, and tell the amazing story about the 3rd party who got involved.  You're not being asked to endorse it, support it, or even claim any involvement.  What you bring to the table, is reputable verification of the facts.  Something you could give at zero risk.  All you are doing is verifying facts, and reporting or not reporting what ever else you feel is true.  If you want, your still more than welcome to claim credit for having provided the standard support you're organization provides which made it possible for this "Angle 3rd party" to get involved when they showed up.  But it's an option, there is no risk.

But Angel 3rd Parties like that are unlikely and hard to find, right?

Maybe it'd be nice if all the businesses out there took an interest and just gave the money to help.  But you know they're not going to do that.  Why would they want to?  What would be in it for them?  Actually, there is a lot in it for them.  Doing amazing things you don't see every day, bring attention to their brand.  And interesting, high impact stories drives traffic and potential customers.  For a business the issue is not having the resources to get involved, the issue is having the right effect when getting involved.  It's no secret businesses do good things, because they expect good in return.  The problem is in the dynamics of public perception.  If a business tries to get involved in providing the assistance a non-profit can't give, their efforts can be hindered by others distrust.  While public sckepticism and doubt, can both hinder their capacity to help, as well as their capacity to enjoy returns for doing so.

What you need is a 3rd party who would gain by taking the risk.
What they need is to verify the story so the public knows it's real.

But what if someone could bring them all together, and find ways for each to benifit from what the others bring to the table.  You have the unusual case with a moving story, which transalates to power to drive traffic and marketing potential.  The case needs endorsement and support.  The small business owner brings endorsement and support, and benifits from opportunity to play a major role and place his brand in front of the traffic driving power and marketing potential drawn by the story.  To actually convert that into revenue they both need verification by a reliable 3rd Party.  The non-profit brings verification by a reliable 3rd Party in exchange for another story of a life it helped change for its social media page, while assuming little risk since actual endorsement, envolvement, responsibility, and hence risk as absorbed by the team of the other two.  Yet, the team really doesn't risk anything.  They aren't held at fault in the public eye if their efforts fail.  The case has everything to gain and nothing to loose.  The small business really doesn't need to care, as they are not normally seen as in the business of helping those in need, they always get credit for trying.