An academic and mentor once described my writing as 'flowery', so I share your pain when at times like these, one is trying to put something across in writing. In this case, it is also my thoughts that are flowery or fuzzy. I am still unclear as to whether the donations come out of thin air (from author rewards on the poem) or they are transferred from a participants wallet - I was referring to wallet transfers. (nominal amount maybe 0.1 SBD for example).
On the secret vote - my de-flowered suggestion - Poetsunited members can nominate charities beforehand to be placed on that list of potential charities standing in line to win the pool. They can be vetted as all right then added to the list. Contest winners are asked to select in order of priority, 3 of the charities they wish to have the pool donated to. The most popular one is selected to receive the takings for the contest round.
In our custom, when one makes a donation to charity, one's identity is kept secret. Now that I think about it, it wouldn't have to be as large a priority to keep it secret, as it is from a pool where everyone contributes equally. It would still be interesting to have 3 winners select by some means the charity, as it may encourage communities to work up a frenzy of participants so they can increase the chances.
If I can add one more thing as there haven't been many participants yet: maybe a lot of people don't do contests because they have the idea that the competition is too rough (I certainly feel this way!). How about this contest being completely different; the focus being on just taking part. Something like a fun run as opposed to a marathon? No strict rules; submit as many entries as you want too. Perhaps the theme can be silly as well and the selection of winning submissions based on how silly or how much in line the submission is with the theme directive.
RE: IMPORTANT FEEDBACK REQUEST - PoetsUnited Charitable Contest