We've had a lot of discussions -- for example, http://lesswrong.com/lw/7z1/antiakrasia_tool_like_stickkcom_... -- about the charity question. We do hope to offer that at some point but we're not considering it a core feature just yet.

Here's something from our FAQ about this:

Q: You make money from people failing at their goals?

A: Yes, but we make you fail less! We force you to toe the line at least for a while so that when/if you do fall off your yellow brick road then the motivation it provided up until that point still seems worth it. Everything we've worked on in building Beeminder has been with the objective of making people succeed and we'd have to be very myopic for it to be otherwise.

It's very important to us that no one ever lose on a technicality. We want to make money by making you more awesome, and we're convinced that's what's happening. But don't take our word for it. Try it and see. The first attempt is free: http://beeminder.com/money