Category Archives: Fundraising
New Irish crowd funding platform is offering €1,000 for innovative fundraising
Community groups and projects across Ireland could get a kick start to their fundraising efforts by signing up for a new free Irish crowd funding platform called PledgUp.com.
The company, which is based in Longford, is offering €1,000 of funding to community groups or projects that sign up for the service with the most innovative fundraising ideas.
PledgUp.com is a free service that helps community groups to get online donations for their projects. Once a group sets up profile on the website they receive a link to a personalised fundraising page that they can email to their contacts or post on social media sites asking for donations. The service allows groups to ask for straight forward donations or to look for financial sponsorship of events they are organising. The groups can also get all their members involved by inviting them to join. Once they do they also receive a personalised page and the amount raised by each person is shown to the entire group.
Commenting cofounder Eoin Kennedy, PledgUp.com said “Smaller community groups have excellent networks and contacts in Ireland and abroad. Where they fall down is with technology skills. We have designed our platform to make it really simple and free for groups to create an online sponsorship page and to process online donations without the need for technical skills. We are receiving lots of interest from community groups trying to fundraise for a variety of things from new playgrounds, memorials right the way through to sports clubs looking for online donations for events like Strictly Come Dancing and Duathlons.”
Once people click on the links they are brought to a personalised page where they get details of the fundraiser and can donate online.
Speaking about the competition Mr Kennedy added “Every community in Ireland has some project that are trying to raise funds for. By signing up before the end of February they will be entered into a competition for a €1,000 donation pool. We are looking for the best fundraising causes and ideas. In addition to the competition they will also be able to use their personalised fundraising pages to immediately reach out to possible donors anywhere in the world.”
Details of the competition winners will be posted on www.PledgUp.com/blog. Three prizes will be awarded – €500 for 1st place, €300 for 2nd place and €200 for third. The competition runs until February 28th 2013.
About PledgUp.com
PledgUp.com is a start up based in Longford and was established by Eoin Kennedy and John Rowan. The company is part of Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start programme and aims to make online fundraising accessible to all worthy causes.
Raise funds for SVP with a simple tweet
Today, Friday 7th December, Sage is asking you to help raise money and awareness for their chosen charity, St. Vincent de Paul, by sending the below tweet from your own twitter account:
For everyone that tweets using the hashtag #SageXmasGiving Sage will donate €1 to St. Vincent de Paul @SVP_Ireland.
For those that would like to create their own tweet, it will still count as long as they use the hashtag #SageXmasGiving.
At the end of the day Sage will count up all of the tweets that were sent and for every person that tweets using #SageXmasGiving they will donate €1 to St. Vincent de Paul (www.svp.ie) up to a limit of €1,000.
#SageXmasGiving
Nominations now open for Irish Fundraising Awards 2012
The Irish Fundraising awards provide an opportunity for the Irish non-profit sector to recognise and celebrate fundraising excellence. You can celebrate your own successes, or those of your peers by nominating your organisation, or your colleagues for an Irish Fundraising Award.
The deadline for nominations is Friday 25th May 2012.
Tweet For A Cause: How To Fundraise with Twitter
PayPal meets Twitter with Chirpify, Twitter’s commerce platform.
Designed for small businesses and musicians to sell their products, Chirpify also has good potential for non profits to raise funds. Here’s how it works:
- Tweet a request for donations via Chirpify.com.
- Followers reply to your Tweet or Retweets with the word “donate.”
- Donors and your organization receive receipts via email and DM (direct message)
The main advantages I can see to using this service for fundraising are its speed and ease of use (Twitter users can donate to your organization, cause or campaign with one simple “@” reply); your ability to schedule tweets at different times of day using a platform like Hootsuite or Buffer (do advance research into best times to tweet) and the social aspect of Twitter (users more likely to retweet your call for donations, and/or that they donated to your cause).
Twitter users are often on-the-go, accessing their account from mobile devices. You can see the advantage of being able to act on your fundraising request, with one simple click, without having to leave the Twitter app and go through a multiple step sign-up process. As an added advantage, they will receive an instant DM to acknowledge their donation.
Immediate and secure payment
Chirpify transforms your Tweets into transactions. When someone donates to you on Twitter, Chirpify automatically triggers a PayPal transaction between your account and the donors. Your donation appears in your account immediately.
As Chirpify is integrated with the PayPal platform, you have the guarantee of PayPal protection and a process for resolving payment problems.
How much does it cost?
For fundraising accounts there is a flat 4% commission fee which also gives you unlimited tweets and your own fundraising page.
Full details at http://chirpify.com
Are you working in fundraising in Ireland?
Here’s a great opportunity for fundraisers working for non profit organisations in Ireland to obtain a bursary to attend the National Fundraising Conference taking place next month in Dublin.
Five bursary places will be sponsored by the fundraising and direct marketing agency Ask Direct.
To be eligible for a bursary you must be working in a paid fundraising position for an organisation with a total annual income of less than €100,000.
Ireland’s National Fundraising Conference March 2012
I have just booked my place at The National Fundraising Conference which has as its theme this year Fostering Fundraising Excellence.
There is a great line-up of speakers and I am particularly looking forward to the masterclass on digital fundraising by Beate Sørum. This masterclass will focus on how to build and nurture a digital community, and will also take a look into the latest digital trends and what fundraisers should expect and prepare for in the future.
Full details of the conference venue, agenda and registration here
How to create the best donor experience for your non-profit
Source: Sumac
Nice infographic from Sumac on the cycle of donation and how important it is to acknowledge each and every donation and update donors at timely intervals on how their donations were used.
(1) The Donation
Because you have presented such a good case for support, the donor is convinced that this is a cause worth supporting and decides to donate. The donor writes out a cheque and is filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling thinking about how many people this new, larger facility will help.
(2) The Thank You
The donor receives a thank you letter in the mail from your organization that expresses sincere appreciation for his generous contribution and reaffirms that his donation will go directly to build this new facility. The donor is feeling really good about his decision to give and is excited to hear news about the progress.
The Update
A month later, the donor receives your newsletter with a headline story about how the project is coming along. “Thank you to all the generous supporters…. we have now raised the necessary funds to build the new facility!”
Months down the road there is another update in the newsletter that shows the building being built with another “thanks” to all those who contributed!
A year later, the donor reads another update in your newsletter about how this new storage facility is helping your organization provide food to so many more needy people.
Repeat
So that’s it – one cycle of the perfect donor experience. This is what you should be aiming to deliver with each and every one of your donors each and every time they donate. It’s pretty straight-forward, but not always easy to achieve when you’re dealing with hundreds, even thousands of donors. With the right database, however, it’s entirely possible to plan and schedule everything just right: to run strategic campaigns, to thank donors on time, to deliver planned updates.
Crowd Funding in Ireland
Thanks to Ken McGuire for alerting me to the existence of Fund it - a new all-island crowdfunding website for Ireland’s creative projects.
It is funded under the New Stream programme, supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, The Arthur Guinness Fund and via the support of a technology grant from the Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht.
It is an initiative of Business to Arts is a not-for-profit organisation working to support resilience and transformation in the cultural sector through research, innovation and partnership.
You can watch the video above to find out more or visit the website at fund.ie
How to kick start your online fundraising in 2012
- Send new donors a special welcome message.
- Thank your donors multiple ways – by email, phone and handwritten letters.
- Review and optimize your traffic. How are donors finding your organization online when you look at your Google Analytics?
- Tell good stories that appeal to your donors emotions.
Have you any other online fundraising tips to share?
