The UK Government is to set up a new Centre for Excellence to develop more social impact bonds. The announcement appears in this article, but I can’t find the report that is the source…
Online fundraising grows at Razoo
A gaming industry article featured Lesley Manford, the CEO of Razoo this week. Razoo is an online fundraiser that’s had success out of giving contests.
The biggest misconception that most small charitable organizations have, says Mansford, is that online fundraising is difficult and costly. Razoo does take a fee, but at 2.9% of each transaction, it’s lower than competitors such as Crowdrise which charges 5% or FirstGiving which takes a 7.5% cut.
Some people will argue that the philanthropy pool in Australia is a finite size and that increased donations in one area or for a new programs or models like Social Impact Bonds will reduce the flow of donations to other areas. I’m don’t know if this assumption has ever been tested, but perhaps online fundraising or crowdfunding reaches out to a different donor in a different way, creating a new ‘market’?
Is there anything we can learn from co-ops and mutuals about rewarding crowdfunders with some form of equity?
Who Gives A Crap on indiegogo
Who Gives A Crap is a brilliant social enterprise. Three young guys have used crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo to successfully launch their toilet paper business and raise money to build toilets in developing nations.
A good example of a new business reducing risk to their initial investors through crowdfunding. They’d have a lot to prove if they were asking for millions of dollars, but for fifty bucks, a funny, believable video and a box of toilet paper will do.
It goes like this. If they raise more than $50,000 (which they’ve done in just over 50 hours) they’ll do a production run of their toilet paper and send packs to those who bought them on the site. They’ll donate half their profits to WaterAid to build toilets where there are none. If they raise over $100,000 they’ll go into business and stock the line in stores.
Why has it worked?
The guys have developed their own eco-friendly and attractively packaged toilet paper and a whole heap of hilarious toilet jokes. They’ve set up their indiegogo site with a really funny, effective, high-quality video about their project and have set a good range of options for giving/buying.
They’re selling a product we all value, and we’re all enjoying the way they’re selling it to us and that we’re making a social contribution at the same time!
What’s indiegogo?
Indiegogo began in 2008 as a crowdfunding platform for independent film makers. Each project sets a target amount to raise and contributes 4% to Indiegogo if they meet their target. Tax incentives are only available to US customers through Paypal. Projects on the site also include registered charities, people looking to fund their mother’s holiday, their child’s college tuition, medical expenses or small business.
One week left to comment on draft ACNC Bill
One week left to comment on draft ACNC Bill
The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, has invited written submissions on the Exposure Draft for the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Bill. Submissions close Friday 20 July 2012. The ACNC’s frequently asked questions contain most of the relevant information. The Committee webpage has information on making a submission. And the Commonwealth Treasury site lists the public consultations that have fed into this Bill.
This Bill will affect which information charities report, who they report it to and how it’s made available to the public. It’s been prepared by the Commonwealth Treasury, so feedback from the sector and stakeholders (including state governments) is essential. This isn’t an easy task, because Australia hasn’t had a national charity regulator before.
The consultations seem to have focused on setting out the purpose and function of the regulator and how much work charities will have to do to comply with the new systems. Less discussion has taken place on the long-term implications for charities and their funders – particularly regarding the use of data to rate or rank charities and the pressures this may place on charities or funders to behave differently. For example, classifying large reserves as low risk in constructing a risk measure encourages charities to stockpile reserves, which may reduce their cash flow for running the programs that benefit the community. Government funders may be required to compare the efficiency of the programs or organisations they fund with the wider sector as more information becomes available.
Social impact event calendar
The new Social Impact Analysts Association, a professional body based in London, has a great calendar of upcoming international events on their website. My pick is their annual conference in Berlin, November 2012!
Invest with love!
I heard DH Park from IWL partners, Korea, speak at the IIX/Shujog Impact Forum 2012 in Singapore about how he wanted to change the attitude of banks. With a Government that hadn’t issued a licence for a new bank in over 20 years, IWL bought 100% of the shares in W Savings Bank and began to deliver their philosophy “bank with love”. One of his initiatives was the Pinocchio loan – a loan to employed people with low credit rating. The interest rate for the loan is high, around 45%. The rate reduces if repayments are early and increases if they are late. This was partly in response to the rate of suicide in South Korea which has doubled in the last 10 years, with a third of suicides related to financial difficulty.
WikiVOIS
Love this platform by SROI Network. I’m thinking about the optimum level of indicators, linking aggregate indicators with component indicators, linking fields within it, using WikiVOIS to benchmark across jurisdictions and currencies…
Better Evidence Network article published in Public Administration Today
Claudine Lyons and I have published an article, Building a case for better evidence in the Institute of Public Administration Australia’s Public Administration Today (vol 31, July 2012). Hoping for a digital copy soon, but here’s the PDF till then.
The article tell the story of the problem of being unable to find technical expertise in the silos of Government, and how I established an informal network of experts across the sector in response.
Emma Tomkinson 