Everyone involved with good causes wants to make an impact. Crowdrise launched in May of 2010 with the simple goal of making giving fun. We thought we could have the type of impact we wanted by making a site where even if the cause was extremely serious, people raising money for that cause could have fun doing it.
We wanted to create a space that made people get involved because they were self-interested and not just because they thought they had to. And in the short time we have been around, we have found that making donating fun - through things like badges, game mechanics and point systems - actually works.
We want people to feel like they have a charitable life. And then make people want to build their charitable life on Crowdrise in the same way they built their life on Facebook.
The difference between Crowdrise and other fundraising sites is the fun. We don't want this to be a "drop and done" donate site. We look at our site as a donor tool plus social networking. We want people to be obsessed with it like they are with other social media. We want to build loyalty.
The key is peer-to-peer fundraising: Instead of charities asking for support, your Crowdrise team asks their friends and family to help. You get your supporters to become fundraisers, and your supporters get points and other incentives that make them want to keep giving and finding more people to give as well.
A few things you should know about Crowdrise:
- Only US-based 501(c)3 nonprofits are eligible to raise money through Crowdrise.
- There are no start-up fees, but we do deduct 5% on donations and also a transaction fee based on the donation amount.
- To get started, you need to claim your charity at Crowdrise and then create a page.
- You keep all of the fundraising and donor data - the donor's email, what project they donated to, and how much they donated.
- You can publically thank donors on Crowdrise for the whole Crowdrise community to see.
- Crowdrise is a good avenue to the younger demographic.
- You can be a "Featured Charity" for $299 a year and you will be featured on our homepage and your donors will receive double Crowdrise points for every dollar they donate.
To find out everything you need to know about getting started on Crowdrise, check out our Charities Page.
If you would like to listen to the recording from this webinar, you can do so here: http://web.networkforgood.org/nonprofit-911-032911-recording/
If you have any other questions or comments, please join the conversation in our online community: http://www.thenetworkforgood.org/t5/Social-Networking-Engagement/bd-p/Social