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Enhancing digital literacy, online communication and fundraising skills
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding
Trends in the country about the topic
Crowdfunding is getting more popular year by year in Hungary. As there is only one page (adjukössze.hu) for nonprofits in Hungary, they usually use indigogo or adjukössze.hu sites for crowdfunding. Adjukössze.hu is operating since 2013, and there are more and more campaigns every year, and the avarage donation and the total amount of donations are also getting bigger. We can also see that the society is also more open for supporting NGOs through crowdfunding campaigns. Usually smaller NGOs start the fundraising with crowdfunding which is easier for them and they can learn the basics during the campaigns, as well as starting to build social base for the NGO.
Inspirational examples
By van to Pere! Szia Indahouse Hungary
https://adjukossze.hu/kampany/kisbusszal-perere-426
2600 euros was collected in 36 hours, supported by personal posts on Facebook.
„This is how we go to the study hall every Sunday and we have to do it twice to bring every kid from the neighborhood.”
„We got 5 euros from a mom whoes children come to our study hall. This is really honourable and touching, because we know that she needs every forints for living. We are really grateful. With how much money can you join?”
Van esély Alapítvány
https://adjukossze.hu/szervezet/van-esely-alapitvany-5014
The foundation has organised a series of crowdfunding campaigns for 20 individuals, all of them reached to goal successfully. Campaign title was: S/he would go further, lets help him/her! Donors could contribute to specific trainings and supplies, through which the persons supported could gain hope to be employed in a new area.
Would you take a ride?
https://adjukossze.hu/kampany/beszallsz-271
The campaign was built on an offer of a celebrity (the charismatic leader of the major car magazine), where donors could win also an opportunity to take a ride with a special car of the celebrity. Over 5300 EUR was collected in a month.
Resource list
www.adjukossze.hu – crwodfunding platform for NGOs to collect money for causes
www.adjkiraly.hu – crowdfunding platform for social causes, where mainly goods are offered
Statistical data
click on the picture
Case study
Title: By minibus to Pere (Kisbusszal Perére)
Short Description: The goal of the fundraising "Kisbusszal Perére" campaign was to make their volunteer weekends easier to implement and cheaper, making it more sustainable. At the end of 2016, 7-9 volunteers needed to complete a weekend. In addition, the number of children has jumped. In addition to Perei's children, 30 children from surrounding villages came to their programs, which had twice much time and gas by a car to transfer to their programs than by a minibus.
Financial Target: app. 2140 €
Amount Raised: 2225 €
No.1 Learning Outcome:
Organization
Name: Social Innovation Foundation - Indahouse Hungary
Web: https://indahousehungary.wordpress.com/
Focus / mission:
In the SZIA InDaHouse Hungary program, volunteers travel every weekend to Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County and have individualized development sessions for 90 children. The volunteers are going with games to the houses, where the small children live, while the schoolchildren are transported by a minibus between the villages and the study hall. Their goal is to support our children throughout their school career.
Campaign description
“We first contacted the our donor with whom we met in our first crowdfunding campaign in the winter of 2014, because he donated a bigger amount then and we remembered that he was dealing with cars. We wrote to him by email how much the program had developed in the past two years and what kind of processes led to the need of the minibus. Even though he was no longer dealing with cars, he wrote a very kind and encouraging letter to us and then he felt so much his own that he gave a huge amount of money for the purpose and also motivated his environment. So came 900,000 forints. On the advice of the donor we were targeting HUF 1,600,000. He had spent a lot of time searching the ads and sending the vehicles via e-mail.
That was the time for our volunteer team. It was clear that we are launching our crowdfundig campaign on the adjukössze.hu site, which was our fourth such action. To do this, we shot a humorous video in which we used our own hand-drawn tools, because we thought we'd better grasp people's attention. We've created a workgroup with our own mailing list in order to have more intimate contact with each other during the campaign and to think about how we can advance our campaign every day. We met a fundraiser who helped us pro bono, whose proposal was to launch on 30-day campaign. We've also received useful help from the team of adjukössze.hu for this campaign, for example, they voted in the office to find out which photo would be the best for our campaign.
On March 7, 2017, our campaign was launched. We posted this on the Facebook, and we asked our volunteers to share them. A sensitive journalist from one of the biggest site in Hungary - outside of our knowledge - wrote about us, which helped a lot. The campaign lasted for just over 24 hours. We were very surprised by this fast success, we collected 779,436 forints basically in a moment.”
Target group
The target groups of the campaign was the previously supporting people via e-mail, the Facebook followers and personal friends of the volunteers.
Campaign goals (financial and non-financial)
The financial goal was to raise app. 2140 € for a small bus, which could help them to focus and spend more time on the professional work of the organization.
Campaign outcomes (financial and non-financial)
With the campaign they could raise 2225 € in 2 days, which is an amazing success in Hungary, especially because the organization target group are disadvantaged kids and families in small villages in North-Hungary which is a really poor area of the country.
In March 2017, they could buy the Ford Transit, which has become an indispensable partner. Volunteers travel to the kids every weekend, and since they're in a car for 2.5 hours, they can prepare the weekend, and then home on the mobile internet they can all write the necessary study diaries and reports on the weekend.
The number of children has since increased, and now they have 45 students in their study hall, who are transported by timetables between villages. In addition, the volunteers work in 4 villages in the homes of families with forty children under the age of 6, and they are also delivered by the minibus. A volunteer's weekend is exposed by driving of the minibus.
It is also cheaper than it was before, because we had to drive several cars or go by train.
They've done 30,000 kilometers since March 2017 to help volunteers at the Ördögkatlan Festival (they delivered the stopovers between the villages with our air-conditioned minibus while we introduced the program to them).
Milestones, turning points, key decisions
The leader of the organization posted personal messages on her own Facebook page which helped to connect with her personal friends and convince them to donate money for a good cause.
„This is how we go to the study hall every Sunday and we have to do it twice to bring every kid from the neighborhood.”
„We got 5 euros from a mom whose children come to our study hall. This is really honourable and touching, because we know that she needs every forints for living. We are really grateful. With how much money can you join?”
Poland
Trends in the country about the topic
Until 2014 the crowdfunding used to be not-regulated by the Polish law – the term “crowdfunding” was not recognized by the Polish law. Thus, few years ago people were not sure how to use it in a proper way, for example: how to calculate taxes. Sometimes they used to apply some regulations stated in the law concerning public collection of money (what required some special permission given by the Ministry of Finance), and sometimes – some regulations concerning pre-ordered selling.
Now, from 2014 all the online collections of money are excluded from the regulations stated in the law concerning public collection of money. Thus, fundraising through crowdfunding do not require any special permissions, because all the cash flow is transparent thanks to the online payment systems.
The promotional “boom” in crowdfunding was in 2013-2014, when CF was promoted as an easy way to collect money for creative ideas. Since that time there were many CF platforms launched – also those dedicated to NGOs and charity projects. Not every of them have stood the test of time, because it rapidly appeared that it takes lots of time to moderate such platform – especially in the country, where the idea of CF is quite new and not many people know how to make use of it.
Besides, lack of education in the field of CF (lack of knowledge on, for example, the preparation of good story and good promotional materials) is still a huge challenge in the CF market in Poland. Now, CF is promoted among NGOs as a good marketing tool, but only if your idea can be crowdfunded – if it fits to the idea of CF. And that you have to have a crowd to make it happen. That it won’t be successful if you just publish your collection on a popular platform – it is only a tool and it’s completely up to you how you are going to make use of it. Not every project can be provided with professional support – it is not a common service provided by CF platforms. Project can receive marketing support only, if it has the potential to be successful.
We can say that Polish CF is still not perfect. There are some successes, but if we want to compere the scale with CF in Western Europe, the Polish CF seems to be poor. And it is not only the matter of financial engagement – rather the mentality and the attitude of project organizers and donors. In many cases it is treated as an online collection of money (so: donating money without wanting any king of reward, without thinking that we do it, because we want to do something together).
What are important local crowdfunding platforms?
PolakPortafi.pl - One of the 1st CF platforms launched in Poland in 2011 roku. Different project cathegories can be created on this platform. There are no fees until your project reaches its financial goal. Last year they have launched also a platform dedicated to charity and non-profit campaigns: PolakPomaga.pl.
Wspieram.to - One of the most popular CF platforms in Poland. Launched in 2013. It offers also paid services (e.g. marketing suport).
Wplacam.ngo.pl – the newest platform dedicated to Polish NGOs, run by the biggest third sector’s information portal NGO.pl.
WspieramKulture.pl - Launched in 2012 by a foundation called EGER, aimed at raising money for cultural campaigns. Besides the typical donors, there are also donors called „patrons”, who support the campaigns with as ambassadors.
Patronite - Like Patreon – a plat. form that anabled donors to suport artisits on a monthly basis: you pay monthly fee to, for example, get the access to some special offers.
Fundujesz.pl - Invented in 2013 during the Tech Camp conference that was held in Warsaw. A group of people decided to launch a CF platform dedicated to NGOs, because in their opinions – other CF platforms were too complicated for NGOs. It was called Fundujesz.pl and my foundation was also engaged in the promotion of this platform among our local networks.
SiePomaga.pl - On this platform an individual can create a campaign with to raise money for some social cause and an NGO. For example, when you organize a birthday party you can start a campaign and ask people to donate instead of giving you a gift and then you pass all the money raised to an NGO.
Pomagamy.im - Created by Wspieram.to. Only fundraising projects. You get as you earn.
Zrzutka.pl - There are mostly charity projects, for example: raising money for the ill people.
Pomagam.pl - There is no time limit in the campaign.
Are there crowdfunding associations? Have they created any code of conducts?
There is for example Polskie Towarzystwo Crowdfudingu: http://crowdfunding.pl/
On their website they provide some basic information about CF (http://crowdfunding.pl/crowdfunding-faq/), some tips for organizers, some articles with comments (e.g. for NGOs: http://crowdfunding.pl/category/ngo/). But their website is updated not very regular.
Is there crowdfunding training? Who organizes this training?
Yes. Workshops & trainings dedicated to CF are conducted via, for example, Polish Crowdfunding Association, TechSoup Poland.
What are the fees?
Some of the platforms dedicated to NGOs are free of charge: you can start your project for free, but there are some fees – smaller than on other platforms, but still.
PolakPortafi.pl – on of the 1st CF platforms in Poland, in 2016 launched PolakPomaga.pl – reward-based crowdfunding platform dedicated to charity projects. The platform is owned by the ‘Polak Pomaga’ Foundation. 3.9% of the collected sum is donated to the Foundation’s statutory objectives and the platform’s operational costs.
Wspieram.to, another large Polish CF platform launched Pomagamy.im – donation-based crowdfunding platform dedicated to charity projects. Fees: 2.5% - online payment system, 3,5% - platform.
Inspirational examples
Dobrze Food Cooperative – case study to download.
HospiCare crowdfunding campaign – case study to download.
Resource list
http://wiadomosci.ngo.pl/wiadomosc/2117085.html
https://wethecrowd.pl/przewodnik-platformy-crowdfunding/
Statistical data
http://crowdfunding.pl/2017/09/29/wiemy-jak-zrzucaja-sie-polacy/
Case study
Q&A
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What to do, if my organisation wants to start a crowdfunding campaign?
First of all, try to set up a plan for your campaign: think about the goal (it needs to be clear), the message you want to send and the channels you want to use.
Then, set up your platform. You can create the crowdfunding site yourself (e.g. on your organization’s website, using the online payment systems), but you can also use one of the crowdfunding platforms. The site should provide supporters with all the necessary information about the campaign, as well as let them keep track of overall progress.
Finally, coach your fundraisers – teach them how to become your organization’s advocates, how to attract their peers and how to do their best to reach the common goal.
Hungary
