mycause comes full circle with Lighthouse Foundation to raise over $900,000 on 4UPDAY
mycause comes full circle with Lighthouse Foundation to raise over $900,000 on 4UPDAY
On Thursday the 14th of June, mycause.com.au partnered with Lighthouse Foundation to help them raise over $900,00, and Tania Burstin, founder and Managing Director of the crowdfunding platform, sat down to talk with radio personality Adam Samuel and reminisced about the beginnings of mycause and the serendipitous connection to the Lighthouse Foundation charity.
In 2007, Tania wanted to do some volunteer work, so she asked Lighthouse Foundation if she could volunteer for them. Tania came to help coordinate a 24-hour relay endurance run event around Albert Park Lake. At the time, the person in charge of the event was Kane Bowden, who went on to become the CEO of Lighthouse Foundation.
Several volunteers were involved in the logistics of that event, but one of the difficulties that became apparent was how to collect the donations. Many people had expressed interest in donating but had no way, or had to jump through hoops to do it. Tania thought there had to be a better way and researched what was being done overseas when she came across online fundraising, which is now referred to as peer-to-peer fundraising.
Peer-to-peer fundraising involves one person creating an online page and asking people to sponsor them for a challenge, with the money going to a charity and the platform taking care of the receipting and reporting along the way.
Tania took this concept and started building a website to fill the gap in the market.
Tania reflected on the progress mycause.com.au has made. "A lot has changed and evolved in the last ten years since the platform was created," said Tania also saying she raised $86,000 in the first year for various causes.
On June 14, 2018, mycause helped Lighthouse Foundation run a Matched Giving Day and raised over $900,000 in 24 hours.
A Matched Giving Day is a turbocharged day of giving bringing together large donors as matchers to leverage community donors. On 4upday all donations were matched x 4 with 12 generous matchers.
Tania said 4UPDAY Lighthouse Foundation’s Matched Giving Day, “was a really exciting day, it was a fantastic campaign, with volunteers, staff, longtime supporters and new donors coming together with a single goal and focus. we are so grateful to be able to assist such a well-loved and respected charity doing incredibly valuable work in the community for homeless and at-risk young people".
The day involves an outbound phone room, digital media, social media, EDM (email), SMS and billboards. The campaign is “fishing with a net rather than a rod” and finding all the current, new and lapsed supporters of the organisation whichever channel they can be found, increasing the charity’s donor acquisition. “It’s a fantastic new crowdfunding product.”
The mycause platform encompasses multiple product offerings including complex event registration & fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraising, donations tools, and crowdfunding campaigns and appeals, including Matched Giving Days. With regard to the Matched Giving Day Campaign style, Tania says “The proof is in the clear results - the experience from the US is that this style of campaign is a game changer" she said.
Tania concludes that from volunteering with Lighthouse Foundation in 2007 leading to the spark of the idea that became mycause.com.au, to in 2018 now raising almost a million dollars in one day with Lighthouse Foundation she feels she and mycause, have come full circle.
