Can you tell us a bit more about GlobalGiving UK?
GlobalGiving UK is a digital charity that tries to do good things for others online. We believe every individual has the ability to make positive change happen in the world. We create easy opportunities to translate abilities into simple, positive actions – such as giving money, time or skills – through our website. Our website is really an online marketplace for ideas, information and money (we were the original crowdfunding platform).
A critical part of our philosophy is that local solutions to global problems are best; they are proven to be more sensitive, long lasting and cost effective – important factors worth thinking about in this age of austerity. Therefore we focus on supporting smaller charities. We try and put them centre stage and give partners, donors and volunteers access to in-depth, up-to-date information so that informed choices and direct connections can be made. They are big words but we really want to try and democratise aid and giving and put those who receive services from charities at the heart of giving.
What have been the biggest challenges for you and your team so far and how did you overcome them?
At GlobalGiving UK we try to practice four key values in all our work: always open; never settle; listen, act, learn, repeat; and commitment to exceptional service. These values are very challenging to achieve, but they also bring some wonderful results – for example, we just helped 27 charities raise £59,462 from 1,341 donors in 30 days.
However, we simply don't have enough resources to do everything we want at the moment. We have tried to overcome this challenge in two ways. One way is that we recruited 15 talented volunteers to join our overworked staff team of five. Helping in communications and marketing and our important due diligence process for new partners, these skilled individuals are helping us to work faster and smarter.
The other is that we are also slowly sharing our successes more (we have not been great at this in the past) so more people are aware of our work and want to partner with us. For example, last year we achieved a financial return of 1:2 for everyone who invested in us – this means that for every £1 given we managed to deliver £2 to our charity partners. This is the first time I am publicly sharing this excellent fact!
What tips would you give to someone thinking about starting their own digital venture like yours?
• Get some practical work experience in a bigger company: once you start your own venture you'll have limited time for your own professional development – pick up key skills first; you will not regret this
• A good, realistic and evidence-based business plan is essential: ask for frank feedback, including from experts in your field. Don't get upset if you don't like what you hear
• Finance: think carefully about costs and ensure you have enough secure income to cover these. If you are not skilled in this area, bring someone in at the beginning who is
What's next? What projects or milestones have you got coming up?
Our key aims for 2014 are fourfold. The first is access to funding as we hope to raise at least £700,000 for smaller charities working in the UK and overseas. The second is access to volunteering: recruiting active, skilled volunteers in communications and marketing, IT, finance and HR.
The next one is access to training, aiming to help at least 200 smaller charities with online training that builds their organisational capacity and enables them to grow. The final aim is community feedback – pioneering open source technology to help charities use community feedback for improving programmes design and delivery.
Eleanor Harrison is CEO for GlobalGiving UK
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