Jingle Wells — Crowdfunding to solve Malawi’s water crisis

Background

Since 2011, the University of Strathclyde has worked in partnership with the Government of Malawi and the Scottish Government to run the Strathclyde Water Futures programme. It aims to build and deliver a strategy and infrastructure to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 — clean water for all by 2030. Using disruptive technology to map every water point in Malawi and share data on their functionality, the Water Futures team also works with local communities to drill, install and maintain water boreholes and pumps to high standards.

Malawi is perceived to be a country rich in water resources, with Lake Malawi and other sources covering one-fifth of the country’s surface area. However, critical issues affecting Malawi’s water supply is stopping the country making real and sustainable progress in addressing poverty. Malawi has significant groundwater resources, but these are not easily accessible to the 80% of the population living in rural areas lacking adequate infrastructure. Even where there are wells and boreholes in place, the mapping led by the Strathclyde Water Futures programme shows almost half of all water points are not working, as they should. This leaves communities relying on unsafe sources like shallow wells and surface water.

The story so far

James Hughes, Head of Brand & Campaigns at Scottish ethical beer brand Brewgooder came up with an innovative idea to support this cause — a Christmas crowdfunding campaign ‘Jingle Wells’. This campaign united sales of Brewgooder’s craft lager with the Strathclyde Water Futures Programme, led by Professor Bob Kalin, to provide clean water to over 4,000 people.

The core objective was to attract enough interest and financial commitment via the campaign and crowdfund mechanism to raise the capital required to undertake and complete the rehabilitation of the 12 Jingle Wells water projects. This goal was met by a successful campaign activation and ongoing promotion over the course of 10 days predominantly online, digital marketing, social media and PR. The campaign had an average target / conversion rate that was monitored to remain on course for the successful funding by campaign end date, and investment in Google advertising was made to maintain a level of traffic to the Jingle Wells landing page that would ensure this.

Target audience for the campaign was an eclectic mix of UK based craft beer drinkers, Brewgooder community members, students and festive shoppers seeking a unique gift. By hosting a crowdfund format, the target audience was directed to support the campaign via numerous digital marketing strategies and encouraged to purchase one of several reward options ranging from festive Brewgooder vouchers, to cases of beer and Jingle Wells themed Christmas jumpers. All profits from the rewards directly contributed to the rehabilitation of the 12 well projects. Target audiences were also regularly updated via targeted social media posts and email shots on the progress of the campaign, and the sequential ‘turning on’ of the Jingle Wells one by one until the campaign’s completion.

The campaign reached several thousand existing Brewgooder advocates and community members but was primarily designed to reach new audiences. No formal number of donors was measured but the campaign reached tens of thousands UK wide over the course of the 10 days and was also picked up several times in external publications due to the originality and transparency that the campaign offered.

Impact

242 individuals made a gift to the Jingle Wells campaign, with an average gift amount of £30. A significant corporate gift of £5,000 was made by Skyscanner, the travel search engine based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The campaign raised £14,188 against a £12,000 target through crowdfunding between 26 November and 21 December 2018 to repair 12 wells in remote villages in Malawi.

Jingle Wells is the first of hopefully many campaigns combining Malawi’s urgent needs, Strathclyde’s data and engineering expertise, and supporters and donors like Brewgooder’s desire for transparent giving and real-time impact to deliver a sustainable clean water system for Malawi.

Universities work in development and advancement at a time when our donors can track their dinner delivery or their taxi arrival in real time but have very few opportunities to see the impact of their giving — especially for international development causes. Donors expect transparency over how their donations are used. According to Blackbaud’s 2018 Next Generation of Giving report, almost 60% of younger donors agree that seeing the impact of their donation significantly affects their decision to give.

The real-time, disruptive mapping technology deployed by the Strathclyde Water Futures programme provides the Government of Malawi with the tools for strategic decision-making; using Big Data to build and maintain a sustainable water system. But it also enables supporters like Brewgooder to share the impact of crowdfunding directly with their consumers. The same disruptive technology means every donor to the Jingle Wells crowdfunding campaign can track the progress of the 12 well repairs in real time, online — offering a level of transparency and donor stewardship seldom seen in the Higher Education sector.

You can hear more on corporate giving and partnerships from a line-up of speakers at this year’s CASE Europe Annual Conference in Birmingham on 27–29 August 2019. View the full programme here.

Mr Jonathan Jack, Donor Relations Officer (Alumni & Development), University of Strathclyde