Problem
“From a cost point of view, there is no way we can construct a working model that will make money by doing this in-house.” A charity said to the ABC in January 2019.
This was in response to an article that was critical of the use of charity agencies as a means of fundraising for these organisations.
Fundraising agencies, in the Australian experience, use street fundraisers to engage the general public and establish donors on regular monthly plans to secure funding certainty for the charities themselves.
While this appears to be an obvious approach to sustainability, 65% of Australians surveyed had a negative response to being approached by street fundraisers and there have been accusations that the agencies themselves have engaged in exploitative behavior towards their street workers
Despite this, the ABC reports that street fundraising successfully raised over $120 million for charities in 2018.
Solution
Street fundraisers would like to have a level of discourse that involves abuse — reduced, and this is not too much to ask.
Charities would like to continue receiving guaranteed monthly funding through generous donors that they don’t have the resources to reach.
Perhaps data and technology could discover a middle ground that satisfies both parties.
Street fundraisers could change their model to focus on installing and maintaining dedicated ‘ATM’ style ‘tap and go’ machines in foot traffic hotspots.
They could direct people to make donations of a funding amount of their choice in a fast, hassle-free fashion. A process they would be familiar with through buying a coffee or even tapping on for the train of a morning and afternoon.
No lock-in contracts, no extensive conversations.
These machines would be branded in the charities insignia and it would be up to the street fundraisers (‘chuggers’) to decide where these would best reside in day to day circumstances.
Location examples could include; next to post office boxes, public telephones or vending machines? This would eliminate the threat that they would be an impediment to foot traffic on a public footpath.
CONTINUOUS MONTHLY DONORS
Since this model eliminates the expectation of guaranteed monthly funding, it would be interesting to see if the viability of the tap and go system for charities would be a long term option to the one currently in place
I wonder if data that depended on the foot traffic areas chosen would have an impact to eliminate the reliance on continuously asking for regular donors.
A question also arises on whether this model would eliminate the existence of fundraising agencies altogether, thereby making the street fundraisers employees of the charities themselves.
This story is part of an idea creation series inspired by Ted Hope. The purpose of this series is to promote discourse amongst entrepreneurs, artists and indeed anyone for the betterment of the community at large. You are free to use these ideas as you please.
