Pocket change can equal global change
“It’s insanely easy to raise $10,000 a day.”
Taylor Conroy sounds like an ambitious venture capitalist. But instead of building profits for shareholders, he’s building schools for poor communities. His investors (citizens like you) buy in for the price of a coffee.
The 30-something, Vancouver-based social entrepreneur has a convincing pitch with a simple equation on his online fundraising platform Change Heroes. When 33 people set aside $3.33 a day for three months, they raise $10,000.
Anyone with a webcam or smart phone can create a quick video and become an aspiring philanthropist.
Change Heroes’ users enlist their friends (“basically anyone who likes you,” quips Conroy) by recording 15-second videos, directly asking for a contribution toward their charitable goal.
After each personalized message, viewers then see the Change Heroes main video that showcases the project (say, building a school in a developing country) and how simple it is to raise money with an online community of supporters.
“You can help for just dollars a day” is a common refrain in most charitable fundraising campaigns. You’ve likely seen that plea a million times on TV, or in those non-profit letters that clog your mailbox.
So what’s the catch with Change Heroes?
Instead of a celeb spokesperson, the “change hero” on your screen is someone you know and trust. Conroy is playing in the space where young people hang out: the Internet. And you can be assured you won’t be assaulted with images of poor children covered in flies — a cliched and disrespectful way to pull at potential donors’ heartstrings.
“Technology allows us to scale the most important part of fundraising: personal asks,” beams Conroy. Epic campaigns like Movember and the ALS ice-bucket challenge have convinced him of the power of friendship networks to inspire charitable giving.
A 2010 study by Achieve, a U.S. non-profit organization, confirms people are far more likely to donate when asked by family or friends than anonymously or by the charity itself and respond much more favourably to face-to-face asks over email or snail mail.
The Internet also makes charitable giving easy. Once your videos are recorded and you share them on social media, your friends are just a few clicks away from committing their three months’ worth of pocket change.
So far, Change Heroes has more than 5,000 users and works with 15 charities. Donations fund construction of schools, scholarships for girls, clean water projects and work to combat human trafficking.
Conroy’s desire to be a change maker came after reaching traditional definitions of success as a young entrepreneur. He was the top-grossing rookie real estate agent in North America at age 25, and a millionaire businessman by age 28.
But Conroy felt unfulfilled by the pursuit of profit alone, and sought out a new creative challenge with meaning.
In his search, he found that Canadian charitable giving is in a slight but noticeable decline. Statistics Canada reports that 22 per cent of tax filers claimed donations in 2012, down steadily from 25 per cent in 2005. A separate 2014 study found both the number and size of charitable donations from Canadians has slowly fallen over the last decade.
The reason, according to Conroy, is charities’ reliance on traditional fundraising strategies, like telemarketing, mail and street solicitation campaigns that don’t connect with the millennial generation — or most anyone else.
Conroy insists Canadians aren’t becoming less generous or more apathetic. Rather, we’re more discerning — especially the new generation of donors.
“Charity isn’t just a quick handout for millennials,” he says. “They expect to know where their money went and what impact it is making. They want to see the people they are helping and hold organizations accountable for results.”
Spoken like a true entrepreneur.