Givealittle goes to a new home
AUCKLAND: Ownership of the Givealittle crowdfunding platform has shifted to Perpetual Guardian from the Spark Foundation on confidential terms.
Andrew Barnes, founder of Complectus, which owns Perpetual Guardian, told BusinessDesk that price was not the issue in the ownership transfer.
‘‘Givealittle is not a forprofit business and therefore really the price wasn’t the issue. The big issue was around making sure Givealittle was going to the right home’’ and an owner that would invest in the platform, Mr Barnes said.
He had been looking how people made donations for quite some time and Perpetual Guardian was focused on ways it could assist charities in raising money and individuals in giving.
The traditional fundraising method of ‘‘rattling buckets’’ was no longer as effective as it was because many people no longer carried change to put in such buckets, Mr Barnes said.
So the charities Perpetual Guardian worked with could use Givealittle ‘‘as the equivalent of bucket rattling’’.
‘‘It’s great to see technology making a bigger impact on giving,’’ Mr Barnes said.
Spark Foundation chairman Andrew Pirie said the charitable trust had owned Givealittle since 2012 but it sought a new owner following a strategic review in June last year.
The move would free up resources so the foundation could invest in social programmes that aimed to accelerate digital equity in New Zealand, he said. The foundation is the charitable arm of phone services retailer Spark.
‘‘Givealittle has helped hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders donate to causes they care deeply about. The foundation became owner when Givealittle was in its infancy and we’re extremely proud to have supported the huge growth of the platform to where it is today,’’ Mr Pirie said.
The 11yearold Givealittle has facilitated more than $130 million in donations to a wide range of causes, including $10.7 million to the Victim Support page in aid of the Christchurch mosque shooting victims and $2.2 million to buy a beach near the Abel Tasman National Park in 2016.
It is supporting donations to Australian bushfire victims.