Charity wins young base
New method for collecting funds proves winner
Traditional ways of collecting donations are being thrown out by a Wellington charity in favour of a unique approach that’s attracting a younger donor-base.
Increasingly, millennials are signing up to donate 1 per cent of their pay cheque through the One Percent Collective, which founder Patrick Shepherd said made regular giving easier and provided security for the charities.
“We’re a small organisation that inspires generosity and simplifies regular giving,” he said.
All of the donated money is directly wired to the charities supported by One Percent, and donors can choose which charities they want their money sent to.
One Percent gains donors through telling about the charities it supports on its website, and it’s proving a hit with people aged 24-35. More than half of their donors are in that age group, and of those, about 50 per cent were never regular givers before signing up with One Percent.
With more than $800,000 donated through the five-year-old charity, One Percent is on its way to hitting its $1 million milestone. It’s also pushing to sign on more than 1000 donors, which would provide about half a million dollars per year.
Shepherd had returned from doing volunteer work overseas when he saw how disconnected people were with the usual collection tactics in New Zealand.
“A lot of it was people on the street trying to stop you, people showing up during dinner ... I didn’t engage with that,” said Shepherd.
He knew that when he was donating, he wanted to hear about the impact of his donations and perhaps get the opportunity to meet the organisations he was giving to.
“We just don’t want to be marketed to constantly for more money. We just want to be happy that we’re giving and that the charity can get on with things.
“Why would I stop in the street and kind of give my bank account details to a backpacker from Chile?”
People were missing the “connection” with their charities, he said.
He set up One Percent so that small to medium Kiwi charities could worry less about funds, and focus instead of doing their job.
One Percent itself does not take any of the donated money, but is funded by corporations and a group of 50 people called Future 50, with each person giving $20 a week.
One charity they support is Upside Downs, which provides funding for Down syndrome kids to get speech therapy until the age of 18. The charity previously had a waiting list of 11 children, but recently cleared the list, partly through the donations.
Wellington-based food-rescue charity Kaibosh has received more than $100,000 funding through One Percent. Kaibosh takes good quality, surplus food that would not have been sold, and gives it to community groups that distribute it to people in need.
“There’s so many people facing hardship . . . [this] alleviates some of that hardship whilst also keeping good food out of a landfill,” said general manager Matt Dagger.
One Percent currently supports 11 charities.