Crowdfunding can finance socially responsible causes.
Devin Thorpe, a member of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City, knows how to raise, and manage, big bucks. His career includes stints as an investment banker, treasurer, and mortgage broker. Three years ago, when he turned 46, he was forced to resign from “the best job I ever had,” he says: working as a CFO at a food and beverage company. Rather than dwell on the negative, Thorpe seized the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of using his financial prowess to do good in the world. He has since written books about financing socially responsible causes. He blogs on the same topic for Forbes, and travels extensively to train people in the art of crowdfunding, a method of raising money through online platforms.
THE ROTARIAN: Is it hard to raise money for social good because of the economy today?
THORPE: You can argue about whether the economy is better this year than it was in 2012. But we’ve never lived at a time when so much money is available and held by philanthropically inclined people.
TR: There are many crowdfunding websites. What are the differences between them?
THORPE: People often go to Kickstarter because it’s the most famous. But Kickstarter doesn’t allow philanthropic donation campaigns. Its biggest competitor, Indiegogo, does. Some other sites, like Fundly and Razoo, have created brands consistent with doing good in the world.
TR: People who crowdfund their artistic projects or startups often offer rewards for certain donations. Should people who are raising money for social good offer tangible rewards too?
THORPE: The money should go to the cause. But if someone donates something besides money – like an author giving you 20 copies of a book – use those things as rewards. Another idea is to find creative, but free, ways to recognize your biggest donors. I heard about a group raising money to protect sea turtles. The mother sea turtles lay their eggs in the sand on a beach. When the eggs hatch, the baby sea turtles scurry into the ocean. So the group wrote the names of their biggest donors in the sand and then filmed the baby turtles running over the names and into the ocean. They posted the videos on YouTube and sent the links to the donors. The donors could then post the videos on their social media accounts, so even more people found out about the cause. It was brilliant.
TR: What are some pitfalls when it comes to raising money?
THORPE: Don’t focus so much on the financial goal that you forget to tell people about your real goal: the social objective. In crowdfunding, fundraisers constantly report on how well they are progressing financially. That’s OK to some degree, but you should also remind people about the social good you hope to do. Because as soon as you make the money the focus, people start reaching for their wallet with the wrong intention: They want to protect it instead of opening it up.
The biggest thing fundraisers do wrong is to start raising money from strangers without hitting up friends and family first. Think of a tip jar. If a tip jar is half full when you see it, you feel compelled to throw in some money because other people have. If it’s empty, you think, “No one’s tipping. Why should I?” After all, why would anyone give you money if your own mother hasn’t given you $10? – Patty Lamberti