crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 26
Pledgeit
People’s Insights 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and curate the conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — into a weekly insights report. Every quarter, we compile these insights, along with original research and insights from the MSLGROUP global network, into the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
In 2013, we continue to track inspiring projects at the intersection of social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship. Do subscribe to receive our weekly insights reports, quarterly magazines, and annual reports, and do share your tips and comments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
We have synthesized the insights from our year-long endeavor throughout 2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.
People’s Insights weekly report
Volume 2, Issue 26, April - June, 2013
People’s Insights quarterly magazines
Future of Money
Pledgeit
People’s Insights Annual Report
What is Pledgeit? Pledgeit is a crowdfunding platform that invites people to seek pledges or donations in exchange for performing various challenges.
Source: pledgeit.org.uk
While most charity crowdfunding platforms have been launched by entrepreneurs to connect people with worthy causes and nonprofits, Pledgeit was launched by the charity Leukemia & Lymphoma Research itself to ensure the most effective use of donations.
How it works Fundraising events typically focus on a specific challenge or activity. Pledgeit broadens its reach by inviting people to set their own challenge – resulting in a mix of serious, quirky and fun challenges. Blogger Nick Clayton noted: “Instead of somebody deciding to take part in an activity then looking for sponsors, the new Pledgeit platform enables people to challenge their friends to complete task in return for donations.” Rosie Baker wrote:
Source: fundraising.co.uk
“Challenges can be anything from eating as many crackers as possible in a minute, doing standup comedy or running a marathon.”
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People can choose their own challenge, or nominate a friend to carry out a specific challenge. Blogger Emma Klues explains how Pledgeit works: “In a nutshell, you can dare your friends to do any challenge you’d like, back it up with pledges, and then leverage your social networks to make your goal and control your pals, all while donating to charity.”
Source: thenextweb.com
Source: pledgeit.org.uk/challenge/show/166
Rosie Baker reported: “People can also remove challenges set for them if they do not want to participate.” Money is deducted from the pledgers only after a participant successfully completes a challenge, as confirmed by the challenge’s referee. The website explains: “The challenge referee is the sole and infallible judge of whether they deem the challenge complete. That’s either the person who created the challenge (if they were challenging a friend) or the elected referee (if the person was challenging themselves.) When they decide it’s complete, your pledges will be cashed. Their decision is final.”
Volume 2, Issue 26, April - June, 2013
Future of Money
Pledgeit
‘Hall de la Pledgends’ Pledgeit uses gamification to create a sense of competition, peer pressure and reward. People who successfully complete challenges are crowned ‘pledgends’ and featured on a special page called “Hall de la Pledgends.”
Blogger Emma Klues noted that the approach helps reach a larger audience base, beyond the charity’s core community: “People will be doing this because “it gives back” and they can make their friends do stuff, not because they are wildly passionate advocates of L&L Research. This opens up their audience far beyond just their dedicated fans, but keeping the social good option ever-present makes it far more powerful than just a site to call out your friends.” Cause marketer Paul Jones wrote Pledgeit “puts the fun back in crowdfunding for causes.”
Source: pledgeit.org.uk/community/hallofpledgends
Christina Foulger commented: “I think this is a great idea, its fun its engaging and it has an element of competition and self worth about it.”
Reaching potential donors Bloggers, marketers and the people behind Pledgeit note that the fun approach to fundraising excites potential donors and energizes those affected by “donor fatigue.”
Source: causerelatedmarketing.blogspot.com
M&C Saatchi’s Fortnightly tech bulletin pointed out that the approach helps combat ‘donation fatigue’: “This potentially massive fun factor helps overcome the growing problem for charities of donation fatigue.”
Increasing effectiveness
Source: psfk.com
Cathy Gilman, chief executive of Leukemia & Lymphoma Research shared the reason they chose a creative approach: “The financial environment for fundraising has never been more challenging. Our response at Leukemia & Lymphoma Research is to focus even more resource on creativity and innovation to inspire and engage people to in raising the money we need in ways that are relevant and enjoyable for them.”
Leukemia & Lymphoma Research opted to build its own platform to bypass the standard 5% processing fee charged by charity crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe and Razoo. This approach also lets Leukemia & Lymphoma Research control and access all the data collected on the platform. Leukemia & Lymphoma Research’s Ellie Dawes explains: “Another benefit is that Pledgeit is ours now. We do not pay any percentage fee, as we would to any external platform. We also have full access to the data. Many crowd-funding platforms release very little amounts of data, 5
and by analysing trends on Pledgeit, we could gain insight that can help us plan and tailor our fundraising planning activities across Leukemia & Lymphoma Research.” Howard Lake reported: “The platform has cost around £20,000 so far, but the charity is confident in can recoup that within six months if 12 or so challenges are completed that raise a similar amount to that achieved by a London Marathon runner.”
A new charity crowdfunding platform, Philippines-based Social Project, is experimenting with ways to increase the effectiveness of crowdfunding campaigns, and breaks down a large funding goal into smaller milestones.
Inspiring doers – and talkers Bloggers and thinkers also commended the relevance of the platform, both for people who already do things and don’t mind associating with a charity, and also for people who’s friends constantly talk about doing things but need an extra push. Wade commented:
Source: socialproject.ph/u/StS/solar-power-to-the-people
Some charities seek to change people’s behaviors. UK-based The DoNation encourages people to ‘replace cash with actions’ to contribute to a more sustainable world.
“What a great way to encourage people to take things they are already doing and raise awareness to non-profits and funds for them.”
Source: thedonation.org.uk Source: twitter.com/soxles
Other approaches to raising funds Not all charities build their own platform from scratch. Many partner with pre-existing crowdfunding platforms, like GoFundMe and Razoo, which have the resources to maintain state-of-the-art platforms and large communities of donors and influencers. Some charity crowdfunding platforms focus on specific topics. For instance, Start A Cure focuses on cancer research projects.
Some charities encourage people to spend for good. UK-based Easy Fund Raising partners with e-tailers to ensure a percentage of all online sales go to charity.
Source: easyfundraising.org.uk
Source: razoo.com
Volume 2, Issue 26, April - June, 2013
Future of Money
Pledgeit
People’s Lab: Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform and approach that helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform helps organizations build and nurture public or private, web or mobile, hosted or white label communities around four pre-configured application areas: Expertise Request Network, Innovation Challenge Network, Research & Insights Network and Contest & Activation Network. Our community and gaming features encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and collaborate to find innovative solutions. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach forms the core of our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, clientspecific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities. The People’s Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing insights from conversations and communities.
Learn more about us at: peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab
For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com