GoFundMe VS GoGetFunding: Which is a Better Crowdfunding Platform?

In addition, donors should look to see how they can use their resources to incorporate new innovations into their existing programs within countries. This would help to not only scale innovations but also provide further evidence to the local government that the innovation is proven and worthy of support beyond a time-limited donor project. The U.S. government should continue to fund GIF and other innovation funding models. Government entities, the U.S. government could shift some of the risk off its “balance sheet” and onto an outside entity. Nancy Lee of the Center for Global Development has argued that donors should create “special purpose vehicles” or off-balance-sheet investment funds that would shift the risk from the donor onto an outside entity.

Equity and grants were available, but social enterprises needed debt to grow in a more sustainable manner. OPIC found good success with this program, and when OPIC became the DFC in December 2019, the Portfolio for Impact became PI2. Established in 2010, DIV is USAID’s open innovation program that funds breakthrough solutions to the world’s most intractable development challenges. By funding innovation and focusing on rigorous evidence, DIV impacts millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost. DIV provides grant funding based on a tiered-evidence approach that maximizes impact per dollar spent. This allows for risk at early stages and mitigates risk at later stages, ensuring that funding is targeted to the most impactful and cost-effective innovations.

The Pros & Cons of GoFundMe

Holistic thinking about the innovation ecosystem should seek to take advantage of each entity’s unique comparative advantages. For example, grand challenges and DIV could concentrate their support on early-stage (pilot) projects that, while carrying some risks, are not as risky because of the size of financial commitments (less than $1 million in most instances). At scale, they could then graduate toward DFI investment alongside impact investors or be scaled by local governments working with bilateral or multilateral donors. This is an ideal scenario, but given the U.S. government’s role in supporting various innovation funding models, there is no reason why it could not create a more seamless ecosystem. Given the relative success that DIV, GIF, and others have achieved in investing in evidence-based innovation, there is an ongoing interest in how to expand innovation and “mainstream” it within the broader global development ecosystem. That said, the amount of funding remains relatively limited, with DIV receiving $30 million in annual appropriations and GIF receiving an initial commitment of $200 million.

The social impact think tank and consultancy

Such an approach would help preserve the donor’s credit rating (in the case of the multilateral development banks or DFIs) or provide accountability to political overseers. The U.S. government should recognize that it already has such an entity in GIF and build on that success. Given the right amount of funding, GIF and other funding vehicles could take more smart risks and continue to experiment with new approaches.

Programs & Projects

To address these challenges, 14 of the world’s leading NGOs partnered up and launched Reimagining Fundraising; an open call to ideators around the world to reinvent fundraising for the future. Stay up to date on all our headline work and the topical issues facing the sector. Our weekly updates will keep you informed of our latest publications, upcoming events and recent blogs. This report is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s). Unless your process reflects that, your company will probably fail to systematically develop innovations that matter.

Many organizations avoid messaging automation, fearing it gives supporters a stale, robotic, and generally unpleasant experience. Your services provider will be able to customize communications sequences to not only fit your nonprofit’s branding and key messaging but also program them to adjust and evolve depending on your supporters’ responses. Social giving allows your nonprofit to connect with the next generation of supporters and begin stewarding them into a lifetime of support.

Attitudes and behaviours need to change so that instead of focussing on how much a charity spends on fundraising, donors ask how effective that charity has been in making a difference through projects, campaigning or the services it provides. Funding to scale gogetfunding innovations remains elusive, especially as innovators transition from the pilot and early test phase. When he was the CEO of SRI International, Curtis Carlson presided over the conception and development of Siri, HDTV, and other groundbreaking innovations.