This morning I woke up to an inbox of 50 unread emails.
“Adopt-a-Family will be hosting a Bake Sale this Friday Night from 10:00pm-1:00am”
“Cherokee Nation will be having a Pita Pit fundraiser on TUESDAY from 5PM-10PM. Please pick up a flyer on your way downstairs and present it when you make your purchase! Thank you!”
“Alternative Spring break fundraiser this Monday at Crepeaway! Be sure to say that you are there for the fundraiser for our trip so that you are coun
ted towards our total. Please invite your friends!!!”
Having been a brother in a coed community service fraternity, I might get more fundraising-related emails than the average college student, but still, a lot of students will receive emails, facebook event invites, and even be told by their friends to visit the local campus eatery during a certain time period (revenue share fundraiser) or to stop by their bake sale later that day.
Whether you are raising money for a cause, an event, or your rugby team, it’s always a hassle doing marketing, purchasing goods for sale, and convincing your friends get the word out. This is one pain point that technology has yet to remedy. That is, until now.
On September 1st, 2012 Crowdvance launched with the mission to solve this growing problem. Crowdvance offers a new way for small organizations to raise funds online for causes and events. Sound familiar? You might have heard of Crowdrise, Razoo, and StartSomeGood, but Crowdvance is unique in that it allows fundraisers to directly engage and reward their donors.
“Donors are able to select up to 4 exclusive deals to any of the companies we partner with as a reward for making a donation of at least $5. These deals are towards things like airfare, concert tickets, food delivery, and more. Donors have quality value immediately returned to them that fits their personal interests and preferences. This way, the fundraising process becomes frictionless for the small organization because they know their donors are being rewarded with tremendous value.”
Partners Like:
Having expanded to 200 universities in a matter of months, Crowdvance is growing at a rapid pace. A variety of student organizations are using Crowdvance from club sports teams to greek chapters to pre-professional organizations. At the time of writing, Crowdvance has helped organizations raise thousands of dollars to put towards conferences, travel, events, and service.
I sat down with Dylan Fox, the founder of Crowdvance to gain some insights into their rapid growth and the emerging crowdfunding industry.
I think this is a really ingenious idea. How did you guys come up with it?
As students, we saw this huge problem that student organizations, and all small organizations really, face when trying to fundraise. Traditional fundraisers like bake sales, t-shirt sales, and revenue sharing programs with restaurants have costs that can eat up 40-70% of the whatever funds are raised. As if that wasn’t enough, these fundraisers don’t engage or reward donors at all, and usually damage the relationships the organization has with their supporters. Because of this, small organizations end up spending way too much time trying to unsuccessfully fundraise, limiting the amount of time they can spend out in their communities conducting service and being involved.
It seems like you’ve taken a different marketing approach from other crowdfunding platforms. Why are you focusing on college communities and student orgs?
Right. There’s been a lot of different online fundraising platforms pop up over the years, but none of them are truly “fundraising” platforms. I’d categorize every single “fundraising” platform more as a fund collection tool. These platforms have proven to be great ways to collect funds online, but we found that small organizations, like the ones we target, need more than just a way to collect funds. That’s where we come in. We are truly an alternative to fundraising as a whole, not just the money collection piece of fundraising. We help small organizations raise $1,000-$2,000 for new jerseys, travel costs, etc. so that they can stop hustling cookies and brownies on the streets.
What types of businesses are offering discounts on Crowdvance? It seems like a great way for advertisers to access the college marketplace.
We’ve partnered with a very wide range of companies. The goal is to have deals/rewards that anyone from any background will be able to find rewarding. Right now, we have deals on our platform towards things like concert tickets, food delivery, jewelry, textbooks, apparel, and a bunch more.
Crowdfunding is just exploding with niche platforms emerging and equity portals soon to be on the way. What is your take on the industry? Is it over hyped? Will equity crowdfunding be a game changer? Is this the next big thing?
I think there’s a lot of room for expansion in the crowdfunding space. Our platform is a tell tale sign of that prediction. Crowdfunding has proven to be a useful model to collect funds online, now how can we apply the model to other groups and organizations that need to raise funds? That’s what I’m excited to see in the future. As far as the industry being over hyped, I don’t know if over hyped is the word I would use.
Crowdvance is the number 1 alternative to traditional fundraising methods. We help small organizations, like student groups and youth sports teams, fundraise in the most efficient and effective way possible, and a way that is engaging for their supporters. Small organizations are raising thousands of dollars through our platform to have more impact in their communities.
We’re going to be adding a lot of new partners over the next few months, and implementing a ton of new features to make it even easier for small organizations to fundraise through our platform. Check out some of the recent fundraisers that have been launched on our platform here to see what we’re all about.
