Kyle
You know that crazy guy or gal in your group that will do just about anything? All you have to do is dare them? Well imagine if those dares could be done for pledges and the pledges were made for Charity? That’s the idea behind UK startup CharityKick.
Do you want to dare someone to bungee jump from a crazy place? Would you like to dare someone to eat 27 hot dogs in one sitting? Whatever the dare, you can raise money to entice someone to do it. But with CharityKick, the dare doesn’t actually have to take place.
For this to work you have to find someone daring, and you also have to find the dares. From there you can make a go out of fundraising by encouraging people to pledge money for the dares to be fulfilled. Take the hot dog guy for instance. Once someone accepts the challenge, you set up a pledge page and call on that persons friends, family members, co-workers, and heck, even complete strangers, to sponsor the dare. Once the dare is set, people can pledge funds for charity to egg the person on to do the dare.
Mat Wurm and Greg Fournier are the two crazy social entrepreneurs behind this big idea. They’re currently based in the UK but are establishing a presence in the United States as well. Of course everyone knows how crazy we Americans are.
We got a chance to talk with Fournier about Charity Kick. Check out our interview with him below.
What is CharityKick?
CharityKick is a charity fundraising events platform, which allows users to create a charity dare by nominating anyone they like for the charity challenge of their choice. This allows charities to crowd source fundraising events and fundraise to make it happen on the same platform for free.
In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)
The way it works is very simple! Anyone can sign-up for free and start daring anyone else for the cause they want b. Dares fall in 3 categories allowing people to dare in their local communities, such as friends, teams, teacher; in their business, with colleagues, or a boss; but also celebrities. Potential donors interested in the dares then share and like them with friends. The dares can then be selected by our charity members to start collecting the pledges of people who want to see the dare come true for that cause. Finally there are no limits and donations are only released in the event the dare is realized, which means you can almost get anyone to do anything for a good cause on CharityKick.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Mat Wurm and myself, Greg Fournier, started the project, I like to think at the time we were two socially minded entrepreneurs working as marketing professionals in steady jobs… Last January we decided to invest in ourselves and create a fun fundraising platform for social good that everyone could use bringing our business degrees and marketing experience to what was at the time only a rough idea. Quick learners, along the way we each learnt new tricks turning us into beginners at everything from press release writing to PHP database architect. Finally, having both spent most of our lives abroad, including in the US, we felt the idea could really thrive in the North American market so setup to operate in both the US but also the UK, where we are based.
How did you come up with the name?
The term crowdfunding having been mentioned a few times in discussing the project, its no surprise that Kickstarter was a big influence in the direction taken by CharityKick. Whilst the key feature from the site we wanted to keep was actually the browsing of projects, which we found was lacking in platforms aimed at non-profits; the name is where it left its biggest trace as we wanted to keep this idea of “kick-starting” charity fundraisers.
What problem does CharityKick solve?
CharityKick solves a simple problem, it allows volunteers to involve people around them through more than just giving. Too often do colleagues and students play arm-twisting games with their audience; CharityKick gives volunteers the tools to get others involved by challenging someone known to their audience. So instead of planning a marathon run, you can dare your boss to run! And instead of asking your colleague for donations, you can tell them the more money there is the more likely it is that the dare will take place! This gives a great opportunity for users to start a fundraiser, but it also enables charities of all sizes to crowd source great fundraising events and fundraise at no cost to them.
Are you bootstrapped or funded?
Bootstrapped!
What’s next for CharityKick?
The next step for CharityKick is to get a great dare realized, as through the funds raised and the event, we hope to gain the justified title of great charity fundraising events creator. Taking one of our first dares as example, involving Kobe Bryant, we’ve since been referring to it as the “Kobe dare”, as if it was a myth. It involves the basketball super-star shooting all free throws in a game eyes shut… for charity. We’re aware of the many factors that could prevent this event from happening, however we remain confident with the right cause and enough pledges, CharityKick can manage to get anyone to play along, whether it’s Kobe Bryant or John Smith!
Linkage:
Start daring someone now, at CharityKick.com
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