An experiment in Microfunding and new forms of giving

Late last week we kicked off a drive to raise $25,000 for http://www.charitywater.org/ — a non-profit that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We launched this over Twitter — in partnership with Pistachio and Tipjoy.

In the first 24 hrs we raised $944 from 144 people. As of today — Saturday — we have pledges of $1400 from 213 people, a total of about $2600. This is amazing, the money is going to have a very real impact on people’s lives. Unclean water is the cause of about 80% of disease. 43,000 people died last week from bad drinking water. $2600 in 48 hours is an amazing start, all raised over the Twitter platform. Of the $2600 about half of it was raised via Tipjoy. Here is a live update of the pledges to Charity: Water (@Wellwishes) via tipjoy, and the payment (vs. pledge) rate.

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You can add a $2 gift right here:

In terms the approach it feels like we are scratching on something radically new here. It intersects with a set of trends I am fascinated by: dynamic community formation and participation, the now web or real time cloud and micro-lending or in this case micro-giving. Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) has written about this before, as have others — its giving me a lot to think about as we head into the Christmas season and the snow falls here. A payment rate of 83% is astoundingly high.

We also put together a little video of the launch of this effort. Laura is testing, Chartbeat, an un-released product from betaworks — it can track the traffic surge from Twitter to Larura’s blog post. If anyone wonders the effects of Twitter this little video says a lot. Watch what happens 20 seconds in.

Laura had a technical reaction to the video:

holy AWESOMENESS.

chartbeat is going to be INSANELY valuable. that is SO cool.

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Published:: 12.20.08 / 5pm

Category:: API's, Italy, betaworks, building blocks, software, think

About

This is a blog with occasional postings from John Borthwick. I work in the technology, communications and media space — as an entrepreneur, a builder and an investor. My interests are in building great companies and in understanding about how media evolves as it collides with real time conversations. This blog contains occasional thoughts, mostly on the theme of participatory, real time media. I like to write to organize my thinking on a particular issue. This blog is often a repository for that thinking. Thus the name and the sporadic attention. My twitter or tumblr stream are more reflective of day to day thoughts.

Im CEO and co-founder of betaworks the companies I am working with are listed on the betaworks site. Prior to launching betaworks I was CEO of Fotolog, and prior to that I was Snr. VP of Technology and Alliances at Time Warner. I arrived at Time Warner — AOL — in early 1997 when they acquired the company I had started back in 1994. That company was WP Studio, producer of three sites: Total New York (one of the first local city guides, now gone), äda ‘web and spanker (a pre blog, daily journal of the occasionally twisted mind of Carter Adamson).

This web log is published on the wonderful WordPress.

Put Twitter Addiction to Good Use | Pistachio 12.23.08 / 12am

[...] http://www.borthwick.com/weblog/2008/12/20/an-experiment-in-microfunding-and-new-forms-of-giving/ addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fpistachioconsulting.com%2Fput-twitter-addiction-to-good-use%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Put+Twitter+Addiction+to+Good+Use’; addthis_pub = ”; Category : Uncategorized [...]
crustyadventures 12.23.08 / 12am

Hey john,

it’s exciting to feel part of something radically new, hey? I’m the co-founder of footprintsnetwork.org, an online philanthropy project that collects micro-donations on the back of e-commerce transactions to raise funds for poverty alleviation projects. We’ve been going 4 years, raised $500K from over 190,000 people to fund 35 different projects globally. There is no doubt that we are all part of something new and (very, very) small

I am also a big fan of charity: water… their message and marketing is beautiful and I think a lot of the traditional charities should pay attention there.

Also worth a note is Tom Watson, who has just rocked my world with his new book CauseWired – the title says it all. You can connect with him on Twitter : http://twitter.com/tomwatson.

I’m so excited to see all these new experiments in how to use this great technology I spend my life noodling around with. Keep it up..

Christy McCarthy
John 12.23.08 / 12am

Thanks Christy, it sounds like you are doing wonderful things. And small world — I havent seen Tom for age’s — will follow and ping him on Twitter. Thank you
THINK / Musings :: Micro-giving on the Huff Po 12.27.08 / 8am

[...] on the Huff Po over xmas. Piece by Ken Lerer and I on what we are learning from the charity water drive and the possibilities of [...]
HOW TO: Give Back With Social MicroFunding in 2009 1.2.09 / 2am

[...] the idea of simple, fast microgiving takes off, more and more charities and causes are seeing the benefits of this new way to help. From [...]
Hampers 5.27.09 / 10pm

This is a noble cause. The proceeds should be monitored so that the beneficiaries are sure to get their share.
Buy Boats Online 6.1.09 / 1am

Great cause, cool experiment!
Traveller_Adventure 7.16.09 / 11am

Very very interesting post..I like this one. gotta bookmark this one.

Cheers,
Buat Duit Dengan Blog
Oakley Goggles 7.29.09 / 3am

Great experiment..
I will come back for more..
grapeapester 8.24.09 / 8pm

Good Luck
grapeapester 9.3.09 / 1pm

Go Chartbeat
Logodesignservice 9.4.09 / 10pm

Hell yea! go chartbeat!
Logo Design
Dual Sim Phones 9.7.09 / 8am

great article
SusanMCash 9.16.09 / 11pm

Depending on the frequency of media coverage of snow and ice storms, you may consider the following rates of best snow blower Toro:
RobertLMach 9.17.09 / 7am

The active row Toro Toro best snow blower offer a line can not meet face to drive longer reliably stubborn on the sidewalk when the winter begins to reach full capacity.
mlisa57 10.12.09 / 1am

Hope dis experiment works out for you people..
dual sim phone 3.16.10 / 5am

great post
watch mobile 3.17.10 / 11am

nice post
watch mobile 3.17.10 / 6pm

nice post
Ann Flowers 6.27.10 / 7pm

Nice blog with a nice title “An experiment in Microfunding and new forms of giving” The cause behind the blog is appreciated.
Ann Flowers 7.4.10 / 10am

I must appreciate the blogger for bring the cause to notice for the visitors.

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