Giifa – Changing the World, One Job at a Time
Howard Lake | 12 January 2012 | News
How do charities convince enough donors that employing skilled staff is an essential and valuable part of running a successful charity? The question bedevils many charities who find it hard to secure funding for core costs like staff.
US online service Giifa might offer a way forward. The site, still in development, aims to list charities and prospective employees, and invite individuals to donate towards that employee’s salary and costs of employment. In a way, it is like project funding, which attracts many donors with its transparency and its ability to demonstrate impact. In Giifa’s case though, the project is the staff member.
Once enough money has been raised, based on a figure set by the nonprofit, then the employee can be hired.
The site is being developed by Pratyush Agarwal, who was inspired by peer-to-peer microfinancing site Kiva.org. He explained: “Giifa’s mission is to make donations more transparent, while empowering every individual to create jobs, and help the US economy recover.”
I can see some objections to the site’s model, not least how long can employees and nonprofits wait to hear if they have been funded. But its focus on paying for staff costs is most welcome, and might inspire other crowdfunding sites to add such a facility.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.