Misfit Foundation to enable ‘connected giving’ to bring donors closer to the cause
Howard Lake | 24 February 2015 | News
A new charity has been established in the UK that aims to use the power of technology and storytelling to promote more and better giving.
The Misfit Foundation is being launched in the UK and US. It brings together a group of experienced fundraisers and marketers and digital innovators.
The Trustees of the Foundation are AJ and Melissa Leon, founders of digital storytelling agency Misfit Incorporated, along with Tim Longfoot, co-founder of mobile fundraising specialists Open Fundraising, and Imogen Ward, CEO of education charity Lessons for Life Foundation.
The Foundation’s CEO is Tobin Aldrich, formerly fundraising director of charities including WWF-UK and Concern Worldwide.
Formalising Misfit Inc’s work
Misfit Incorporated has been providing ad hoc pro bono work with nonprofits around the world for some time, leading on successful projects such as WaterAid’s The Big Dig, Twitterkids, EMMA Academy Project and the Gambella Windmill Project. Each projects has used digital storytelling to connect donor and beneficiary as directly and effectively as possible.
Misfit Inc is a combination of creative agency, publishing house, conference and innovation lab.
The Misfit Foundation will formalise this pro bono work, and help develop new projects to promote connected giving.
The Foundation’s first project is to build a platform which will help donors to connect directly with stories of the people they are helping. Donors will be able to see the impact of their philanthropy over time. At the same time it should help the Foundation learn quickly from donors’ feedback. This is due to launch in May 2015.
First partners announced
The first five partners were announced at the launch. There is some evidence of the founders’ interests amongst them, including the remarkable Sankara Eye Hospitals, and the Jhai coffee house in Laos, which is helping to build a school for the local community.
Blogging about the launch of The Misfit Foundation, Aldrich said:
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“What we need to do is to bring the cause much closer to the donor. Inspire them with amazing and compelling storytelling. And give them much greater transparency on what has been achieved from their donation.”
You can read more about the thinking behind The Misfit Foundation in Aldrich’s earlier blog post A better deal for donors.
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.