Flendr offers crowdfunding for charities, individuals and causes
Howard Lake | 20 July 2015 | News
Social finance platform Flendr has just been launched to enable people to raise funds not just for registered charities but also individuals in need and local causes or groups.
The site focuses on helping people borrow, lend and fundraise amongst their family and friends. It charges a 2% fee on the total amount raised, which, as the founders point out, is substantially less than that charged by other online giving platforms such as JustGiving, which charges 5% of the donation plus Gift Aid and a £15 per month fee.
That means that a £10 charity donation via Flendr will result in an additional 51p being received by the charity compared to JustGiving.
Flendr can be used to raise funds for an individual’s gap year.
The site sends alerts every time money is paid in, keeps track of all transactions and sends auto reminders for repayments, “taking the awkwardness out of the process”.
The site runs on the model of passing on all monies paid, donated or loaned either when the target sum has been reached or the campaign end date has been reached. In other words, it is not an ‘all or nothing’ model.
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7P-q2voWaY[/youtube]
One current campaign on the site is being run by Captain Beany, the baked bean-obsessed fundraiser who is running the Swansea 10k to raise funds for Nia Lewis, a teenager who has a terminal illness. She wants to go on one last holiday, and leave a a fund for the University of Wales Teenage Cancer trust. Captain Beany has stepped up to help her and has chosen Flendr as his platform. e, and charges charities £15 per month for simply using the service. Flendr on the other hand takes just a 2% flat fee on funds raised.
Captain Beany (he changed his name by deed poll) has raised over £100,000 for charity so far by doing various amusing stunts. Back in 1986 he made an attempt at the world record for the longest baked bean bath stunt, achieving 100 hours.
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.