GlobalGiving opens in the UK
Howard Lake | 15 September 2008 | News
GlobalGiving, the online marketplace that links donors to charity projects in over 70 countries, has launched in the UK.
The original US site, globalgiving.com, founded in 2001 by two former World Bank employees, has helped generate $12 million to fund over 1,000 grassroots development projects around the world.
At the heart of the website’s success is the manner in which it enables donors to see the impact of their donations on the communities concerned through regular progress updates from project leaders. GlobalGiving itself only allows well-vetted projects to be listed on the site, giving donors more confidence in giving.
Projects listed include those providing clean water to villages in Morocco, enabling Guatemalan women to set up small-scale businesses, or helping Nepalis produce pedal-generated light as an alternative to dirty kerosene lamps.
Several UK-based charities have already benefited from the online marketplace through the use of the US website. Abigail Connolly, Fundraising and Communications Coordinator for Freeplay Foundation, said: “Since 2004, Freeplay Foundation has raised over $100,000 for eight projects through GlobalGiving. High standards and regular news on projects is at the heart of why donors keep coming back.”
A partnership with Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) means that CAF donors can donate to GlobalGiving projects, using existing funds in their CAF account. Sheila Hooper, CAF’s Executive Director of Marketing and Private Client said: “We have seen a growth in demand for giving to overseas causes so we are very pleased to offer CAF donors even more choice in the causes they can give to”.
In the USA, average donations on the site are around $100. The minimum donation in the UK is £5 in the UK and the average is expected to be between £30 and £40.
GlobalGiving.co.uk Chief Executive Sharath Jeevan said: “We are excited about enabling a wide range of UK-based overseas development charities to raise valuable funds and awareness for their work.”
GlobalGiving.co.uk is a UK charity. Most of its funding comes from Venturesome, the social investment fund of the Charities Aid Foundation.
Other funders include the Travel Foundation, the Mathias Family Trust and “a major City figure”. Corporate support has also been received from organisations including Expedia, Google (which gave the charity a Google grant award) and PayPal.
www.globalgiving.co.uk
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.