Reimagining Fundraising: The 2022 Global Innovation Challenge Association of Fundraising Professionals

By doing so, GIF and its partners would help create a robust pipeline of opportunities that the DFC, and USAID more broadly, could support through more regular funding. There are also obvious cofinancing opportunities between DIV, GIF, and PI2. DIV and GIF are similar models and have both provided support to several different innovations over the years.

How 14 leading NGOs teamed up to re-shape fundraising with innovation

There are no complicated procedures involved in using these platforms, and you would be able to start raising capital within minutes of your registration. You find everything on their website, which makes for an enjoyable experience overall. GoFundme makes it easy to help others who are having difficulties during challenging times by providing access to an online platform usable on either your smartphone or desktop device. GoFundMe will charge you a 5% fee from the total amount raised in your campaign – This percentage is taken off the top of every donation. One of the most significant benefits of using GoFundMe is that there are no limits on how much you can raise as long as your campaign reaches its target figure. GoFundMe is great for personal things, but I never recommend for products or business projects.

Even with greater evidence of impact, a larger investment implies greater risk. At present, GIF’s portfolio is more weighted toward Scale and Test & Transition (GIF’s terms for the second and third stage of funding), suggesting a slightly greater risk tolerance than DIV. GIF can take greater risk because it is backed by multiple governments and because it is an “off-balance sheet” fund; its risk is borne by GIF alone. While DIV should be applauded for its pioneering approach, it still reflects the overall risk-averse nature of the U.S. government by concentrating more on early-stage pilot projects or funding for research, such as randomized control trials.

The social impact think tank and consultancy

DIV looks for solutions that demonstrate rigorous evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and a viable pathway to scale up and achieve sustainability. Since 2010, DIV has funded 252 innovations in 47 countries, totaling $172 million. The use of smart tech by social service agencies and other nonprofits exploded during the pandemic. For example, food banks deployed robots to pack meals; homeless services agencies used chatbots to give legal and mental health advice; and fundraising departments turned to AI-powered software to identify potential donors.

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As noted above, GIF and DIV have both shown that their investments have yielded impressive impact on a portfolio basis. Their innovations, along with those of the other models analyzed in the paper, have improved the lives of millions of people living in poverty. Despite this impressive impact, these models are unlikely to be sustainable in the long term on their own. To expand their reach, it is critical to recognize that these models exist as part of a broader innovation ecosystem. It is incumbent upon donors who provide financing to these various models to put aside parochial differences and increase support for innovation. Supporting innovation in global development to identify new approaches for old, seemingly intractable problems has been an uneven priority for donors, philanthropists, and impact investors.

Now, they are off to the races and looking to disrupt the music device industry. And this is just the beginning…Title III of the Jobs Act, when it passes, would allow non-accredited investors to invest up to $2,500 in any deal they desire, alongside the VC’s. This could unleash many trillions of investment dollars now locked up in personal savings, IRAs, investment accounts that sit around and basically only finance large companies in the public market. Since 2012, under Title II, there has been around $400 million invested through equity crowdfunding.

This system is largely designed to deliver accountability and transparency to the U.S. government, Congress, and the U.S. taxpayer. The other source of official finance—DFIs—should be more willing to take risk but again defaults to seeking safe, higher returns on investment. The risk-return calculus for DFIs is too skewed in seeking private equity-type returns when they could take smarter risks and provide the type of investment needed to help bring innovations to scale. Funding to support innovation has been somewhat lopsided, with significantly more resources provided to the grand challenges model than to the other models discussed.

Grants and investments supported by these models have yielded measurable impact and changes to the way donors program their development assistance. The grand challenges concept has existed for some time in global development, but its most recent incarnation came in 2010 when USAID launched Grand Challenges for Development. These are a series of time-limited (five years) challenge funding programs tailored to address a specific development challenge. USAID will frequently partner with donors—official or nongovernmental—to provide small grants for a large range of innovations that hold the potential of solving or addressing identified problems. Since 2011, USAID has launched 12 grand challenges, including scaling off-grid energy, fighting Ebola, powering agriculture, saving lives at birth, and supporting early education. Through partnerships with other funders, these grand challenges have provided $534 million in grants to 786 innovations.

Teams worked in silos, and most of the senior managers were pursuing their own agendas with little regard for what others were doing. The Pono team next came to Crowdfunder to raise gogetfunding equity and allow their community to also become shareholders. Based upon the massive market interest, they then raised $10.2 million in equity funding for Pono music…in 12 days.