Envision a world where spare change saves lives. Where credit card purchases of, say, $19.20, could be rounded up by consumer choice and the difference donated to charity. This is the future of giving and one of many initiatives the Give Easy platform is pursuing. Until then, there’s an app.
GiveEasy was dreamed up barely over a year ago by Jeffrey Tobias, following an established career in technology, business and academia. With a résumé boasting a PhD in computer science, his own multi-million dollar company and work in offices and as an investor in corporations large and small, he started GiveEasy, a not-for-profit organisation to help benefit society.
“The vision was to combine philanthropy with technology and mobility and empower people to do more than they would normally do,” he says.
The app is simple. It can be downloaded for free from the app store and once you have made an account and entered your credit card details you can give any sum to any represented cause at any time, with the click of the button. It sounds familiar but with far greater cause.
“In many ways the vision of GiveEasy is to be the iTunes of giving,” Jeffrey agrees. With an almost identical account-driven process, donating is now as easy as buying the latest number one hit. Donations, as well, can cost as much as a song.
Michael Gonski, chairman of GiveEasy’s advisory board, shares why this is a necessary step in a mobile-dominated world. “I am firmly of the view that the philanthropic world needs to keep up with the fast pace at which technology is moving, especially in the payment gateway space,” he says.
While gaining more consumers is the next piece of the puzzle, the groundwork has been laid. Since launching late last year the platform has been met with acclaim, winning a national competition for innovation in the community sector, sponsored by The Australian and Shell.
Most importantly, the charities are on board. Over 150 charities have already signed up, with the number rising daily. The charities range from small movements, which often don’t have the resources to focus on social media and new technology on their own, to big name brands such as The Smith Family and Sydney Children’s Hospital that without their own apps are equally dependent. Givers will be met with a diverse range of options, from religious charities to children-focused groups or Cancer research.
“The charities are very supportive, they really like it; there’s a huge shift to mobile devices so everyone’s looking to do more and more,” Jeffrey shares. “In fact no charity that we know of in Australia has an app of their own so Give Easy allows them to look at how they can get to the mobile stage.”
Lisa Allan, National Marketing Manager at the Smith Family which has been involved with GiveEasy since inception, reiterates this support. “With the increasing use of mobile apps across Australia, it made sense to enable our current and potential supporters to connect with The Smith Family,” she says. “For people on the move all the time, it just makes giving easier. If they see a Smith Family advertisement or are at a fundraising event, they can make a donation straight away in real time and have those donation details available on their devices for future record keeping.”
As well as making donating simpler, Lisa cites connecting with generation Y as a major reason for joining the platform. “We want to reach new audiences,” she tells me. “We see the app as a way to encourage micro-donations from generations that might not be able to afford or commit significant sums to the charities they want to support.”
With its heavy emphasis on social media, GiveEasy is hoping to make charity more social and a part of daily life. Donors can post their donations to Facebook and Twitter. In the later versions, anything on the app can be shared online. It’s no coincidence that the platform is mobile-based. “Give Easy has been built to run on smart devices,” Jeffrey explains. “Even though it can run on desktop or laptop, it’s been designed from the ground up to work on mobile, which is where people live.”
This quick stream communication is particularly potent in times of crisis. GiveEasy is set up specifically to run appeals, with banners advertising these events on the home page. It’s not just annual appeals that benefit as the app focuses on making disaster relief as easy as possible. Through the magic of push notifications, messages will be sent to your phone during disasters and swiping that will take you directly to the donation page. This can be set up in a matter of minutes so that money can come in immediately.
Jeffrey Tobias hopes to make a difference
All charities are verified by the company and have to be registered as a charity with the tax department, so there can be no concern about where your money is going. As for tax deductibility, donors are immediately emailed a tax receipt so it works like any normal donation but with a slight edge. “There’s no disadvantage, in fact there’s an advantage,” Jeffrey says,“because once you’ve signed up you can go online and see all your donations, and if you’ve lost a receipt you can re-print it so you can see all your donations at tax time.”
GiveEasy’s slogan is “The Future of Giving”, and the future is bright. As well as discussions with banks to round up credit card payments charitably, the platform is launching an Android app to accompany the already existing website and iPad and iPhone applications. It has begun creating more apps that are branded with particular charities but run on the GiveEasy platform, and charities aren’t hesitating to sign up. SMS donations may be a next step.
These initiatives are providing more than just monetary services; they are also aiding the spread of information. “Having control over 100 per cent of our app content is a great way to also keep our supporters up to date about the latest appeals, events and to report back on the programs and children they are helping,” Lisa says, describing the advantages of the recently unveiled Smith Family app, run by GiveEasy.
But despite being available on the app store since November, there have only been around 10,000 downloads so far. “Last year was the year of getting the app built and out there,” Jeffrey explains. “Since then we’ve been focusing on the charities because we wanted to get a significant bank of charities on board, and the focus now is on scale.”
While the charities are already receiving daily donations through the app, greater publicity is now the issue and Jeffrey plans on making a big difference once word gets out. “I’ll be really happy if we could get several million dollars a year going into the community sector, into the charity sector, into causes, because of GiveEasy.”
The other partners have similarly high hopes: all hope that giving donors the option of donating through a device that permeates modern life will make giving to charity as “seamless as possible”.
The charities love it, and so do the critics, but what can this app deliver for the consumer that no other can? “With this you can feel good,” Jeffrey says. “You can add value to the community, you can donate even if it’s just two dollars, you just put in your password and you’re done.”
So now when the iTunes charts are lacking, keep in mind the other app ready and waiting to take your spare change. For more information visit the GiveEasy website.
