Creator / originator

Taylor Conroy.

Summary / objectives

Change Heroes aim to raise $10 million in three months to build library, school and water projects through their charity partners: Free The Children,Room To Read, and Charity: Water.

Background

In October 2011 Taylor Conroy, a Canadian entrepreneur, received an email from his then girlfriend that changed his life. In it there were links to two charities with stories that so moved him he:

‘… vowed then and there to devote my life to the world for all of 2012. I would use the remaining time in 2011 to get everything together as much as possible, and then use all of my resources to improve as many lives as I could in as big a way I could. I picked “one year” because my mind, like most human minds, can’t comprehend “for life” or much more than a couple years tops.’

He started a new fundraising platform, Change Heroes. A subsidiary of Destroy Normal, Change Heroes is a social enterprise (a for-profit company) that exists to ‘do social good in the world’. Their profits go back towards improving Change Heroes and to create more exciting projects that help empower their donors and charity partners to do more good in the world.

Fundraising campaigns are run by volunteer donors – campaign runners – who make a a list of 45+ of their closest friends, family and colleagues who they would like to join their fundraising team and donate $3.33 each day for three months. If 33 of the 45+ people on the list (as some people might be away on holiday) donate $3.33 each day for three months, that’s $10,000 raised, enough to help build a school, library, or water project in a developing country.

The campaign runners each record a quick 30-second personal introduction video using a webcam for each person on their list. The video explains why that person is important to the campaign runner and why he or she would like that person to join her campaign and the massive impact they’ll make together.

Next campaign runners send links to their donation page to all the people on their list through email and Facebook. The donation page features the personalised video along with a high quality animated video explaining how the campaign works and the project they’re building. The page also includes a donation form, where donors can donate $3.33 a day for 3 months, $49.50 a month for six months, or any amount they would like.

Change Heroes also provide each campaign runner with daily three-minute tasks that they can do each day to build the momentum in their campaign and spread the word to more people.

Special characteristics

When campaign runners sign up to build a project, they see the country that it will be built in. When the project is fully funded they know which village they have helped and receive in-depth information. The reason for this is the organisations building the projects need to receive all of the funds before assigning them to a village. That way they can make sure they are building the projects in the villages that are most ready and will benefit the most.

Change Heroes give help to set up and manage the campaign as well as making the videos.

If a particular campaigns doesn’t reach its target of $10,000, Change Heroes will add what has been raised to another so that together they will still fully fund a project.

Donors receive a tax receipt for their donation from Change Heroes’ charity partners, photos of the village, villagers and the project. They also receive a map showing where the project is located and photos and badges on Facebook

Costs

There is no charge to set up a campaign. Change Heroes deduct 8.9 per cent of each donation to cover use of their platform and credit card/ bank processing fees. There are no monthly fees, no setup fees and no contracts.

There is an option on the payment form for each individual donor to cover the 8.9 per cent and have 100 per cent of his or her contribution go to Change Heroes’ charity partners.

Change Heroes provide production of the high quality animated videos for each of their charity partners, video hosting and streaming for all personal videos, unlimited donation pages, social networking tools, secure credit card transactions, phone and email customer support.

All profits go back to creating more exciting projects that empower more people to do social good in the world.

Merits

Change Heroes is a new fundraising platform that makes it easy for anyone to raise thousands of dollars for the causes they believe in. All someone needs is a list of friends and family, access to a computer with Internet connection and a webcam, and three hours to set up her campaign.