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Fabrice Marre
Joined: Feb 9, 2011
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How to get people to donate in giving them confidence?
March 2, 2011 - 10:50 PM
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Hi guys,
Lots of people already donate to associations around the world but I know lots of people who are not because they have very little confidence in where the money goes, it's a legitimate question. How can we give people confidence that the money will be used for what they donate and not get lost in the system?
I like the idea of the deforestAction project where you can buy land back and they give you the exact location of your patch and in the near future we will be able to see the location the patch in a satellite image.
What do you think we should do to give people confidence in donating?
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Emma Williams
Joined: Dec 20, 2010
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Re: How to get people to donate in giving them confidence?
March 5, 2011 - 11:22 AM
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Hi Fabrice,
For such a long time people have been given the cold, hard facts and have felt any attempt to stop the destruction is useless. This has caused me to approach the issue with a positive light-- I tell people: yes, the situation is bad, but there are already people (like Willie Smits) who are coming up with radical plans to create a viable economy surrounding the local Dayak people and the orangutans. Similar plans in Virunga have helped the gorilla populations, which have been steadily increasing for a while now.
If you yourself are confident in the project and allow those around you to see the situation for its potential successes, then they will feel inspired to action as well. Passion and enthusiasm are contagious!
-Emma, Seattle
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Steve Patriarco
Joined: Mar 7, 2011
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Re: How to get people to donate in giving them confidence?
March 13, 2011 - 03:10 PM
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Thankfully I believe this one has a fairly easy answer, Fabrice. Too many people turn away from charities out of suspicion that their money will be spent disproportionately on administrative matters and not on the mission itself.
There are a number of services such as GuideStar (http://www2.guidestar.org/) that allow potential donors to analyze non-profit and charity data quite easily. You can see a simple pie graph of % of total revenue spent on key functions vs. administrative/other functions, and you can dig even deeper into their financials and tax forms if you so desire. For most people, the pie graph alone does the trick. This allows people to make informed decisions about where they want to donate their money.
I for one try not to donate to organizations that spend more than 10-15% on administrative functions (unless they can make a compelling case as to why they need to have such a breakdown of expenditures).
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Sian
Joined: Mar 7, 2011
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Re: How to get people to donate in giving them confidence?
March 16, 2011 - 07:35 AM
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aw I got all excited to go to guidestar and it said cannot find server 
hopefully just me it doesnt like.
Definately a cool idea! But I think most people are often (unfortunately) too lazy to look into the background of an organization and research accounts and what have you, though it is important we can do so and keep people honest and accountable 
I've been working for the Wilderness Society here in Australia, we are a not for profit environmental group fully funded by our members. We are all about the power of the people to affect change. The main aspect of my job is fundraising and there r only about 20 of us Australia wide, but we generate membership constantly and we are at over 44 000 paying contributors.
We are one of the only not for profit environmental advocacy and activism groups who is non aligned and does not take any corporate or government grants. I believe this is one reason these groups will listen to us and we won't stop pestering them until they do we have won every single campaign we have fought (32 and counting) and I also think this is what makes people stop to consider. Our funds allocation system is clearly working when we achieve results! We have managed to save over 1 billion hectares of native forests over the past 12 months and we plan to step that up with the new team this year and also we plan to save a further 1 billion sq kilometres of coastal ocean ecosystems here in australia by lobbying corporate and government agencies and also raising public awareness. It is so rewarding to work for a cause.
That said I want to move on to learn how to run projects in the future and see the effects of conservation and resoration first hand and also experience the orang utans! Even if I don't stand a chance in this instance I'm determined to go to borneo 
I think basically in terms of willie smits' organization, convincing people to become active is all about not only stirring passion for the cause in compassion for these amazing majestic, intelligent creatures and other victims of deforestation and consequences like climate change... it is also about the success they are experiencing. The agro-forestry program is practical, if complex and it is actually working! also are they not doing live streaming to demonstrate results? link me if you find it first
cheers
Sian
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Sian
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Re: How to get people to donate in giving them confidence?
March 16, 2011 - 07:47 AM
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[link="http://www.wilderness.org.au"]
Thought I should link you the Wilderness society after talking about it
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