UK: MyCharity page, the new fundraising frontier

MyCharity page, the UKs first website to be entirely dedicated to both fundraising and social networking is now online. This innovative business that allows charities and individual fundraisers to raise money, connect with each other, talk about their activities and read about fundraising news all in the same place, was founded by Adam Foyster, 27 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Here is his story.

Tell us how the idea behind MyCharity page came about?
It actually took shape at the beginning of last year, even though I had really been planning it for about 18 months before then. I was preparing to run the Marathon des Sables in Morocco for fundraising – its 6 marathons in 6 days in the Sahara Desert ? and I obviously wanted to raise as much money as possible while I was out there. I was looking around for websites to set up a fundraising page and really wasn?t satisfied with what I found. I wasn?t happy about having to give away money that I was collecting for charity as a commission to a website. It made me realise that there was a real need for a service that was able to offer two specific things: free fundraising pages, that is to say with no registration fee, and commission free donations, so that someone giving away £10 or £20 to someones fundraising event would have the guarantee that it would all go to charity. So when I got back from Morocco I set it out starting to think of how that could be done and I came up with the concept of MyCharity page.com.

Who is behind MyCharity page?
There are a few of us, Chris who?s a programmer and has been working really hard setting the web pages up, Lisa my sister, a chartered accountant, so she deals with the financial side of things. And then there are various other people who help with the needs of the charities and to guide them through the registration process and use of the website. We have also privately financed the venture our selves.

Facebook, Linked-in, MySpace ? there are already so many social networking sites, was there really any need for another one?!
Well, MyChartiy page is really about getting everything in one place, and combining a number of services. There is a functionality to it that you can?t really get anywhere else without having to use different websites. For example, shortly we will be having an online auction so if you are fundraising and you want to sell an expensive watch, you can do that without having to go anywhere else. At the moment, if you?re using Facebook, you might have a charity fundraising application on your webpage but you would have to use eBay to auction something off for charity.

We felt that we wanted to get it all into in one place: we imagined a place where you could shop online and receive commission for charity, fundraise through standard donations from friends, family and colleagues, auction stuff online and where it would all count towards your same fundraising page. On top of that we wanted to give the opportunity of interacting with other fundraisers and groups of people who are fundraising and who have similar interests. For example, you might all be running the London marathon for charity, or trekking the Kilimangiaro and MyCharity page would be a way to connect you. We thought that this would not only help to make fundraising a bit more fun, but help to enhance fundraising and more importantly to help charities raise more money and interact with their fundraisers as well.

What has your biggest challenge been?
I think the most difficult step was how to sort out how the taking of the money in a safe way, we had to get an acquiring bank, you know its not like setting up a shop! But we are sorted now?

So you think that Web 2.0 is more than just the latest craze?
Web 2.0 is not a fad, its here to stay. I think it will certainly change and develope a lot, there is more niche social networking going on out there but in terms of fundraising I think its definitely here to stay.

For now MyCharity page is a UK based venture. What about the future?
We definitely think we will become completely international and have already received interest from abroad, especially from Italy.