Adam Foyster, founder of MyCharitypage.com
Adam Foyster, 27, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, is the founder of MyCharity page: the UKs first website to be entirely dedicated to both fundraising and social networking: 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.
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.
Do 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.
