In case you haven\u2019t heard, Ammado is set to be the next big thing in online fundraising. Well, outside of the US and Canada anyway.<\/p>\n
Based in Dublin, Ireland, Ammado is a social network just like Facebook or MySpace, but whose primary focus is to empower people and nonprofits worldwide to fundraise and donate online. One of the reasons it\u2019s going to be big is that the Facebook\u2019s Causes app<\/a>, which has been instrumental in raising funds and awareness for thousands of charitable organisations, is only available to organisations registered in the US and Canada. Considering that 70% of Facebook’s users are outside of the United States and that most of its growth is occuring internationally, Ammado\u2019s option for charities worldwide to receive donations via its Facebook widget is a big draw.<\/p>\n Ammado was founded as a mission-based, for-profit enterprise, in Dublin in 2005 by serial entrepreneur Peter Conlon and Dr. Anna Kupka. They travelled the world for three years meeting with over 1,500 companies and nonprofits to understand their needs and challenges in harnessing social media for social good.<\/p>\n The site was launched in June 2008 and is available in 12 languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, traditional and simplified Chinese) connecting individuals from 130 countries and over 4,000 nonprofit organisations worldwide. Individuals and nonprofits can join Ammado for free and all you need is your email address.<\/p>\n In addition to online donation capabilities, they offer \u2018Giving Circles\u2018, a programme of giving directly, giving vouchers, eployee donations and Facebook widgets, which can be used in conjunction with each other to create a complete fundraising campaign. In fact, Ammado accepts and distributes donations (via wire transfer) in 31 currencies, opening up a huge opportunity for chairties to widen their donor base.<\/p>\n Nonprofit Tech 2.0<\/a> has a good write up of the implications of Ammado here<\/a>, including a step by step guide of how charitable organisations worldwide can get started on Ammado:<\/p>\n Ammado also provides some excellent fundraising tools to both individuals and organisations, much of it based on peer-to-peer fundraising like those that the Facebook Causes app uses:<\/p>\n Overall, it\u2019s a great opportunity for charities worldwide to widen their donor base and use the power of online fundraising to generate furthe rincome from new donors. Together with it\u2019s intuitive interface, slick widgets, and customisable organisation profiles, it\u2019s a platform that you should be taking a look at closely and to widen your organisation\u2019s own \u2018giving circles\u2019.<\/p>\n Find out more about Ammado at www.ammado.com\n
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