Making it Easier to do Good

photo credit Monarch Butterfly Fund

GlobalGiving was founded to democratize aid and philanthropy, and in 2008, we launched the first Open Challenge campaign, making it easier for any nonprofit in the world to share its idea about how to make their community a better place. Organizations were given a specific time period to reach a set fundraising goal, and those that were successful in reaching that goal were welcomed as permanent members of the GlobalGiving community.

Thousands of nonprofits from almost every country on the map have participated in Open Challenge campaigns since then, many of whom are still active partners of GlobalGiving, continuing to access the training, support, and resources to improve their communities. Nevertheless, we often received feedback that the time restrictions created by the Open Challenge were too rigid to accommodate busy calendars. We also heard that some wonderful organizations weren’t able to qualify for permanent membership in the time allotted, even though they were committed to learning, improving, and doing great work in their community.

Last year we took a long, hard look at the way new potential partners interact with GlobalGiving, and we challenged ourselves to think creatively about how we could provide more value and greater opportunity to nonprofits around the world. We’ve decided to  implement some changes in 2016 that will hopefully make joining GlobalGiving faster, easier, and more flexible for potential partners.

As of February 1st,  if a nonprofit wants to join the GlobalGiving community, there are just two steps:

1. Submit an application (so we can verify that it is a legitimate nonprofit).

2. Share an idea to make the world better by posting a project.

That’s it; then welcome to the GlobalGiving community! After an application is approved, it is up to each organization to decide how they want to interact with the community. They can take part in virtual training programs and access GlobalGiving-built and third party learning tools, all while earning GG Rewards points for their efforts. They can use our fundraising and donor management tools to grow their donor base or participate in matching and bonus prize campaigns to motivate donors and earn extra revenue for their projects. Best of all, they can do any or all of it, in any order, at any time they want!

Whether an organization is actively fundraising on GlobalGiving or not, we believe they can benefit from joining a community of like-minded organizations interested in becoming better at what they do. And in the case that they do decide to start fundraising using our tools, we can reward the organizations that have shown a commitment to learning with increased visibility and the chance for more funding from individuals and corporate donors in the GlobalGiving network.

We are excited to see if this new, simplified process for joining the GlobalGiving community helps us support more earth-changing ideas and organizations. If you work with a nonprofit and have not yet joined GlobalGiving, now is a great time to try us out.

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