Charity Science is excited to announce that we’ve added peer to peer fundraiser pages for special events of any kind, in addition to our birthday and Christmas fundraisers. You can now run peer to peer fundraisers for any special event you’d like with unique pages for the US, UK, and Canada (anyone else can fundraise too you’ll just be using the currency of one of those countries and donors won’t get tax deductibility). Peer-to-peer fundraisers are one of the most effective ways to raise money and we’ve had great success with birthday and Christmas fundraisers. Most people who put in even 1-2 hours to these fundraisers raise $300 or more which is a terrific per hour return!
While you can use the general fundraiser pages for any type of event, here are some suggestions:
Graduations - Many people mark their academic achievements with parties which often involve gifts so this a great opportunity to fundraise.
Weddings - Getting married is great time to raise money for charity as gifts from friends and family are common. Be sure to include the fact that you are running a fundraiser in your invitations.
Athletic feats - Whether running a race, biking, or just attempting to hit your new personal best, fundraising for your personal fitness accomplishments is a great idea which thousands of people already do.
Something funny - Embarrassing yourself a little for a good cause is a great way to have a bit of fun while raising money for effective causes. You can run an auction where if people pay a certain amount you'll follow through on different dares. You can run also run a social event like a bad dancing contest or anything that trades a bit of personal awkwardness for money towards fighting poverty.
Anything else you want to do - Basically any reason you can think of to fundraise is a great reason to raise money for effective charities. You may also be interested in running a birthday or Christmas fundraiser in much the same way.
Once you’ve decided what you want to do, you can find instructions on how to create and promote your fundraiser here.
If you’re thinking of running a fundraiser, we strongly suggest you check out Peter Hurford’s guide to running a fundraiser as he ran a highly successful fundraiser and others have copied his method with great results.
Finally, you know your situation best but as a general rule we’ve found people are most generous during the holiday season. So if you want to raise the most money, I’d suggest donating your Christmas which we also have unique pages for in in the US, UK, and Canada. However, if you think there’s a good case that your upcoming event is better, or you’d rather get presents at Christmas, this is a great alternative which you can get started creating now in the US, UK, or Canada.
More people need to do this. From what I've seen from others' campaigns, this really is an effective use of time, and has the added benefit of getting a conversation about effective altruism going with friends and family.
As an introvert, it is usually difficult for me to bring up the topic of EA with family, so this is an excellent excuse to not only get donations for the event itself, but also to talk more deeply about EA at family gatherings.
With that said, I haven't actually done this myself yet. Most of the reason for me posting this comment is to motivate me to actually move forward with doing this, and I figure publicly posting this intention will make me more likely to follow through on it.
Hey Eric. Great idea to post as a pre-commitment! I think a lot of people have used this as a kickoff point to talk about EA.
Thanks for posting. I'm really excited to learn more about this :)
Some feedback/experience on the wedding idea. We asked people for donations to SCI instead of gifts in 2011. We saw only £240 go to the charity + some money for ourselves (less than this). If we'd asked for money to set up a home / stuff instead we could have avoided costs exceeding that in the future. To put it in perspective, a few hours fundraising in Oxford highstreet got £280. I think the values etc. of your wedding invitees and what they think they're there for on the day are very important to take into account. Further, if you do a fundraiser among your friends / family for one thing once they're much less likely to give to that cause again a second time??
It might be a good per hour return but there's a high per hour potential cost: each core relationship is worth a lot and people can feel used unless you do this tactfully. Charity Science's web page has some absolutely fantastic suggestions of how to fundraise if you didn't want to rinse your network.
I think this is awesome. However...
There does seem to be a lack of transparency re: pricing/fees. I got all the way through sign-up without any mention of fees, and had to click the itty-bitty "Support Center" link in the footer to find any information on pricing.
There I found the Pricing & Plans FAQ, which only mentions the 2.5% transaction fee and a monthly fee incurred after $5000 is raised. I still don't know much that fee is.
Hey Masson,
Its hard to fit everything that everyone wants to know on a small introduction page. The monthly fee is $50 and paid by donors who support Charity Science directly. If you want a system with no fees we recommend using AMF's system which is fee-less although a little harder to set up and a little less visually appealing.
Thanks for posting this. Can I raise funds for MIRI or CFAR using this? (I had a quick look but couldn't find it if it was an option)
Hey Larks,
The system only works for GiveWell/Charity Science recommended charities.