The future of funding impact projects

Written By Paula Neme

Open Collective is making money a little easier for everyone by bridging the gap between funders and the unincorporated groups that are changing our world for the better. 

Money fuels the projects and innovations we’re passionate about and sustains our everyday lives. But it also comes with a huge set of headaches: bank accounts, contracts, invoices, taxes -- not to mention the time spent raising it. 

These challenges grow if you’re an unincorporated organisation like a community initiative, movement, or open-source project. Without a centralized structure, it is very difficult for groups like these to accept crowdfunding, sponsorship, or grants. 

Open Collective aims to make it a little easier for any organisation to raise and manage the funds they need and get back to their important work. EHF Fellow Alanna Irving has been working with the Open Collective team remotely for several years and is now leading the charge to bring this innovative concept to New Zealand. 

 

Building a bridge between funders and impact projects in New Zealand

Open source projects, meetups, community initiatives, and these kinds of groups are not owned by anyone. Many times they operate without any kind of centralized structure -- no one person looking after the accounts, no dedicated bank account, and none of the official documents that usually accompany financial interactions. 

On the flip side, when funders who are formal entities want to support an unincorporated group, they can run into problems because they have to be able to produce invoices, justify budget lines and demonstrate accountability. 

“OpenCollective builds a bridge between funders and the people who need funding by combining fiscal sponsorship and fundholding with a powerful tech platform,” says Alanna.

 

How Open Collective works 

Open Collective provides simple but powerful tools for managing budgets and expenses. It enables crowdfunding, facilitates payment transfers, and handles all of the tedious little money and admin details that can bog down an organisation.

Open Collective is completely transparent. Through the platform, anyone can see where groups are sourcing their money and what they’re spending it on. This allows funders to have peace of mind that their money is being well-spent and helps Collectives showcase their legitimacy. 

Open Collective is designed to be ongoing, meaning groups can continue to raise and spend funds for as long as their initiative requires. This feature sets Open Collective apart from traditional crowdfunding platforms, which typically host “campaigns” -- quick fundraisers that have an end date.  

 

Open Collective in Practice

This year’s pandemic brought unexpected challenges to people around the world. Luckily, communities everywhere stepped up to support their more-vulnerable neighbours in need of groceries, medicine, or shelter. 

These kinds of pop-up citizen groups are hugely important but not established enough to have a bank account and proper accounting. That’s where Open Collective shines. More than 250 COVID-19 response groups have raised over $2 million for their causes through the platform. 

One of these is Meals For Gratitude, which raised $250,000 to provide food to frontline medical workers, and a tech organization called Streetlives that has made an app providing real-time support to people who are homeless during this pandemic. Funding has enabled them to hire people with lived experience of homelessness to build the tool.

 

How to get involved 

Open Collective has been used around the world for several years, and Alanna believes it will do really well in New Zealand -- a country known for its innovation and collaborative community attitude. 

Open Collective New Zealand is currently accepting applications projects seeking a fiscal sponsor and fundholder, and inquiries from funders who want to support unincorporated or informal groups through a trusted partner. Alanna has also set up a Collective for the EHF community to use for crowdfunding, selling event tickets, and pooling resources.

To learn more, visit https://opencollective.nz.

 

Journey with us

Impact is a journey and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a group of inspired, committed, and informed individuals to get a world-changing idea off the ground. You can help amplify EHF Fellow impact as they work to develop solutions to some of humanity’s biggest problems. Here is how you can join us in this work as we journey together on a path to a better world:

Paula Neme
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