crowdfunding – Page 2 – The Chuffed Academy

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018

Food as Medicine: Leafy’s Story

“I’m Claire McDonnell, qualified Nutrition Advisor, mum and therapeutic diet keynote speaker in the UK and USA. Finding the right nutrition for our daughter and son’s health conditions at the right time prevented dire long term health consequences.

We plan to provide nutrition information and resources that we needed as a family when our children were most poorly. We don’t feel that finding the right information should be left to chance.

Our Food as Medicine story

When my otherwise healthy baby daughter Leafie was only 6 months old when she experienced her first seizure. It lasted a terrifying 25 minutes and she was bluelighted into the local hospital for treatment. Unfortunately lengthy and distressing seizures began to reoccur until little Leafie was suffering a debilitating 60+ daily seizures a day. Her overall health, sleep and ability to enjoy a typical childhood were being taken away and our young family were suffering from exhaustion and distress.

We researched until we came across a Canadian parent’s blog that had used a diet to reduce their young daughter’s seizures. The more we read about their Ketogenic diet the more impressive it appeared.

We started Leafie on the Ketogenic diet around her second birthday, enjoying a ‘keto’ birthday carrot cake as one of her first foods. Within 2 days of her diet
changes the majority of her seizures (up to 45 minutes long) had stopped and three years later most have not returned. Leafie’s sleep, confidence and smile returned swiftly, she became her happy, active, bright self again.

As well as the astonishing change in my daughter’s health this is also remarkable as the diet is well known, with much evidence behind it demonstrating how successful it is in treating seizures and yet it is rarely considered as a treatment option.

Our confidence in the ability of food to improve health came from having also
restored our son Rudie’s skin to glowing health after 2 years of eczema, hives and alopecia, again all through diet! Again nutrition was not a consideration in his treatment by the medical community.

Our Project Leafie appeal
With experience of taking on severe eczema and epilepsy with foods we now want to help other families to find the diets that can help their health too!

Chuffed.org/project/leafie

We quickly raised over half of our campaign target of £6,000! We need to raise £6,000 total so that we can:-
• Provide a free family nutrition introduction course
• Populate our leafie.org website with evidence and information to help families
get started
• Publish family’s stories of using nutrition to manage a variety of health
conditions; included Bowel Disease, Epilepsy and Eczema. ”

Read more on Claire, Leafy and Rudie’s experiences with a Ketogenic diet on their campaign page:

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018

Progressive Podcast Australia: A Podcast for Activists

“We are Nick and Katie. Nick is a sociologist, Katie is a social justice lawyer and we are both activists. We have been involved in a wide variety of social movements, including animal rights, Occupy, refugee rights and workers’ rights. We are both passionate about social change and as when we first got together as partners we would regularly discuss political issues. These discussions turned into Progressive Podcast Australia over 6 years ago, starting during the worldwide Occupy movement that highlighted economic inequality. We do this podcast in our spare time, around work and other commitments.

We started the podcast partly out of our frustration about the neglect of activist voices in the mainstream media, who generally only give activists a few seconds to get their message out, in the rare times they are given a voice at all. We were also concerned about the limited range of perspectives given in the mainstream media generally. In the spirit of alternative, independent and activist media, our podcast gives a voice to Left, progressive and anarchist voices and ideas that are neglected in the mainstream media. We cover a wide range of human rights, animal rights and environmental issues.

We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign to help us buy some new recording equipment and are also giving supporters a chance to choose the topics we cover on the show this year. We have reached the half way point of our goal so will buy a second microphone stand, which will be a big improvement on the board games we are currently using as a second mic stand! We appreciate any support in helping us get to our full goal and if we achieve this we will also be able to buy a new microphone. ”

You can read more about Nick and Katie’s podcast for social change here:

January 17, 2018

The Inception of Saved by Soup: Helping Homeless People with Mental Health

“Two years ago, while on a lunch break, I walked past the Whitfield Street soup kitchen in central London. It is next door to my office – we are neighbours. At the time, I wasn’t sure it was a soup kitchen, but I had regularly noticed crowds of people outside – people whose look and demeanour suggested they were homeless or had fallen on hard times. There I was with my £7 lunch from Pret-A-Mange, in the privileged position of having a good job, and a roof over my head and I was walking past… again.

In that moment I decided to go in and find out what was going on. I met the then manager (Miranda) and in that brief meeting I realised I could help her, and she could help me. She needed volunteers, and I had access to a couple of hundred people who work in the business I help to run (I am the managing director at an international media business. People who work in this environment tend to be from privileged backgrounds). I felt we could do with a sense of perspective: We all moan about our lives, work and pressure , but by comparison to rough sleepers and the long term homeless, what have we got to complain about!?

Fast forward to the present day and everyone at MKTG (my business), and its sister agencies (Posterscope and PSI) are weekly volunteers. We help prepare food, work front of house and raise funds to keep the larder stocked. We have got to know many of the customers, and this has given us a sense of purpose and helped us understand that homelessness is closely linked to mental health issues. Many of the guests at Whitfield St have such issues, which if left untreated, ensures they will remain homeless. Simultaneously, the sufferers we know have become disengaged with their health problems. The reasons for this are complex but include the reduction of funding for mental health outreach in the NHS. Being homeless also reduces the likelihood of being seen by a mental health professional.

After a company brainstorm we had the idea to launch a crowd funding campaign to create London’s first ever mental health drop-in centre inside the soup kitchen. We aim to connect guests back to their mental health issues in a trusted environment, and provide a model for all soup kitchens in London.”

You can have a look at Michael’s campaign to help Homeless people with their mental health, here:

January 17, 2018January 17, 2018

Paper Airplanes: Skype Learning for Syrians

“My name is Cheryl and I began tutoring with Paper Airplanes in the Spring of 2016. I had just returned from studying abroad in Istanbul, Turkey where I witnessed firsthand the lack of resources and infrastructure that Syrian refugees face. As a former refugee from Sierra Leone, who immigrated to Boston when I was six years old, I know the struggles of trying to learn English, which was my third language. I actually remember not speaking at all in first grade and remembering that struggle made me want to help a fellow refugee through their language journey.

Paper airplanes strives to unlock opportunities with live online language and skills instruction for conflict-affected teens and adults in the Middle East. We are a start-up nonprofit using technology to provide free, virtual, one-on-one language and skills instruction to people affected by conflict. We provide the tools people need to pursue education, secure employment, and ultimately, rebuild their lives. We teach English, Turkish, computer coding for women, and journalism to youth and adults inside of Syria and displaced across the Middle East and North Africa.

Paper Airplanes is working to address needs for skills acquisition, accessible training, and individualized instruction. We use Skype to match volunteer tutors and trainers with these conflict-affected students in the Middle East. Our programs rely on hundreds of volunteers who provide one-on-one personalized instruction. Learners enrolled in our classes receive individual support as they search for scholarships, apply to universities, write CVs, or enter the job market.

After two years of operating as a program on college campuses, Paper Airplanes grew from just 10 pairs of students and tutors to 325 per semester. We’ve served over 1,200 beneficiaries to date, and our work has been featured nationally and internationally.

We have an incredibly dedicated team of people willing to volunteer their time. We are harnessing the widespread volunteering power and interest from American college students who are passionate about tutoring and doing their part to help mitigate the repercussions of the global refugee crisis.”

Discover more about Cheryl’s journey with Paper Airplanes and their work to refugees, here:

January 7, 2018January 7, 2018

Giving Rigby House Children the Freedom to Learn

“When my second child was just 6 months old, we discovered that he had been born with a very rare genetic condition causing overgrowth on one side of the body. The rollercoaster of specialist appointments, scans and blood tests that followed caused a lot of anxiety. Luckily, he was already enrolled at The Infants’ Home, where he could receive the best quality of early childhood education and care. He also had access to occupational therapists, speech therapists and an early childhood health nurse, all onsite.

Knowing that he had all of the support he needed while he was in day care was a great weight off my shoulders. When a position became available to work in the fundraising department of The Infants’ Home, I just knew I had to apply. It is highly satisfying to work in a team that raises funds for such a unique and inclusive organisation, knowing that every day you are helping struggling families find a safe place to receive the support that they need to live their best life.

After attending a Chuffed workshop earlier this year, we decided to run a campaign to raise funds to renovate one of the childcare centres at The Infant’s Home, which was built in 1959. This was our first crowdfunding campaign and, thanks to mentoring from Chuffed and a generous donor who is matching funds raised, our first crowdfunding campaign has been a big success- and it’s been fun!

We met our target of $10,000 with 5 days to go, so we decided on a stretch target of $12,500 and look forward to hitting that one as the campaign concludes. We’ll definitely be add crowdfunding to our fundraising toolbox into the future.”

You can read more about the Infant’s Home and their Crowdfunding Campaign, here:

September 7, 2017

Followings for Busubi Empowered Communities: “Anyone can make a massive impact in a short amount of time”

“I’m Lauren Exton, former television & radio producer in Australia, current PR manager for an entertainment company in the USA – and Followings is technically my side project, but absolutely dominates my thoughts and schedule!

A series of life-altering service trips to Uganda showed me just how great the need for community engagement is in the rural villages. I also witnessed enormous growth in myself and others on the trip and I was drawn to offer an opportunity for people around the world who might not realise they have everything it takes to be a change-agent. When all you have to do is take 10 days off work, and fundraise $6000 – anyone can make a massive impact in a short amount of time.

Most people don’t know just how much they are capable of, so if I can help them see just how amazing they are – for me that is the greatest gift of all.

With 50% of Uganda’s population under the age of 15, and only 8% of girls currently completing high school – it’s obvious to me that we need all hands on deck, and that’s part what I’m trying to do with Followings. Whether people come on the trip, or donate to someone who is – they’re making change.

I opened up world-wide applications for the first 10 day trip in August 2017 and we had a full team of 10 (Australians & Americans) in just a few short weeks! We have weekly conference calls for the 12 weeks leading up to our November trip, and by the first week of September the team had already raised 10% of the $63,000 goal! (I’m still pinching myself!)

The money raised will build a Learning & Community Centre in the rural Ugandan village of Busubi, and also covers the trip costs for the 10 hardworking fundraisers/volunteers who will tirelessly co-create & facilitate 6 intense days of community engagement with local villagers while on the ground.

We’ll return again in April 2018, and again in October 2018, with 2 more trips in 2019, and a goal for the centre to be accredited to facilitate university courses and become fully self-sustaining by 2020.

Thank you Chuffed for this amazing opportunity – and for all your support along the way – you have been UNBELIEVABLE in every way!”

For more on this awesome cause and to support their crowdfunding, check out the Followings campaign page:

August 30, 2017August 31, 2017

How to Recover From a Slow Start to Your Campaign

You started your crowdfunding campaign with so much excitement.

But maybe your launch week didn’t go as planned and you didn’t have the time available to send out emails to your core audience.

But then a week went by. And then now weeks. And you’re still far away from your target.

What are you supposed to do?

Is there a special power-up that will transform the campaign into a success, or is it just time to give up?

Thankfully, we’ve seen a lot of campaigns and know what works. We’ve seen crowdfunding efforts that gained momentum weeks after starting and exceeded their goals despite the odds.

And remember, you’re not alone. Hundreds of other campaigns have struggled. There are strategies to bring things back up.

The truth is that few campaigns take off with wild success at the beginning.

If you’ve raised 50% or more in the first few weeks, don’t lose hope. Many campaigns raise the final 30-50% in the final week. Celebrate your progress and get ready for the final countdown.

Most successful campaigns get 30% of their funding in the first week. But if you haven’t hit that number, there are ways to turn things around.

In our years of crowdfunding, we know what strategies will make your campaign a success.

Here’s how to get started.

What to do if you haven’t raised anything yet

If you haven’t raised anything in the first week or so, it’s going to be almost impossible to get the campaign off the ground.

We recommend cancelling your campaign and starting over again.

In the interim time, prepare as best as you can. Read up on how to prepare for your campaign in our crowdfunding guide.

Rally your supporters, and get friends to commit to donating once you start again.

When you have the support you need, relaunch the campaign. You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to run your campaign with the proper support and preparation.

Keep up the confidence, even if you haven’t raised enough yet

Your donors want to contribute to a campaign that’s going places. Even if you’re unsure, don’t sound discouraged with the campaign, and don’t communicate that it will probably fail.

Be confident!

Use the renewed sense of urgency to compel your supporters to contribute even more. Show how your campaign needs their funds now more than ever. Don’t act desperate and beg for finances, but honestly ask others to help with your cause.

A great way to do this is to thank supporters. Show appreciate for their contributions in your updates, and include a link to your campaign. This is a great way to show appreciate while not being another ask.

Oftentimes, the secret sauce to campaigns that work is donor communication. Reach out frequently to your supporters and show them what’s happening behind the scenes.

Emphasize the content you’re creating and the work you’re putting in. Focus on sharing exciting stories with them instead of constantly asking for money.

If you’re raising money to build a shelter, for example, share stories and pictures of how you’ve begun talking with construction companies. Don’t complain about how the project might not happen since there isn’t enough support!

Leverage existing donors

You already have backers that are ready to give you the push you need. Here’s how to encourage them to help you even more.

First, (politely) ask donors to share! Remember, you never know who will be your next big donor. It could be a Facebook friend of an existing backer. Encourage them to spread the word.

Second, thank your donors profusely. We’ve seen campaigns do well with personalized, public thank-yous. Write a thank-you note for each donor, and share it on social media.

Libby Williams and Caroline Fleay made sure to personally thank every single donor in their campaign to build a free legal clinic to help those seeking asylum in Australia.

They even asked some donors for permission to thank them publically, which helped spread the word of the campaign. As a result, Libby and Caroline raised $91,400 in just 60 days!

Finally, encourage your existing backers to increase their support. The best way we’ve seen to make this happen is through new perks.

Adding an original experience or form of recognition are great free perks. These new rewards can easily double the average support each donor gives you.

Get new backers

Perhaps the most explosive way to skyrocket the success of your campaign is by attracting new donors.

Work to find new people interested in donating or sharing the campaign with their network. We’ve seen three particularly successful strategies.

First, contact non-donors you reached out to earlier but who chose not to donate. Reach out in a friendly way and don’t pressure them for money. Ask why they didn’t donate, and encourage them to share even if they don’t contribute.

Second, reach out to influencers. These are people with a larger reach than you have. These may be celebrities, bloggers, or even corporate partners.

When you reach out to these individuals, look for a personal story to tell them about the cause. Share any successes you’ve already had, and explain how this would interest their audience.

We’ve found that quality is more important than quantity almost every time, so craft a special message for each influencer.

Next, you need to decide which channel will work best to reach him or her. Email is generally a good tool, but you may also want to follow up with a Facebook message, SMS, or even a phone call.

When you make contact, share how their support will help the cause and give them a specific action to take (like posting on their Facebook page).

Third, repeat what has worked. Look carefully over your list of supporters.

(The easiest way to do this is by looking at your list of donor data on Chuffed.)

Are they mostly work friends? Volunteers in your local community?

Find patterns, then reach out to more people like this. Talk to more work friends, or encourage community organizations to spread the word.

If you must, extend the deadline

We don’t recommend extending your campaign deadline. It can kill the urgency of the team and actually discourage donors from contributing.

But if the end is drawing closer and you won’t be able to make enough progress in that time, consider pushing the deadline back by a small amount.

Even if you eventually decide to run an infinity campaign, it works best to set a deadline to count down to. We recommend 4-6 weeks for a typical campaign length.

But be sure to maintain the sense of urgency!

Don’t give up hope

Remember that you can’t predict how your campaign will end.

Until the campaign is over, keep promoting and staying positive. We’ve seen campaigns turn around in what appeared like the final hour.

You can do the same. You started your campaign to help a cause, and that cause still needs your support.

Don’t give up!

August 24, 2017

Together We Rise! Toronto Hip Hop Cultural Centre

““No = Next Opportunity” is a mindset that was ingrained in me as a young boy.

When I fell in love with Hip Hop and the art of break dancing I knew my life would never be the same. I was a skilled soccer player and coach, a black belt in martial arts, an avid golf, basketball, volleyball, and baseball player, but I fell in love with breaking. I say without hesitation, breaking saved my life and I am honoured to be at the helm of a movement to bring back Hip Hop to its most real and pure form; when race, class, gender, ability, and economics did not matter.

My passion for dance came from my parents. Every Sunday my parents danced together in our kitchen. Never mind if they’d been arguing the entire week. Sunday was the day that it all would fall to the wayside; and, my parents would dance and everyone would be happy and smiling. Truth be told, it was my mother that encouraged me to pursue dance because she said girls love boys that can dance and I was good at it. Salsa, merengue, popping, locking, breaking; I was, and still am, a great dancer; and I love to dance and it shows.

In the early morning hours, my father would leave our home in Jane and Finch to travel three hours to Union Station, where he shined shoes. He took pride in what he did, and he was the best at it. My father instilled in me that whatever it is you choose to do in your life be the best at it and always give 100%. When you have mastered what you “Love” to do and pride and ego does not impede your judgment, then and only then, do you have power and control over your destiny.

Never would I have imagined that the eldest son of Mexican immigrants would be facilitating a workshop on the topic of “Resilience” for immigrant women, each having experienced some form of trauma and its aftermath – PTSD; or putting on a workshop for autistic children and teaching them how to break dance, the art of DJ’ing and graffiti. Still clear to the day, I remember the sweet sound of a young girl on the mic throwing down some lyrics with DJ DTS on the “wheels of steel” and MC Jaba cheering her on.

I am passionate about the power of Hip Hop as a culture and as a formidable movement. We have a very strong and culturally diverse team of highly skilled creative arts professionals working together to enhance the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of children and youth of all ages, abilities, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. We provide a home and safe haven for them to express themselves through Hip Hop. We execute programming that unites, educates, and empowers children and youth as they perfect their chosen artistic form of expression in one or all of the four elements of Hip Hop – BBoying (break dancing), MC’ing, graffiti, and DJ’ing. The fifth element of Hip Hop “Knowledge” is what we are bringing.

The Toronto Hip Hop Cultural Centre inspires, motivates, and engages the children and youth of Toronto that are often failing in their attempts to navigate the world. We are helping them to make the transition from adolescence to adulthood, often a real-life struggle, less challenging

We are the bridge to get these children and youth to where they want to be. At the very least, we are opening their minds up to opportunities and giving them access to arenas that they may not be able to access on their own. As for myself, a well-respected elder and leader in the Hip Hop community it is my duty to do whatever I can do to push these children and youth up so that they can soar even higher than I was ever able to.

Our ‘success’ is their ‘success’. That said, at the very least, we must try.

‘Together We Rise’.”
Freddy ‘Freeze’ Lopez

For more on this awesome project, check out it’s crowdfunding campaign page:

August 9, 2017August 24, 2017

Community Leader: Kimberly

Meet Kimberly Clouthier, Chuffed.org’s Community Leader from the Northern Beaches in Sydney. Kimberly has a background in marketing and is passionate about educating the next generation, so they are better prepared for the future. She has worked on two not-for-profit boards as Fundraising Director and has raised thousands for multiple organisations!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your career (or life) so far.

I am older than I think I am. But you do need a bit of time to fit in all the experience I have had. I started my professional journey as a food photographer in New York City, went on to become a marketing guru in Eastern Europe and am now a futurist in Australia. I like to keep the momentum up, so I have also held board roles in not-for-profits, am a Marine Rescue volunteer, keen sailor and emerging sculptor… well one can hope anyway.

Why did you decide to become a Chuffed.org community leader?

Honestly? This ad appeared in my inbox and I answered it. The timing seemed right and Chuffed aligns with my philosophy of ‘giving while your going’. If you need to ‘give back’ then you’ve taken too much. There are plenty of things ordinary people can do to improve our future. You don’t have to be a millionaire. Chuffed enabled individuals like you and me to raised over $10 million for social good in less than 3 years. I want to support that!

How did your crowdfunding journey begin?

I was on a not-for-profit board for an arts organisation and we missed out a grant because of budget cuts. But the project that brought together over 60 artists and 2000 members of the community was too good to just drop. So we put it out there and got it funded using crowd funding.

What social cause are passionate about and why?

Being a futurist I am all about kids. I cannot imagine what it is like to be growing up these days where everything is changing so quickly. Exciting for sure, but also challenging. I mean how can you study for a career that does not even exist yet? So I am passionate about anything that enables kids to connect and get ahead.

What relevant fundraising or other experience do you have that you can share with participants in the workshop?

Being on not-for-profit boards gave me heaps of fundraising experience including straight up membership or donation drives, big fundraising events, grant writing and of course crowd funding. But my secret weapon is the business background I have in marketing.

What social cause project or campaign on Chuffed will the funds raised through the workshop support?

Following on that passion I mentioned earlier, I recently started up a not-for-profit named “Share the SPARK” with some business savvy friends. SPARK stands for Successful Professionals Assisting Resourceful Kids, and we aim to do just that by hooking up adults who are passionate about what they do with kids who have an interest. It is for kids to get exposure, or to try something they never even thought about, because they may find they have skills or talents they never thought they had. Challenging your own assumptions opens up new opportunities for the future.

Kimberly is hosting a Crowdfunding for Social Causes Workshop on the 30th of August. You can register here.