Charity crowdfunding platform Chuffed has raised $3 million in donations, with one million of that being donated in the last three-and-a-half months.
Chuffed launched in October 2013, with almost $500,000 in funding from the Telstra Foundation, provides a place where non-profit and social enterprise projects can be funded. It doesn’t charge any fees; instead, donors decide how they would like to contribute to the platform when they give money to projects.
It took almost a year for Chuffed to see $1 million donations made on the platform, 16 months to crack the $2 million mark, and a little under 20 months to reach $3 million.
Chuffed co-founder Prashan Paramanathan says it’s the first sign of non-profits changing the way they raise money.
“Not-for-profits and social enterprises in Australia are embracing crowdfunding in record numbers,” he says.
“While we’re excited about the 750 plus organisations we’ve supported to date, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are at least 600,000, but probably a lot more, social cause organisations out there in Australia that could benefit from crowdfunding.”
Paramanathan says Chuffed is also seeing use cases the startup didn’t expect. Like a research initiative from the University of Western Australia, disaster relief for Cyclone Pam and the Nepal earthquake, as well as various projects at local schools.
International expansion has always been in Chuffed’s plans and Paramanathan is currently in London overseeing the startup’s international beta program, which launched in the United Kingdom, United States and Europe in April.
“Already, 15% of our campaigns are from international organisations,” he says.
“We think there’s a ripe opportunity for us to transform how people think of giving not just in Australia, but globally.”
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Kye began his career at a Fairfax daily on the North-West Coast of Tasmania. He has since taken his belongings, and keen interest in technology, to Melbourne. He has a bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from RMIT University.
