LIKECHARITY’s Journey to €6 Million

Our success lies in the joining of the generosity of Ireland and the simplicity of sending a text message.

As of last week LIKECHARITY has raised €6 million for charities through text message donations!

Our story began 4 years ago when Tadhg O’Toole and John Kyne saw a gap between charities and potential donors.  Text-to-donate campaigns were not popular because cell service providers were not able to effectively set up individual campaigns for Irish charities.

This problem lead to a solution. Kyne and O’Toole dubbed this solution LIKECHARITY, an intermediary between charities and the public that makes donating to an organisation as easy as sending a text message.

Since we unveiled our text-to-donate platform, over 300 charities have used the service, not only in Ireland but in the UK and United States as well.

Chief Operating Officer John Kyne explained that they never imagined the service would be so successful.  

“It wasn’t until Majella O’Donnell’s segment on the Late Late Show when she shaved her head in an effort to raise donations for the Irish Cancer Society.  It was such an emotional segment and she gave great context to the the issue at hand.”  

O’Donnell’s fundraising stunt was able to captivate a huge audience.  Over 15% of viewers donated via text message to the Irish Cancer Society.  Overnight the organisation received €500,000.  

This was when our little startup realised its potential, and more importantly realised that the generosity of Ireland is limitless.  We have gained fame from viral campaigns over the years which boosted donations tremendously; but just as important are the small charities we work with who utilise our platform so well.  Charities like Lauralynn and Jack and Jill are two children’s hospices that use our mobile donation platform extremely efficiently.

“We’re just the intermediary,” says Kyne.  “The real story is the people who donate and the brilliant charities who do such great work.”

We saw a huge amount of donations for Haiti hurricane relief this past week. This sent us over the €6 million mark in text message donations.  Fittingly, this surge was due to the Late Late Show, as retired rugby player Paul O’Connell went on air and urged viewers to donate to the disaster stricken country.