4 Million Euro, 200 Charities, One Little Start-Up
This week LIKECHARITY turned 2!
When we were founded back in 2012 LIKECHARITY worked with six Irish charities, we now have over 200 charities using our platform in Ireland, have raised over €4 million for Irish charities and have opened offices in the UK and America.
It’s been a year full of change for the LIKECHARITY team, and the Irish charity sector, so to celebrate we’ve compiled LIKECHARITY’s best bits from the last two years:
Majella O’Donnell on the Late Late Show: €500,000
September 2013
The popularity of LIKECHARITY’s mobile giving platform was highlighted for the first time when Majella O’Donnell (wife of Daniel O’Donnell), having recently been diagnosed with cancer, shaved her head live on the Late Late Show on RTE1 and urged viewers to donate €4 via text.
4% of the Irish adult population took out their phone to send a text that night, and LIKECHARITY collected over €500,000 for the Irish Cancer Society.
No Make-Up Selfies: €1.5 million
March 2014
Just six months later Irish ladies rallied again to support breast cancer awareness when the #NoMakeUpSelfie craze went viral. LIKECHARITY harnessed all of this awareness into €1 million in less than two weeks.
The craze saw women up and down the country share a bare faced snap of themselves on social media alongside their LIKECHARITY receipt.
The #NoMakeUpSelfie kicked off a new age in the Irish charity sector and proved the power of social media and SMS.
THE ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE: €1 million
August 2014
This August the American ALS challenge crossed the pond and raised over €1 million euro for the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association through the LIKECHARITY platform.
The craze saw people dump buckets of ice cold water over their heads and send a text donation via LIKECHARITY. This was the third viral campaign for LIKECHARITY and showed that the generosity of the Irish people is never-ending.
Alongside the Irish Cancer Society and IMNDA over 200 other Irish charities use LIKECHARITY’s text-to-donate platform on a regular basis to help support their fundraising.
19% of the Irish population have donated via LIKECHARITY – that’s 850,000 people!
The LIKECHARITY platform has raised over €4 million for the Irish charity sector in just two years!
Meet the Team:
The LIKECHARITY team has more than doubled in the last year. We now have 11 staff in our Dublin HQ, and another four in the North Carolina office.
So we asked the Dublin team: What are the biggest challenges and rewards of being part of LIKECHARITY?
1. What’s the biggest change between LIKECHARITY last October and this October?
‘People know what we can do now. Last year we were an unknown little start-up and now over 19% of the Irish population have made a text donation through LIKECHARITY that’s a huge success for us. It proves not only does text donation work, but that people actively want to donate through text’ – Tadhg, CEO
‘And we’ve doubled the size of our tech team’* – Peter, CTO
*The tech team was formerly 1 person. And is now 2. Peter is very excited by this.
2. The biggest perk of working in LIKECHARITY?
‘The location, right on South William Street’ – Peter, CTO
‘And doing what you love’ – Marjut, Project Manager
‘But mostly the food’ – Joe, PHP Developer
3. The biggest challenge facing LIKECHARITY?
‘Challenging traditional fundraising methods, we believe mobile and social media are the future of fundraising but it’s hard to get charities to rethink methods they’ve been using for years’ – John, COO
4. Best moment for the company in the last two years?
‘Hitting the target for Team Gavin Glynn, definitely!’ – John, COO
‘And winning the Fundraising Ireland award!’ – Aoife, Charity Engagement Officer
5. Describe the charity tech industry in three words?
‘Willing to embrace’ – Joe, PHP Developer
6. Who’s the hardest working member of the team?
‘Bobby-Tom. Hands down.’ – Claire, Communications Manager
‘Definitely Bobby-Tom’ – Tatjana, Contact Strategy Manager
Bobby Tom, Office Dog
7. Where did the idea for LIKECHARITY come from?
‘Listening to Christmas FM one year we noticed how little of the funds actually went to the charity. Being from the mobile industry we knew that something didn’t quite add up and thought that there must be a more cost effective way for charities to use mobile’
– Tadhg, CEO
8. What do you most enjoy about working at LIKECHARITY?
‘Being part of something new and innovative’ – Tatjana, Contact Strategy Manager
'I also like quote of the day to capture those brilliant/disastrous moments'* - Darina, Business Development
*This week's quote comes from John, who is annoyed he's never won Quote of the Week 'But I Say Such Great Things'
9. What’s next for LIKECHARITY?
‘We’re going to build on our past successes, further our innovation and increase the number of charities we work with’ – John, COO
‘The biggest aim is to become sustainable so that we can continue to help charities embrace tech based fundraising’ – Tadhg, CEO