Now Nonprofits Outside the U.S. and Canada Can Fundraise on Facebook Too
Since the popular Facebook fundraising App Causes was built using GuideStar’s database of nonprofits in the United States and Canada, only nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada can utilize Causes’ fundraising tools. There are some amazing nonprofits at the grassroots working miracles daily with relatively small amounts of cash, but unfortunately, since no international database of verified nonprofits exists, these nonprofits are consistently unable to utilize most online fundraising tools. Not any anymore… thanks to Ammado.com.
Based in Dublin, Ireland, Ammado is a social network just like Facebook or MySpace, but whose primary focus is to empower people and nonprofits worldwide to fundraise and donate online. In addition to online donation capabilities, they offer giving circles, giving vouchers, and Facebook widgets. Considering that 70% Facebooks users are outside of the United States and that most of its growth is occuring internationally, Ammado’s timing is very good.
That said, nonprofit’s inside the United States and Canada can use Ammado too. One obvious advantage that Ammado has over Causes and most online donation processors, is that it accepts and distributes donations (via wire transfer) in 31 currencies (!!). As the world goes global, so does charitable giving.
Therefore, how nonprofits worldwide can get started on Ammado:
1) Nonprofits that want to use Ammado must read and agree to their Nonprofit Recognition Policy and then sign up to be added to their database of nonprofits. Ammado has staff dedicated to vetting nonprofits and researching their legal status. This vetting includes checking registration with proper authorities, reviewing of websites, calls or inquiries, personal referrals, etc.
2) After your nonprofit is approved, you then create a profile. You can add a summary of your organization, photos, post news and articles, join/create communities, etc. Once your profile is up and running, you can then apply to accept online donations by clicking the “Apply for Donations” button on your Ammado profile. Donations are accepted in 20 formats (Visa, AMEX, PayPal, Diners Club, JCB, Carte Bancaire, etc.) and the processing fee of 5% is used to cover donation processing fees. Nonprofits are responsible for wire transfer fees. See their Giving Policy for more information.
The minimum donation amount is $5 US and donors are emailed a receipt. Unlike Causes, nonprofits on Ammado can use internal email tools to message donors individually and get access to the donor’s email address. I made a donation. No problems. In fact, I was prompted to add a “Donate Now” box onto my Facebook profile after giving. I agreed. A screenshot is below:
The great thing is that nonprofits can add this “Donate Now” box to their Facebook Fan Pages as well. Seemingly something so simple, but something incredibly necessary that has never been done. Nonprofits can also can also push/post the “news and articles” that they post on their profile on Ammado directly to their Facebook Page. You can learn more at Ammado’s Facebook Page.
3) Ammado provides some interesting fundraising tools to both individuals and nonprofits. Much of it based on peer-to-peer fundraising, like Causes. The idea is to empower people to fundraise for your nonprofit online and on Facebook. I am 50/50 on peer-to-peer fundraising. I think it works great for marathons and in lieu of birthday, wedding gifts, etc., but most donors give to nonprofits of their choosing that are working on issues that they care about. Keep that in mind. Pitch Ammado’s peer-to-peer fundraising tools in that context. After 3 years at Change.org, the only peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns that ever worked were based on marathons, birthdays, weddings, etc. Occasionally when the campaign was about an issue of timely importance (gay marriage, legalization of medicinal marijuana, etc), peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns would work, but only if the organizer was incredibly dedicated and online savvy with lots of friends and connections.
That said, Ammado’s giving circles and giving communities are a pretty slick new take on peer-to-peer fundraising that supporters/creators can also embed on their Facebook and Bebo profiles:
They also offer giving vouchers and giving widgets which can be embedded on blogs and Web sites by both your nonprofit and your supporters:
4) There’s also an interesting corporate giving component that no other social networking site has addressed. There’s a lot of potential there for large donations and corporate social responsibility Web 2.0 style. I am honestly surprised that it’s taken this long.
In closing, I got to say muchos kudos to Ammado.com for empowering nonprofits worldwide… for taking it upon themselves to invest the time and resources necessary to vet and empower nonprofits outside of GuideStar. They also have some great widgets and Apps, and the corporate giving angle is just damn smart. I hope they do well. In fact, I am so impressed that I am going to start covering them in my How Nonprofit Organizations Can Successfully Use Facebook Pages and YouTube Webinar on Thursdays at 2pm GMT. My Thursday Webinars are specifically for nonprofits outside the United States. Also, after you set up your profile, make sure you grab Ammado’s Web 2.0 icon and embed it on your Web site, blog, Facebook Page, etc.!
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Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog :: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits 
Thanks for explaining the features of Ammado – as the Australian nonprofit I work for has over 50K of supporters of our Cause on Facebook, it has been frustrating not being able to activate our supporters to the extent US nonprofits can. Hopefully Ammado can help us where Causes haven’t to date.
It’s truly amazing online donation experience on ammaod fundraisng communities. A couple of weeks before I made an anonymous donation to a fundraising community campaigns for New York marathon. I was surprised to see many communities from diffrent parts of the World managed to raise more than $10,000 each in couple of months time.
It’s great that a company like ammado gives such a great online platform where anyone can make a reall difference.
Hats off to ammado!
What a fantastic write up! I have been with ammado for over a year now and every day get to see the beauty of empowerment for nonprofits and companies. There truly is nothing like it. Thanks again!
Fantastic! I spent 2 years developing a non-profit (Direct Change) to try to get US $ direct into African charities – the process was just overwhelming. How great that someone had the vision to build out a tool to break down the barriers.
A lot of of people write about this topic but you said some true words.
Happy New Year to all.
I am the coordinator of the NGO to which social work in health, education and environment here in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa.
We are experiencing enormous difficulties in finding donors for funds to reach out to achieve our projects.
That’s why I posted this message in order to find charities or other businesses in the same direction as us, write us at our e-mail address:
solidaritechretiennes@gmail.com
to become our partner in 2010.
Hoping that our request will charities and others, please receive our greetings and our full cooperation.
Thanks for the tip, wire transfers can certainly create a mess. I have been experimenting with Ammado lately and it seems that it really doesn’t have the critical mass necessary to generate any buzz just yet. Am I wrong?
Hi Brian,
Many thanks for joining ammado and experimenting with the platform.
Naturally nonprofits will have many, many supports in their own network and on facebook and ammado is designed to connect nonprofits to these supporters wherever they may be. Individuals visiting your profile can interact with your content and donate, without becoming ammado members.
We have developed a donations widget that can be taken (for free) by your supporters, both individuals and organisations, and placed on their websites and blogs with your nonprofit as the default beneficiary. This allows you to leverage the traffic on high-volume sites for your fundraising campaigns. ammado accepts 30+ currencies and nearly every major payment method. Indeed nonprofits on ammado are receiving many donations from widgets on external sites with high traffic.
There is also the facebook application, complete with a donate button, which Heather describes above that can be added by your supporters to their facebook page. For any nonprofit, this application can be found under the “Promote our Profile” button on their ammado profile. For your particular nonprofit, the link you can share with your supporters is:
http://www.ammado.com/nonprofit/forgottenvoices/promote
ammado is working with companies around the globe, for example Coca-Cola, Diageo, SAS Institute… who are empowering their employees and customers to donate to nonprofits of their choice using ammado giving vouchers. This has a big impact on the level of donations. Many are also using ammado to fundraise for causes, for example please see the fund that Oracle Philippines set up for its employees affected by the recent disasters there:
http://www.ammado.com/community/109982
It always helps if nonprofits are as active as possible in building their own network on ammado – inviting their supporters to join them, connecting with companies on the platform, creating and participating in communities and encouraging their supporters to use the widget on their sites/blogs/intranets. I hope that you find this information useful and if you have any queries, you can always reach us at: support[at]ammado[dot]com
I hope you enjoy your ammado experience!
Wow – at last! I work with nonprofits worldwide and we have ALL been waiting for someone to develop an API that will allow non-North American nonprofits to fundraise using Causes. In this case, it’s Ammado. Thanks for bringing this to light.
On another topic – I know that Israel is adding a Guidestar-approved type of Israeli Guidestar. I wonder, wouldn’t that be enough to allow Israeli nonprofits to use Causes? It would be great to see Causes open up in this way.
Hi Debra… Ammado is separate from Causes… an alternative to Causes. Ammado is doing the due diligence to verify the nonprofit’s legal status. No other group I know of is willing to invest the time, effort and resources to help nonprofits outside the United States and Canada fundraise on Facebook. Would love to know when Israeli GuideStar is live.
Thanks for the reply – I should have been clear: I know Ammado is not Causes. It actually appears, from your description and screen shots – to be a much better option for nonprofits! I’ll let you know when the Israeli Guidestar is live – I hear it will be live within a few months. Exciting news here!
Ahh… great. I did misunderstand. I know so many nonprofits outside the U.S., Canada and the U.K. are very frustrated that they can’t utilize all the fancy new Web 2.0 tools. Love Ammado for taking it on. And more GuideStars… exactly what the world needs… more than they know. 🙂
Dear Innovators of Ammado,
Am really very much suprized to learn about this exciting online donation processing to non-profit outside US. Really ever since i founded my COTFONE (www.cotfone.org) in 2003, i never accessed any online donation and when i attempted to register on paypal finally they told me there unable to process donations for my NGO located in uganda. But now i feel more that relived and to start receiving online donations for my projects to Underprivileged children and communities here in Uganda.
Thank you very much for introducing this very interesting facility for NGOs outside US.
I want to register immediately after here and see how i will start to connect with supporters.
Please AMMADO, If you know any interested supporters for NGO in Africa , recommend such a supporter/donor to use by visiting our website to learn more and get involved.
Once this works with my NGO i want to be a promoter of AMMADO internationally from Africa, Please will you allow me facilitate that?Because i see a very good initiatives for local Non profits Internationally.
A question, Do you have any partner Organization from Uganda and Africa in particular.
Hoping to hear from you next
Kind Regards
Muddu Yisito Kayinga
Founder & Executive Director
COTFONE
P.O Box 589
Masaka, Uganda (East Africa)
Tel : +256 481 660 301
Mob : +256 782 920 995
Email : info@cotfone.org ;info.cotfone@gmail.com ; admin@cotfone.org
Skype: yisito
http://www.cotfone.org
Community Transformation Foundation Network (COTFONE) is a relief, advocacy and development not-for-profit, non-government organization in Uganda committed to supporting underprivileged community members such as Vulnerable /marginalized children, school dropouts and youth , underprivileged widows, mothers and women, needy older persons and other marginalized community members as target groups cope with their situations and surroundings worldwide through psychosocial, emergency relief and humanitarian aid and services globally. Visit http://www.cotfone.org to learn more.
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I am so excited reading a bout this unique opportunity, I would like to learn more and be associated with this unique organization. anybody out there who is interested in learning more a bout us can visit :www.ourfamilyofhope.org Thank you and God bless you all.
And now ammado has the same application for facebook pages (it was previously only available for individual profiles) and the old application was greatly enhanced. Please test it out and give us your feedback – always delighted to hear from our users!
To download the app please click here http://www.facebook.com/givenow
we are a NGO
We are looking n for projects on HIA/AIDS
Kindly letus know details about that thank you
Thank you so much for your interest in ammado! Please email support@ammado.com for any specific requests.
My name is Arthur Luyimbazi,a coordinator with Hope for Elderly Orphans Support Organization(HEOSO) operating in Uganda Wakiso district..we ve done a great job at grass root levels but really have minimal funds yet we support over 120 community members how can Ammado help us??thank you.
See their site for info on their programs in Uganda. 🙂