Hi all,
We have decided to push our new fundraiser platform, fundlocal.ie, live. It is not 100% complete, however due to the urgency of the situation in Ukraine we have decided to push ahead. We will share more information about the site and what we hope to achieve over the coming days and have included below 'What is fundlocal going forward' explains what how things will work after this campaign.
Boards.ie Ukraine Appeal
Millions of lives in Ukraine are being torn apart. Boards.ie is supporting the Red Cross who have teams on the ground in Ukraine and will continue their work to repair vital infrastructure, support health facilities and help families with life-saving food and hygiene items.
Fundlocal was originally developed to help local communities in Ireland create fundraisers, by giving people access to our unique platform where like minded people could support the people and causes they care about. Nick Mankovskyi and his team in Ukraine developed this platform with us, so it is important for us that we get things live as soon as possible and see if we can help. NB - Boards.ie will not be taking any fees / charges from funds raised on behalf of Ukraine Appeal.
We were not really ready to launch (just some onboarding issues etc) but given the circumstances we feel compelled to go live, warts and all, so please bear with us if there's any teething issues issues.
The crisis in Ukraine is rapidly evolving and any small donation you can afford will help those affected to get food, medicine, shelter and water. Your support will also help the Red Cross to assist those displaced by conflict. Boards.ie will be passing all funds raised to the Red Cross.
Any amount would be greatly appreciated and 100% of funds raised will go direct to the Red Cross. If you are in a position to do so you can donate here.
Thank you from all of us at Boards.ie
Some information about fundlocal below - we will add more info to this asap.
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What is Fund Local going forward?
Fundlocal was developed to help local communities in Ireland create fundraisers by giving people access to our unique platform on Boards where like-minded people can support the people and causes they care about.
- What’s in this for the Boards?
Boards.ie is all about communities and people who come together to talk about topics and interests that are important to them. Local fundraisers touch us all - from the local GAA club to a sick family member and Boards provides a unique platform to allow like minded people to support the people and causes they care about.
- How do Boards make money from it? (*for future fundraisers only, not for Ukrainian Red Cross appeal)
Boards make a small fee on each transaction that goes through the platform. All online payments are subject to credit card processing fees - we have arranged a preferential fee so that we make a small fee on each transaction. If for instance one wanted to donate €10 to a charity of their choice. There are two options:
- Donating €10 and not covering the transaction fee will mean that the charity of your choice will receive €9.50 as we take the credit card processing fees (ie what we have to pay to Stripe/Adyen) and our margin out of the total. That covers our development costs and hopefully if we get some volume a little bit more.
- Donating €10 and AND covering the transaction fee will mean that the charity of your choice will receive €10 but it will cost you €10.50. As above we deduct the credit card processing fees and our margin out of the total - but transfer the full €10 to the charity.
- Where is the money held/who by? What are their company credentials?
The money is held by Javelin Payments Ltd - a payment processing company who partner with Adyen. Javelin and Boards.ie have a common shareholder which means Boards avails of a preferential rate.
- If I create a fundraiser from a link on Boards, will you be able to link it to my Boards account and/or real name
Users will have to register on fundlocal using their name, address etc. That is a standard requirement for all sites that process payments. It’s to combat fraud etc. You do not have to associate your Boards account with your page - nor will they be linked unless you do so yourself.
- Who will have access to that information?
The only people that can access your account information are Javelin Payments Ltd and Adyen
- How can you be sure that people won’t abuse this and raise money for their holiday to Dubai instead of the animal charity they said it was for?
No more than any peer to peer fundraisers, we cannot police if payments are submitted to the charity / donation cause by the organiser. However all fundraisers have to go through KYC processes (Know Your Customer) and we thoroughly investigate any complaints made in this regard.
- Is there a limit as to how much can be raised/asked for?
There is no limit however we advise organisers to set realistic and achievable goals.
- Do you liaise directly with charities or how can you be sure the money goes to the right place?
It is the responsibility of the organisers to transfer funds to the right place. We can of course check upon requests that funds have been transferred per events organised on our site.
Fundlocal the domain is owned by Boards.ie. similar to how other SaaS white label platforms work, The platform is owned by Javelin Payments Ltd where one of our owners is a shareholder.
We charge a fee for processing credit card payments. We take a very small margin to help cover development costs and hopefully generate some new income for Boards.ie. Since the values are so small we would need massive traction for Boards to benefit from this product. We see it as a great community feature that might help pay for some bills. As an example, a €100 donation where the fees are covered means Boards shares in the gross profit on €2.29 less our transaction fees…. So we will need a lot of €100’s to buy a catch :)
Just to reiterate this only applies to future fund raisers and the above does not apply to Ukraine Appeal where full donations go to Red Cross.