Here’s an interesting thing:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44271647

It’s clearly good, and enables people without cash to support buskers they like. Buskers get money without needing to stop performing. What’s not to like?

Well, buskers need a device. There’s usually a regular cost in that.

It only works for contactless payment, and lots of people don’t use cards or phones for this.

The ticket is firmly clipped by payments providers, which is one reason that contactless payments have failed to ignite in certain sectors (either because of margins or because of perception).

To use the terminal, givers have to take out their wallet/purse and proffer their card. In a crowded area, that’s a risk. And you need to trust the busker isn’t asking you to give in increments that are higher than you want.

These are among the reasons that Givahoy is the way it is. The Givahoy busker has a beacon, such that everyone within 5 metres can pick it up and give at the level they choose. No need to queue, no need to confirm amount, no need to take out a wallet. In addition to this, with Givahoy, the giver can see who the busker was, and the busker has the opportunity reach out to help fans support them in future (gigs, recordings, Facebook page or whatever).

If you think there’s more and better that can be done… well, I’m listening.

Here we are in 2018 and I’m delighted to say that the Giving Technology Charitable Trust is, officially a registered charity. This means that the trustees will be empowered to direct payments from Givahoy to the relevant charities.

For our Givers, this means that *all* donations to charities can be aggregated for receipting. Up to 33.3% of this can be claimed back (see http://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax-individual/tax-credits/donations-taxcredits/donations-taxcredits.html).

For example, if you give $5 a month to street collections with a dollar here or there, that totals up to $60 across a year. If you fill out the simple form from Inland Revenue (IR526) and attach the receipt then you can get up to $20 back.

It’s worth mentioning that according to this Philanthropy NZ report, only around 12% of taxpayers made a tax claim for donations, for over $670M. That looks to be a lot of donation credits unclaimed.

Here’s a thing:

Someone (I don’t know whom yet) has opened up a map for people to list foraging spots – places you can go to collect free fruit or veg.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1HDtmvU4XemdY0bDLDfNdSEUnjb0

This is a great idea, in my view. I’ve added these locations to Givahoy so people can make a gesture of appreciation – either a “thanks!” or a donation to The Foodbank Project (https://www.foodbank.org.nz/). It seemed a good fit.

PS: The Fintech accelerator didn’t happen for Givahoy as I have no co-founder, and that was held to be sufficient to exclude me. Plenty of otherwise positive feedback. Co-founders welcome!

I’m revisiting the Kiwibank Fintech Accelerator (nzfintech.kiwi). It was a big deal last year, doing the market validation exercise, and it’s a bigger deal this year. I also have work commitments in the New Year that are not exactly flexible. There were many spent hours fitting around work and life trying to get hold of fundraisers and make time for interviews, as well as understanding the answers. This is not a one-person job.

So I’m asking for help.

There are several things going on here:

• Market Validation Course (budget $0, time required manageable)
• Fintech Accelerator (budget $x available as part of the accelerator, time required 35+ hours per week)
• Equity v hourly rate v set pay (all negotiable)

You get to go through an accelerator with an existing MVP, so if you want to influence strategy without getting bogged down in technology, you absolutely can.

You get to work with a pitch that is genuinely of benefit to all parties to the product: everyone can win with Givahoy.

You get to help everyone be more generous.

There are two kinds of people needed here especially, although they might just be a solitary individual. A Hustler and a Peopleperson.

The Hustler needs to own the talking to prospective recipients of gifts, such as charities, marae, churches, entertainers, museums and so on. And they can bring their needs to the Peopleperson and me.

The Peopleperson needs to own the relationship with givers, listening to opportunities they identify and bringing them to the Hustler and me.

It’s pretty loose, because it’s too small to define things, and the right people pretty much won’t snugly fit into whatever I might think.

One thing: you need to work with me. Which, if you have an interest in learning about SQL, databases, Excel and fighting fraud especially, might prove fruitful. You might need a tolerance for terrible jokes.

Some time back, I met up opportunistically with the remarkable @vivster. She was cautiously positive (in my opinion!) about Givahoy. Her background in charitable activity gave her excellent and relevant experience.

But there was one thing especially that stuck with me and has been worming away since then. It’s a completely valid and consistent use of Givahoy, in a way that hadn’t occurred to me – which is how I like it: Givahoy is a platform/channel rather than a solution.

So what does this look like, and how is it different?

From a club-goer’s point of view, it is pretty much standard Givahoy: they attend the meeting, and when prompted for attendance fees, they run the app. It shows the club or society being attended, using the beacon or location as set up. They hit the fee due and that’s it.

For the club it’s a bit more subtle. They obtain a Givahoy beacon as usual, of course. Then they provide a list of the email addresses of the members. This means that whenever one of these members makes a Givahoy transaction to them, they can see that it was done – the usual Givahoy gift is anonymous by design.

The club can immediately identify attendees (and non-attendees), they can operate a trust system (where people pay when they can), and they get the usual benefits of supporting members who might otherwise be late because they are getting cash out, as well as minimising their cash handling.

Putting cash and running a POS terminal to one side, the options would be operating a spreadsheet and encouraging people to pay, along with more expensive and complex online payment options.

A fee of, for example, $2 per email could apply. That would be a one-off charge which would enable that real-time notification and reporting. A single payment per event covering all attendees will simplify the banking as well.

So this is of benefit to clubs, and convenient for members. For Givahoy, it offers a compelling motivation for people to install the app and give it a try.

And that is my focus.

Posted this on Facebook and it reminded me that, for a casual event organiser, this really is all you need to do!

Running a fundraising event and concerned about people not having enough cash? Have a look at Givahoy. As a fundraiser, just tell me when and where is your event. 
Easy as that!
Then you can let people know that they can give to your cause by just running the app.
It’s completely free, and I don’t collect any personal information from donors (beyond email address).

Really interesting stuff. And very relevant to the Givahoy world.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/proximity-uses-growing-changing-jim-boutcher

That was fun!

http://www.radiolive.co.nz/home/audio/2017/051/jim-boutcher-on-new-app–givahoy-.html

[Edited for new URL]

We have had commitments for campaigns. Yes, a big deal. A Wellington regional one in May and a national one in July.

Yes.

So the Beta is out in the Android Play Store. I will get an iOS one out before too long as this is too big an opportunity to waste.

Try it out. Especially in Wellington, but I can put charities wherever you are in NZ. Go for it. Tell your friends.

Why not, eh?