Random thoughts on raising funds (for charitable causes)

I like this idea - a website (and system) to encourage people to consider against buying things they might not need, and donate the equivalent value to a worthy cause.
http://whatididnotbuy.org/

And here’s a project that aims to return the children in Pakistan from the labour market back to school through self-sustaining monetary incentives and vocational skills.
http://www.bagsforbliss.org

I like the idea of Mohamad Yunus’s Grameen Bank, and it has inspired similar initiatives for example www.kiva.org which has grown really big.

In Kiva, the minimum loan you can give is 25 dollars. And the reason why the amount is so low because most of the loans go to people in poorer countries, where a dollar can buy a lot of local currency or a lot of things. For a case given as example, a lady in Tanzania borrowed 175 dollars to open a café! Of course there were other example with higher amount, 1k or 2k. But even so, 2000 dollars is 80 people lending 25 dollars each, still manageable I’d say. What I’m getting at is, is it possible to form a similar organization in Malaysia to fund local entrepreneurs (targeted for hardcore poors)? To get mass collaboration, for many people to be able to contribute, the loan amount has be low and affordable. Say RM50. Many people wouldn’t mind not getting this amount of money back (in worst case scenario) I suppose. 100 people make up RM5000. I suppose this amount is more than sufficient to start a small business. 100 person helping 1 person is less than ideal, I suppose. But then again, these RM5000 can be ‘recycled’ once the loan is paid back. So, it’s ok to start ‘small’. Still, I imagine it's difficult (for an individual or organisation) having to sell the idea to 100 people and at the end helping only 1 person.

In Richard Branson’s book that I just read The Adventures of A Global Entrepreneur, I learnt that a good way to do fundraising is to leverage on ‘perceived value’. The example given by him is a fundraising event which he organized, where he let people bid for 1) a week vacation at his private island and 2) opportunity to name a new plane. In the case of the latter, the ‘real’ cost involved is a matter of painting the name. Another example is one that I saw during one of Oprah’s Big Give episode, where the contestant got Andre Agassi’s help to raise funds. He agreed to ‘donate’ his time (and skills), and people bid to get one week tennis training with him. This made me think also of the car plat number by JPJ. People bid to get the numbers they want because of the perceived value. It doesn’t cost JPJ anything to get this additional revenue. If celebrities want to take part in charity auction, they can auction, say a lunch or dinner with them, and people would actually pay far more than the ‘real’ value of the meals itself.