Bridgeway’s triple partnership for building charity fundraising capacity

We’re pleased to announce a triple partnership for a project that will lead to more effective charity fundraising efforts. This spring, our partner Bridgeway Foundation teamed up with Seacrest Foundation and Frontier Marketing to uncover some of the best practices in online fundraising. Seacrest Foundation is an innovative Vancouver-based foundation, committed to building charity capacity. Frontier Marketing is a Victoria, BC-based fundraising agency helping charities grow efficiently through direct response fundraising and donor-centred websites. This project will coordinate their funding and resources for a study of online giving at Canadian Christian charities, and a matching campaign among six Canadian Christian charities.

The project will proceed in two stages. Stage one is a point-in-time study of online fundraising practices in Canadian Christian Charities, conducted by Frontier Marketing Company and funded by Seacrest Foundation via Charities Research and Development, and their Chimp.net giving group, “A Transformation in Online Giving.” This study will be made available for posting on each of the three partner websites when available.

The study will report on and analyse publicly-available website, social media, and CRA data from 50+ Canadian Christian Charities. It will include a literature review, relevant CRA charity data, user experience (how easy to donate, how many clicks to donate, how soon until acknowledgement/receipt, etc.), how many and which charities use what tools or third party programs, social media presence and usage, and more. Charities studied will be chosen by Frontier Marketing Company to provide representative samples reflecting different sizes and types of charities.

Stage two follows up the analysis with six live case studies. Six charities working in the area of homelessness and poverty alleviation in Canada will be selected to receive $10,000 each in matching funds. They will launch their campaigns with the goal of leveraging Bridgeway’s investment by attracting new and lapsed donors to their cause. Bridgeway will announce the selection of these grant recipients in late May, and ongoing updates on their progress will be posted. This opportunity is by invitation only. No unsolicited applications will be considered.