Our technology enables anyone to quickly and cheaply manage a remote fundraiser using their mobile.
Over 870 million people live in communities without an adequate social safety net. This leaves millions of people worldwide without the means to smooth over financial and lifestyle shocks—including medical care, school fees, and others. In absence of formal support, many in the developing world–and particularly in Africa–turn to family and friends on a reciprocal basis many times over the course of the year.
However, we feel that rising urbanization and geographical dispersion have put this system of reciprocal giving under serious strain, as fund collectors attempt to reconcile payments from multiple payment systems and remotely convince their donors that funds are being used appropriately.
M-Changa solves this problem by tracking community payments and providing a safe, transparent and mobile accounting space for life’s most critical causes.
M-Changa’s technology allows you to rapidly / virally build your personal fundraising community through multiple communication channels including SMS, email and social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin). Engagement with community is done over the same channels free of charge for the first 250 messages. Integrated payment technology allows funds to be received by the fundraiser via multiple telco mobile payment gateways (Airtel Networks, Safaricom MPESA) and credit card gateways (PayPal). Within the next quarter M-Changa plans to introduce mobile banking wallet integrations to allow banking customers to donate to fundraisers directly from their bank accounts. Withdrawal of funds on the M-Changa platform are currently done to mobile wallet (Safaricom MPESA, Airtel Money) and EFT/RTGS to bank account locally and internationally.
Launched 22 months ago, 3,550 fundraisers initiated with 21,129 supporters.
As of April 30 2015 11,255+ donations have been made raising $231,400+.
Mobile wallet transactions constitute 79% of donation volume, Credit Card transactions account for 21% of donation value.
Year on Year comparison month 1-4 (2014/15) growth 535%
2014 Average Donation Growth: 133% Per Month
M-Changa charges an all-inclusive fee of 4.25% of funds raised.
M-Changa will use funds to scale its rapidly growing platform in terms of technology, customer service and social credit strategy.
Technology
Donations on the M-Changa platform are currently growing at 133% per month. Our systems and databases need to scale in order to support this growth as well as switching our product fully from SMS and web, to a richer mediums including What’sAPP and Android/iPhone.
Customer Service and Brand Ambassadors
Fundraising is an art and M-Changa knows how to train top notch brand ambassadors to help everyone’s fundraising get off to the right start. Your support will allow us to grow our customer support team from 2 to 12 and brand ambassadors from 1 to 5.
Social Credit Strategy
Our social credit strategy will see new features roll out to reciprocal fundraiser to better understand the way informal credit networks support a communities’ ability to smooth over life shocks.
International Fundraisers: Organization fundraisers managed purely online on the M-Changa platform. .The majority of contributions were from outside Kenya via credit card (PayPal). Goals primarily for education, conservation, health.
Hybrid Fundraisers: Personal and organization fundraisers managed purely online on the M-Changa platform. .Contributions for these type of fundraisers are split between credit card (PayPal) from outside Kenya and mobile money locally. Goals are primarily education, weddings, funerals
SMS Fundraisers: Personal fundraisers managed mostly over SMS on the M-Changa platform. .Contributions for this type of fundraiser are primarily mobile money from local supporters. Goals are primarily for education, medical procedures, weddings, funerals and nutrition.
SMS Fundraisers (small): Personal fundraisers managed mostly over SMS on the M-Changa platform. .Contributions for this type of fundraiser are primarily mobile money from local supporters. Goals are primarily for emergencies, education, funerals and nutrition.
In Kenya, the quality of the personal relationship is still defined by the exchange of resources. Kenyans were as likely to turn to their personal networks as a financial institutions for short term capital. 29% of adults (8 million) have access to bank accounts, 25% of adults (7 million) exclusively use social networks. Kenya has 11.5 million mobile money users. KES 1.74trn (USD 20bn) transferred over mobile money platforms in 2013 alone. 62% of Kenyans prefer their mobile money account as their primary stored-value account.
Kenyans have a long history of internal domestic migration, raising demand for remote fundraising for distant family. International annual diaspora remittances (family to family) amounted to KES 100bn (USD 1.1bn) in 2014
As the East African community takes hold, there has been a series of money transfer services launched for family members to use from diversified locations in the East Africa. .
M-Changa’s prime focus to accelerate its growth is through partnerships. To-date we have signed agreements with one of Kenya’s largest banks and a global leader in credit and debit cards.
Other channels would include:
Telcos – product integration into phone menus of operators with mobile money wallets in Kenya and East Africa
Banks – deep integration with mobile banking products allowing for direct donations from mobile banking wallets to M-Changa fundraisers
Radio – Tap radio stations in Nairobi to run awareness drives and talk shows explaining the product on vernacular to specific users regionally
Social Media Promotion – Run advertising fundraisers on Google+, Facebook. LinkedIn and Twitter
Newspaper Articles – Run featured / curated stories on all major daily prints (business and regular)
Website Promotional Content (Stories) – Constantly refresh content on M-Changa website to appeal to both market segments and all fundraising areas
Savings and Loans Associations – Execute presentations with major saving and loans association through NGO collaborations and CBOs
College Campuses – Have sustained presence at various mid-level and regular universities in the city of Nairobi to popularize product, conduct training seminars
Religious Organizations – Engage religious institutions and sign them up to the convenience and transparency of M-Changa.
Product Viral Attributes – Enhance features to drive repeat use, community management and retention, targeted reminders for the next fundraising campaign
M-Changa’s resilience in light of competition in Kenya and abroad has been extraordinarily encouraging. This is for two primary reasons:
“Also Ran” Products Fail – When mobile operators and financial service players try to break into our business they fail, simply because fundraising for life shocks is much more complicated than simply processing peer-to-peer or point-of-sale payments. Fundraisers and contributors want a lot of engagement, facts, and figures about their causes as well as a customer service team dedicated to making the fundraiser a success. Our recent partnership agreements confirm that the big players realize an “Also Ran” product will be difficult to pull off.
Limitations of Western Crowd-funding Sites – The big players, including Kickstarter and Just Giving are not focused on our market, rely on constant web connectivity, and generally offer a different proposition from M-Changa. By accepting mobile money even over the most basic phones, placing an emphasis on reciprocal giving for life shocks that exist in Africa, and offering locally relevant security features, M-Changa is well ahead of US and European platforms. M-Changa’s distinction from existing crowd-funding sites will only grow, as we represent reciprocity on our platform and continue to build out products tailored made for our markets.