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Interview: Jonathan Douglas of charity tech firm Givergy

In our age of convenience, people are always looking for ways to do things in quicker, easier and more convenient ways. The wealth of technological innovations that are changing our daily lives in subtle and manifold ways are being felt across every sector and industry, but so too is the demand for such change.

Much like any other, the charity sector is also having to adapt to a world hungry for technological change and defined by the smartphones that the vast majority of us now carry with us everywhere we go.

Taking its cues from the likes of Ebay and online fundraising websites in the US, charity auction firm Givergy is one tech company attempting to give the stuffy world of charity auctions a shot in the arm, with a decidedly 21st Century approach.

Following their rebrand six months ago, I spoke to Jonathan Douglas, Givergy’s Director of Business Development, to get an idea about how the company is mixing charity auctions with technological convenience, and what his hopes are for the future.

“So we thought: why not just have an online consumer website that we charities put auctions up online whenever they want?“

To begin, I start by asking Jon where Givergy roots lie and his response is a surprising one: “The technology actually comes from our sister company VPAR, which provides live golf scoring. We took the technology, which is live and competitive, and applied it to charity auctions.”

This was back in 2009, when Givergy, then known as iBid Events, specialised wholly in live charity auctions and events. This aspect of the business still lives on as Givergy Events, and is still going strong with over 1500 events each year.

However, the events firm really took a leap into the modern world of smartphones and apps with the launch of their commercial .com site six months ago. Mixing tech innovations with fundraising, Givergy took inspiration from similar charity auction sites in America to launch the consumer-led Givergy.com site.

Jon explains the spark of inspiration that led to its creation: “We started with pen and paper pledgings and then we replaced the pen and paper. We built up a reputation in the market for backing charity auctions.

“So we thought: why not just have an online consumer website that we charities put auctions up online whenever they want? This lead to the creation of the .com consumer site.”

With a history of innovating in the sector, and a whole range of charitable contacts thanks to over a decade of charitable events, Givergy was in a strong position to ‘leverage’ its position with a number of charities to ensure things got off to a strong start.

“Events are very expensive to produce. Everything is becoming scalable and mobile, which means that online funding is a much easy way to do it.“

So strong, in fact, that Givergy is already on course to raise a £1m across its various auctions in April alone. But how does it work? Jon goes on:

“[The platform] works in a number of ways. The simplest way is that a charity will have a celebrity ambassador that they want to set up an auction item with. They’ll put that online and people will bid online.

“Another way is that a charity has lots of different charity auctions and they put them straight up on the auction site. All the money goes to the charity, we market to the community and through our PR company. On top of everything else, we also provide the opportunity to do prize draws and the raffles.”

While it is making its name thanks to technological innovations, Jon believes that its the wealth and breadth of services that Givergy provides that really sets it apart, along with the relatively small cut that the platform takes from each auction, raffle or prize draw.

As he explains, the amount that Givergy takes from each auction, on average about 7%, is smaller than the 20% average than its competitors take which, in the simplest terms, means that charities stand to raise more cash.

He adds: “Events are very expensive to produce. Everything is becoming scalable and mobile, which means that online funding is a much easy way to do it.

“As it’s online, anyone can take part in it in any point of time. It also means, you have a wider range of items available online.

“In terms of the platform, the lower percentage, the ability to do raffles and buy it now option. We do everything. Each charity has their own specific charity page, that’s their own page that they can brand.”

“..the Great Ormond Street’s campaign at Christmas time. They’ve used Ebay in the past and raised £100k, but this year we managed to raise £140k with them.“

Smaller charities, in particular, benefit greatly from the ability to have their own branded, personalised page. It’s another example of the democratising force of technology, as smaller charities get to rub shoulders and enjoy the same exposure as some of the bigger charitable names.

Great Ormond Street Hospital, War Child and British Heart Foundation are just some of the charities that have already hosted auctions on the site, but Givergy has also played host to smaller charities including the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation (NSIF) and the Eve Appeal.

And working with so many good causes, on a range of appeals, means Jon isn’t short of feel-good tales. With this in mind, I ask him what his proudest achievement has been so far with Givergy and, unsurprisingly, he struggles to whittle the list down to just one:

“Two examples, one is the Great Ormond Street’s campaign at Christmas time. They’ve used Ebay in the past and raised £100k, but this year we managed to raise £140k with them.

“On the other side of things, a small charity we’ve worked with called NSIF who’re a small charity who have put on a number of events. And they ended up raising £12,000 that they wouldn’t have managed to raise otherwise.”

Despite the singularly charitable success stories, Givergy has still had to deal with the same issues that any new company usually faces early on. As Jon elaborates, despite the events pedigree of the iBid/Givergy brand, the nascent consumer site is effectively a new tech startup, and with that comes the same set of challenges and barriers.

“Charities are fairly slow on the uptake of tech. The traditional idea of putting on event, it’s not really about that.“

As Jon puts it, the online auction side of the business is still ‘a relatively small tech startup’ with a ‘small team of ten coders’ which currently pulls in about £70k in revenue. So small is the consumer team that the .com site has only just hired their first full-time salesperson.

Along with the time and effort spent hunting for new talent, like any new or disruptive technology it takes time to convince people about your methods and new ways of doing things.

As Jon is at pains to point out, while a familiar approach in America, the idea of a dedicated charity auction platform is a completely new one on this side of the pond. And no matter how innovative or convenient your approach, it can still be a challenge to get people onside.

A problem Jon and Givergy are all too familiar with, as he goes on: “Charities are fairly slow on the uptake of tech. The traditional idea of putting on event, it’s not really about that. It’s about keeping people engaged [and] building your brand and database and loyal regular follows.

“A charity has got to understand it. One of the biggest challenge is getting items out of charities.”

Despite these obstacles, Givergy’s prospects look bright, as it’s impressive list of contributing charities attests. And Jon’s long-term targets go far beyond the £1m per month currently in their sights.

“More long-term, our vision for 2020 is to raise £25m in one year.“

The company already has a cross-continental presence, with 84 employees in places as far flung as Vancouver, New York and Hong Kong, and this worldwide footprint will provide an ideal launch pad for the commercial, online auction arm of Givergy, for which plans are already afoot.

Jon says: “We’re launching it globally, we’re going to push the button. Especially in the US, with a potential November launch in North America. More long-term, our vision for 2020 is to raise £25m in one year.”

Moves are already being made in this direction following the acquisition of the fundraising arm of Lumi Technologies last month; giving the firm an immediate base in Australia and growing its network of contacts in America, Europe and Hong Kong.

Despite that, there’s no denying that growth into American markets will be tricky, as the concept of online charity auctions is firmly entrenched there, with a range of competitors vying for exposure.

“Everyone knows we’re taking a small percentage from it, we even break down where that is going. Everything has got to be transparent.“

However, Givergy’s strong international roots and renown as an innovator in the charity sector should serve the company in good stead. Not to mention the enthusiasm and energy inherent in Jon’s voice when talking about anything Givergy-related.

I finish by asking him how he sees tech transforming charitable work and fundraising over the coming years and his answer, touching upon the ideas of ease-of-use and reach, hints at why the charity event organiser is so well-regarded, and why the future looks so rosy for its fledgling commercial arm:

“The importance is transparency, everything you do has got to be totally transparent. It’s a very simple mechanism for us. Everyone knows we’re taking a small percentage from it, we even break down where that is going. Everything has got to be transparent.”

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