
The UNDP Crowdfunding Academy is now open for applications
The UNDP Crowdfunding Academy (CFA) is now open for applications! The global CFA is a two-month online training that dives into the world of fundraising, […]
The following piece was first published on the AltFinLab blog and was originally published on July 18, 2017.
The spirit of gotong royong is taught to children from a very young age at schools all over Indonesia. It is the Indonesian brand of volunteerism, or communal work—where members of a community gather to accomplish a task. Traditionally, the task could be to fix a neighbor’s home, or build a road or a bridge.
Today, especially in urban areas, such community work is hard to find. But it does not mean the spirit of gotong royong is gone. The communal culture stays with modern Indonesians. In spite of busy lifestyles, they continue to help others through philanthropy. A study found that philanthropic support in Indonesia totals $600 million per month. Young and tech-savvy Indonesians use the internet for their philanthropic activities—giving rise to crowdfunding.
The World Bank estimated that, with government support, the global crowdfunding market ranged from $4 billion to $300 billion. The Bank further predicted crowdfunding investment would be worth $96 billion a year in developing countries alone by 2025. In Indonesia, the leading crowdfunding platform and our partner kitabisa.com has channeled over 45 billion rupiah ($3.5 million) in just three years of operation.
Meanwhile, it is estimated that Asia Pacific countries will face a funding shortfall of about $44 billion to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). So if development challenges are to be tackled effectively, the slack in finances needs to be picked up by the private sector. This prompts UNDP Indonesia to experiment with innovative and alternative financing models and Indonesia’s philanthropic tradition is an opportunity to be tapped.
Indonesia’s demographic also presents an opportunity. In the coming decade, the largest cohort of young people in Indonesia’s history will start productive years. A study by Goldman Sachs found millennials (defined as people born after 1980) are more likely to participate in a crowdfunding campaign—47 percent have donated or indicated an interest to back a campaign.
Our first crowdfunding campaign was launched in March 2016, on the occasion of the World Water Day. In two months, we raised 350 million rupiah (nearly $27,000) to build a solar-powered water pump in one of the country’s driest region of East Sumba. This activity is part of our climate change adaptation project, for which we partnered with the ministry of environment and forestry, and the local government.
We want to share the ten things that help our successful campaign:
Crowdfunding campaign is a lot of work. It requires technical capacity in the area of the project, and in public communications. While the funds raised were for a specific and limited use, there was an added value gained from the campaign in the form of publicity and awareness of the SDGs. We believe that this is an innovative financing method that we can and will continue to explore, and we welcome any suggestions for potential projects that could attract a similar level of public interest.
The following piece was first published on the AltFinLab blog and was originally published on July 18, 2017.
The spirit of gotong royong is taught to children from a very young age at schools all over Indonesia. It is the Indonesian brand of volunteerism, or communal work—where members of a community gather to accomplish a task. Traditionally, the task could be to fix a neighbor’s home, or build a road or a bridge.
Today, especially in urban areas, such community work is hard to find. But it does not mean the spirit of gotong royong is gone. The communal culture stays with modern Indonesians. In spite of busy lifestyles, they continue to help others through philanthropy. A study found that philanthropic support in Indonesia totals $600 million per month. Young and tech-savvy Indonesians use the internet for their philanthropic activities—giving rise to crowdfunding.
The World Bank estimated that, with government support, the global crowdfunding market ranged from $4 billion to $300 billion. The Bank further predicted crowdfunding investment would be worth $96 billion a year in developing countries alone by 2025. In Indonesia, the leading crowdfunding platform and our partner kitabisa.com has channeled over 45 billion rupiah ($3.5 million) in just three years of operation.
Meanwhile, it is estimated that Asia Pacific countries will face a funding shortfall of about $44 billion to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). So if development challenges are to be tackled effectively, the slack in finances needs to be picked up by the private sector. This prompts UNDP Indonesia to experiment with innovative and alternative financing models and Indonesia’s philanthropic tradition is an opportunity to be tapped.
Indonesia’s demographic also presents an opportunity. In the coming decade, the largest cohort of young people in Indonesia’s history will start productive years. A study by Goldman Sachs found millennials (defined as people born after 1980) are more likely to participate in a crowdfunding campaign—47 percent have donated or indicated an interest to back a campaign.
Our first crowdfunding campaign was launched in March 2016, on the occasion of the World Water Day. In two months, we raised 350 million rupiah (nearly $27,000) to build a solar-powered water pump in one of the country’s driest region of East Sumba. This activity is part of our climate change adaptation project, for which we partnered with the ministry of environment and forestry, and the local government.
We want to share the ten things that help our successful campaign:
Crowdfunding campaign is a lot of work. It requires technical capacity in the area of the project, and in public communications. While the funds raised were for a specific and limited use, there was an added value gained from the campaign in the form of publicity and awareness of the SDGs. We believe that this is an innovative financing method that we can and will continue to explore, and we welcome any suggestions for potential projects that could attract a similar level of public interest.
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