professional membership

Featured Member

P2G Project Page

As technology and social media rapidly change, all types of interactions, the Arts & Science Council (ASC) of Charlotte is in the midst of creating the latest innovation in fundraising. Later this month, the ASC is launching an easy to navigate, revolutionary giving website, www.power2give.org, which makes donating to cultural organizations easier than ever before. The council conceived the idea for the online marketplace after acknowledging specific donor trends: increased online giving, social media utilization, and a desire for transparency—wanting to know exactly how organizations use donations to impact the community.  The intent of ASC’s power2give is to broaden the cultural donor base in Charlotte and eventually other cities, attracting the attention of patrons who attend cultural events, but are not yet donors to these events and projects.

Power2give is like the match.com of fundraising: cultural organizations post specific projects they need funds for, and donors search for organizations that align with causes they are interested in. The projects listed on the site will deal with arts, science, and history. According to its guidelines, the groups that will be allowed to post to the site must be nonprofits; in addition, proposed projects have to be local and cost under $10,000. Projects will remain on the site for 90 days. Organizations create their own project page on power2give.org, where they post their goal amount to raise, explain the details of the project, list benefits for donors, and attach pictures and videos to further engage site visitors. The main goal of the organization’s project page is to tell a story; the more someone can relate to and understand an organization’s project, the more likely that person will form an emotional connection and have a desire to personally contribute. Prospective donors can use the search function to find specific projects that relate to their interests and match their desires to contribute. ASC noticed that when people donate to an organization, they want to know exactly where their money goes. Power2give creates this desired transparency by allowing people to donate to a specific project instead of an entire organization. People know exactly what they are helping accomplish and will therefore be more willing to donate more money more often using the online giving tool.

The platform was conceived in-house, but developed by ettain group, an IT service provider in Charlotte with offices throughout the Southeast. ASC will act as a “host” for Charlotte, launching the site to originally contain only charitable organizations in its own community; however, the ASC plans to work with other host arts councils or organizations in different cities to launch the site locally for those communities.  The host will help generate enthusiasm and adoption within its community, and collect and distribute the donations throughout their region. The host organization will also help to solicit challenge grants and other gifts that will incentivize arts and cultural organizations to use power2give to acquire the support of donors. ASC’s rollout strategy is not a project by project approach, but instead focuses on working with an entire city to engage the whole community at the same time. ASC is actively working with several communities to bring power2give to their cultural sector and is interested in discussing the possibility for rolling it out to other communities.  ASC has designed a cost-effective structure that includes an upfront set-up fee and then a percent of revenue processed through the site to cover ongoing technology costs. 

Through its design, interface, and functionality, power2give successfully adapts to recent giving trends, utilizing the power of the internet and social media to advance the cause of cultural support and fundraising. If power2give seems like a tool that would be helpful for organizations in your community or for more information regarding the power2give project, please contact ASC PresidentScott Provancher at scott.provancher@artsandscience.orgor SVP, CFO/COO Laura Belcher at laura.belcher@artsandscience.org.