iDonate launches support for Virtual Fundraising Events

iDonate, the Galway based company that manages a charitable donation website recorded over €1M in donations for the month of May following a surge in generosity from the public since the outbreak of Covid-19. iDonate was setup back in 2012 to support a handful of charities in the Galway area. It has since grown to support over 2500 Charities and Not For Profits all over Ireland.

Co-founder Alan Coyne said “iDonate has seen exponential growth since the outbreak of Covid-19. On the back of this we have just launched a suite of tools to allow Causes easily setup Virtual Fundraising Events”.

Since Covid-19 started iDonate have seen a huge interest in Virtual Fundraising Events. Virtual Events involve people interacting on the web, rather than meeting in a physical location. Generally, people complete a challenge close to their home and have what they do mapped on to a customised virtual route.

Alan added, ‘we have developed a suite of Virtual Routes ranging from Malin to Mizen, Wild Atlantic Way, plus a number of sporting routes leading to National Stadia such as Croke Park and The Aviva Stadium. Features of the virtual setups include, custom routes, individual and team challenges with leader boards and integration with fitness Apps.

iDonate have also developed the only Virtual Team Challenge on the market, where fundraising teams can compete against one another. The team challenge is a great way to create awareness and excitement, thus helping promote the fundraising event. Virtual events are also a very effective tool for corporate team building exercises, while in the process helping charities, sports clubs, schools and community groups to fundraise.

Alan added “the ever-increasing customer base is made up of Charities and Non For Profits from all over Ireland. Those include the traditional categories relating to cancer, children, suicide and animals. We also have a growing base of Non For Profits including sports clubs, schools and community groups”.

The platform is even being used by the clergy as they try to maintain parishioner contributions to churches that remain closed due to coronavirus restrictions.
Alan said that iDonate are working with a lot of churches, including a number of Diocese who handle the fundraising on behalf of their Parish Churches. The Diocesan website lists the various parishes and the donor then selects their parish, even with the option to include the number of their weekly envelope.

iDonate have also successfully implemented an eSign version of the CHY 3/4 Charity Taxback Forms. When a donor reaches the €250 threshold they are given the option to view and complete the CHY Form online. On completion they can eSign and submit it directly to the charity.

Alan Coyne said that ‘iDonate continue to invest in the platform, with over €200,000 spent on bringing it to its current state. They plan to be the dominant online service provider to the charity sector for the coming years’.

More about Irish Tech News and Business Showcase here

FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now gets over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!

Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 50,000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.

Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview, or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you and hopefully we can share your story too and reach our global audience.

Irish Tech News

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking