Whether used by your average netizen to spread local news or by foreign brands who want to engage with customers in China, social networks are the ultimate outreach tool. And what about the power of crowdfunding? Platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo have now gone mainstream, helping turn the zaniest and most innovative ideas into products you see on store shelves today.
One Hong Kong startup LIKEfunding wants to harness those two powers to help charities, social enterprises and creative projects – and they’ve created a fundraising tool that raises cash via Facebook ‘Likes.’
How does it work? LIKEfunding does matchmaking between charitable and creative projects with like-minded sponsors, and the two collaborate to create a campaign. While a Kickstarter project might set a fundraising goal of ‘x’ number of dollars, a LIKEfunding campaign sets goals of ‘x’ number of Facebook ‘Likes’. Every ‘Like’ is converted into $2 which is paid out by the sponsor.
According to co-founder Kelly Yim (pictured right), this hybrid platform gives measurable social media exposure to sponsors, which incentivizes donation. Also, the platform solves three major barriers: the general disinterest in donating to projects overridden by sponsorships, the struggle sponsors face in securing press coverage as the media tends to avoid overly commercial content, and the fact that projects with social missions are lower on the crowdfunding success totem pole.
“If you look at the statistics of crowdfunding development, the smallest growth category is made up of charities. This is because crowdfunding is so presale oriented and people want to get something back if they’re paying for it,” said Yim. “We hope LIKEfunding can help charities or donation-oriented projects and we want to see if creative viralness can be monetized.” As the donation onus is on the sponsors, LIKEfunding makes supporting charities and creative project incredibly easy – all you have to do is hit ‘Like.’
Having just come out of beta in August, the Science Park incubated startup has already raised funds for five projects to date – the most successful raising 5,000 ‘Likes’ within six hours. According to Yim, LIKEfunding is currently using Hong Kong as a test market, but has ambitious expansion plans on the future.
“We aim to apply this whole concept to the worldwide landscape as it’s quite scalable,” she said. “At this initial stage, we have the proof of concept and we’re having more charitable organizations approach us. China is our next stop and the US will be next.”
LIKEfunding on Startbase.HK: LIKEfunding
Kelly Yim on Startbase.HK: Kelly Yim
