I am pleased to share the news that CanadaHelps has reached another exciting milestone: $600 million in donations processed through our site! Those donations, your donations, have gone to the tens of thousands of charities right across the country that work tirelessly, often without recognition, to make the world a better place. These organizations are the backbone of our country, and their work touches us all – even if we’re not always aware of it.
We’ve come a long way since we launched over 15 years ago in 2000, processing $150,000 in donations that year. Since then, we’ve partnered with more than 16,000 charities and connected over one million Canadians with causes they’re passionate about. And, we’ve done it all with our self-funded registered charity model where overall just 1.8% of donation revenues goes to CanadaHelps and is invested back in our platform. To be at this point, and to look back at the incredible work we’ve done so far, only makes me inspired to do more.
Our growth allows us to put more focus on helping charities in new ways. Now, more than ever, charities need to adapt to the changing landscape of giving. Over the past two years, we have invested in expanding the services offered to ensure charities have access to the online fundraising tools and technology they need to better empower Canadians to give. Some of these innovations include:
- We launched a robust Peer-to-Peer Social Fundraising (Crowdfunding) tool, allowing charities to run fully branded, team-based fundraising events such as walks, runs and other ‘thons’.
- We enhanced our Custom Donation tools for charities, offering a refreshed design and the ability for them to embed donation pages directly on their website.
- We introduced rich new Charity Data Dashboards, providing charities an at-a-glance look at their fundraising results and comparative benchmark performance versus other charities in the same charitable category.
- We launched an affordable Online Donor Acquisition and Retention course for charities, providing them the opportunity to expand their knowledge of digital marketing best practices.
- We reduced our low, non-commercial fees for standard donations, and donations of securities and mutual funds – your support helps us keep our fees extremely low.
- And, most recently, we launched a new Events Management platform, designed specifically for charities to help reduce administrative costs, while enabling seamless online ticket sales, multiple ticketing options, and flexible split-receipts.
We’re so excited to take on these challenges, and do what it takes to help charities succeed and further our charitable mission. There are so many important initiatives we can continue to invest in that will help small and medium-sized charities flourish, and strengthen the charitable sector.
We love all our charities and our donors and we’re so grateful that you choose to give your time and money to make our world stronger. Your donation dollars have a big impact; we see it every day.
Thank you!
-Marina
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