Volunteers Lynda Duffy, Pam Smith, Valerie Pool help out at the Waipuna Hospice depot. Photo/George Novak
Givealittle is an easy way to give online donations to charities of all types and sizes.DO YOU give to charity? In my experience, most Kiwis do.
You could say that New Zealanders are generous people and I have noticed that many people don't hesitate at all when asked to donate time or money to their preferred charities.
There are literally thousands of charities, clubs and other non-profit organisations that rely on this generosity to do a huge range of important work in the community.
Government funding is extremely limited. Most charities don't receive any at all and they simply couldn't do the work they do without a little help from us.
Take Waipuna Hospice for instance. It says on their website www.waipuna-hospice.co.nz they have to raise $2.5 million this year to meet the shortfall in their operating costs. That's $48,077 every week.
The hospice has a very active fundraising team and although it is one of Tauranga's more popular charities, they still have to organise fundraising concerts, run op shops, ask for a dollar to add to the supermarket bill at times and have collection boxes all over town.
All charities rely heavily on the community and on the volunteers that support them. Although most Kiwis give easily, there's also a certain amount of scepticism in the community about where the donated money actually ends up.
A few years ago, I worked for a regional not-for-profit organisation as their fundraising and events manager.
Talking to business people, going around with the bucket and knocking on doors were an integral part of that job.
Once or twice I got grilled with questions about what percentage of the donations would be used for marketing and my own salary instead of actually going to people in need. It is understandable, but the reality is that not everything can be taken care of by volunteers. In a way, charities need to be run just like businesses.
People employed by not-for-profit organisations do get paid, but it's also true that many of these people spend many more hours volunteering for that cause. That's what I did.
When working as a fundraising manager, I discovered the website givealittle.co.nz. It was only a small website back then and at the time it charged a 5 per cent administration fee, but it was one of the great initiatives that kick-started online giving in New Zealand.
Yesterday, I read that New Zealand's favourite fundraising site has hit $10 million in donations this week. That is a huge milestone for the site launched in December 2008 by social entrepreneur Nathalie Whitaker.
Givealittle is an easy way to give online donations to charities of all types and sizes, as well as for individuals who are raising funds for certain causes.
In 2012, the site joined the Telecom Foundation and became a 100 per cent free online fundraising service for all New Zealanders. About $8 million has been raised since the zero-fee policy was introduced.
Anyone can use Givealittle to set up a fundraising page and raise money for a cause. I have used it several times over the years to make donations and I keep an eye on how my personal favourites are doing.
Between 20 and 30 campaigns are uploaded on to the site each day and around $50,000 is raised each month. You can find plenty of local fundraisers on it too. Just put Tauranga in the search function and a whole bunch of them will pop up.
Recent and ongoing local fundraisers on Givealittle include one by Tauranga artist Owen Dippie who is fundraising for a teenager battling cancer, one set up to help two kids from the Mount get to Ecuador to take part in the World Junior Surfing Champs, and a page aimed at raising money towards the installation of statues of Hairy Maclary and his friends on Tauranga's Waterfront.
More than $10,000 has also been raised through the site for little Phoenix and Faith Ruddell, who are recovering in hospital after surviving a head-on crash on State Highway 2 at Te Puna on May 2 in which their mother died.
Givealittle is such an easy way to get involved and make a difference.
I'd like to encourage anyone with a few moments and some dollars to spare to give it a go. Don't forget that every dollar really makes a difference and you can be assured that every single cent raised with this online tool goes to charity.
Martine Rolls is a Tauranga writer and digital strategist - www.sweetorange.co.nz.