Comments on: GivenGain: Hidden South African Giants

By: Superman

Superman — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:59:18 +0000

Thanks for the post, Justin. Keryn asks whether “good intentions and a desire to help is not also very profitable for some people”. Well, looking at all the commercial entities out there providing online donation services, I would guess that it most certainly is… and that is what makes GivenGain different, as all donations made on the GivenGain platform are processed by the GivenGain Foundation, a not-for-profit organization.

In other words, unlike most other services, GivenGain does not make money from the processing of donations. That said, we do not believe that other for-profit services should not charge the fees they charge – we just felt that not profiting from donations was the right thing to do for us.

By: Keryn

Keryn — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:48:16 +0000

When an email arrived from GivenGain this morning I was immediately hooked on the idea. As I had previously donated to the Democratic Alliance and received a receipt from GivenGain, I assumed that they were/are linked. However – I started looking for the ‘but’when I saw the fee schedule. I always look for the ‘but’ when I see a fee schedule. At the risk of sounding too sceptical I am wondering if good intentions and a desire to help is not also very profitable for some people. Given the amount of causes floating around Facebook and the exposure Facebook has, I am wondering if the money wouldnt be better spent on your own website using Facebook to promote it. This is not a criticism, just an observation and a thought.

By: Ama Wheelies

Ama Wheelies — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:35:49 +0000

Seems I misunderstood what the data base means. You are not buying a data base of users, you are buying space to house your own data base. Now I understand more clearly. But yes If u have a large data base then you will pay R18000. I suppose the idea would be to grow the data base slowly. We will give this a try and see how it works.

By: Kian du Preez

Kian du Preez — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:52:13 +0000

I see the price you refer to is when you go for their maximum database size of 250,000 to 500,000 records. If you have that many records, you will hopefully be able to afford to pay that fee. If you have a more realistic database size of 1,000 to 5,000 records, they will charge you R634.95 per month. It looks like 500 database records are included in the base price of the lite version (R69.99 per month) and the full version (R459.95 per month).

By: Ama Wheelies

Ama Wheelies — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:28:44 +0000

@Kian du Preez

A direct quote from the GivenGain website:
“GivenGain
Full ZAR 459.95
Database ZAR 17,500.00
Total: ZAR 17,959.95

Am I misunderstanding something here?
We also emailed Givengain directly asking about the R18000 price and they did not contest it. In fact they stated “The fee as calculated when choosing your required version of the database space size will be monthly”

If there is a misunderstanding please help clear this up.

I do agree that there are no miracles to raise funds and hard work is always required.

By: Kian du Preez

Kian du Preez — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:59:10 +0000

The web site states the full version costs R459.95 per month and not R18,000 as Ama Wheelies stated (maybe a typo).

It seems like their system is not the proverbial “beggar’s corner” where your main focus is to receive funding, but more of a tool you can use to get and manage your own funding from your own contacts / database. I wonder what effort Jail4Bail put in to receive donations or is he maybe waiting for a miracle.

By: Ama Wheelies

Ama Wheelies — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:53:41 +0000

Looking at their stats everyone should be benefiting, or either only one or 2 NPO’s are making a killing?

I wonder if the full version will drive more funding? But that costs R18000 mmm thats alot to put towards something that might work..

Still looks like a nice idea, so will maybe give the smaller package a try and see what happens.

Unless maybe a nice local firm wants to get behind Ama Wheelies – The Wheelchair farmers of Thabachweu and sponsor us the full version? Now that would be great.

By: Justin Hartman

Justin Hartman — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:14:22 +0000

Yeah look I guess the problem in this is that when you have 1600+ projects all looking for funding some will get neglected along the way which is not a good thing.

By: Gerhard Pieteres aka Jail4Bail

Gerhard Pieteres aka Jail4Bail — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:07:36 +0000

Autism Western Cape subscribed to the basic package (R69.99)in the beginning of the year. We still have to receive any funding from this income stream.