Sarah Timms was working at the Animal Assistance Foundation, a grant maker in Colorado, in 2011 when she read an article about crowdfunding and concluded, “This is going to be the giving method of the future.” She began building a nonprofit site that allows small and medium-size animal-welfare charities to raise money. It went live in May 2013.
Ms. Timms, the group’s chief executive, said her biggest challenge is persuading nonprofits to sign up. “It’s a departure from the traditional way of raising money and intimidating to animal groups that aren’t very tech-minded.”
LoveAnimals.org just announced two coups: Halo, Purely for Pets, a pet-food company co-owned by TV star Ellen DeGeneres, has agreed to be a founding corporate sponsor; and Alison Eastwood, actor Clint Eastwood’s daughter, is running a campaign on the site to benefit Chimp Haven a sanctuary for chimpanzees.
How much it has raised: About $180,000 in 138 campaigns
Share of campaigns that have reached their fundraising goals: About 60 percent
What happens if a campaign does not reach its goal: The charity can take the donations if it can still carry out its project with money raised from other sources. If that is not possible, contributions are refunded to donors.
How it vets campaigns: Groups must provide their Form 990 tax filing, certificate of good standing from their states, IRS letter granting 501(c)(3) status, and list of board members.
How it communicates with donors: It sends emails to provide receipts for tax purposes. It also alerts donors when a project has reached its goal and when it has been completed. All names are passed on to the charity unless a donor has requested anonymity.
Fees: PayPal deducts 2.2 percent plus 30 cents from every donation. The site does not charge additional fees, although it suggests that contributors add a 15-percent “administrative donation” to help cover its operating costs. About half do so, providing 8 percent of all money raised from crowdfunding.
Budget: LoveAnimals.org spent about $163,000 in 2013, including about $78,000 on crowdfunding grants. Financial contributors include major donors and the Animal Welfare Trust foundation.
Sample Campaign
Help Save Horses, coordinated by Animal Protection of New Mexico’s Equine Protection Fund
The animal-protection group was one of the first to use LoveAnimals.org last year, its first experiment with crowdfunding. In this campaign, it aimed to raise money for three shelters that help abused or abandoned horses, donkeys, and mules in New Mexico.
Fundraising goal: $5,000
Amount raised: $3,660 between mid-October 2013 and mid-January 2014; a contribution from an outside donor brought the total to $5,000.
Donors: 52 people contributed, of whom 27 were new donors.
Other crowdfunding efforts: Animal Protection of New Mexico, which has an annual budget of about $1.5-million, raised a total of $3,400 in two other LoveAnimals.org campaigns—one to support a horse gelding clinic and another to help animals of domestic-violence victims.
