Hi Everyone!
We are now a bit more than a year in and wanted to update:
We are still looking to use the large part (roughly 900 USD) of the grant left, however as mentioned before it seems too little to get a UX designer to create a visually and in other ways user-compelling website for us. While still looking for someone experienced in UX to upgrade the site fully without the risk of having parts of it badly made just because we run out of funds for a more symbolic sum (our remainder 900 USD), we have been looking for the next most cost-effective way to push for spreading EA in to more "norm" circles. We have experimented with created merchandise in the shapes of stickers and brochures for 20 USD for participants to take with oneself at the event, which might have gotten positive results in the sense that traffic to our website has increased while our activities such as posting and updates on our websites has remained the same, which we would guess could be a positive result from this experiment. We are discussing the possibility of creating more cost effective merchsandise.
2
Budget for events aiming to "mainstream" EA in Sweden
Project summary
Make it Count is a Swedish version of the Dutch "10 % club" which aims to make more people donate 10 % of their income. We do this by hosting relaxed, easy-going and fun evening events with a speaker and a dinner once a quarter.
What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?
The goal is to make more persons with an everyday job donate effectively and a high amount, preferably a percentage of their income.
We will achieve this through making a community of socially skilled EA-aligned persons with big networks meet and bring to these events friends and acquaintances interested in doing good.
How will this funding be used?
-To do more outreach to attract more people to these events through:
-getting copywriting services to create more engaging and relevant marketing content.
-getting UX- and design help for our website to get more SEO relevance and higher retention rate of those who visit our website.
Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?
Daniel Wernstedt,
Organizational consultant and former lawyer with >10 years of experience from e.g. the Swedish Foreign Aid Agency, as well as running several smaller projects for EA Sweden since 2017.
Emil Wasteson,
Director of EA Sweden and former CEO of fish-substitute company Hooked.
Sofie Sjöstrand,
Director of Swedish Giving platform Ge Effektivt and former Head of the Swedish National cooperation organization of all charities registered in Sweden.
Our track record
We have had three events so far (important to know is that donations to effective organizations inspired by these events can happen a lot later than at the time of the events) with the following results:
1st: 15 participants, amount effectively donated
2nd: 19 participants
3rd: 40 participants
According to an expert of the data of donations to effective charities via the Swedish effective giving platform Ge Effektivt are $686 iin individual gifts from participants due to the events and an estimated $7800 expected lifetime value (conservatively estimated) from new monthly givers due to the events.
This is impact excluding inspiring several participants to pursue EA fellowships, internships, FTE´s collaboration opportunities etc which are occurences we haven't tracked.
We also expect to grow significantly in numbers and donations as the original Dutch 10 % club who have a journalist as one of their founders get 300 participants at their Amsterdam events and have expanded to four more dutch cities as for now.
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?
hundreds and likely thousands of Swedes not donating to effective causes and not donating significantly more than the average total gift amount to charities in Sweden of $13/month
What other funding are you or your project getting?
We have received no other funding
Jonas Ludvig Daniel Wernstedt
5 months ago
Progress update
Jonas Ludvig Daniel Wernstedt
11 months ago
Progress update
Hi Everyone!
We are now a bit more than six months in and wanted to update:
We managed to get a very pro-EA person to update the texts (copy) on our website to increase SEO for us for the symbolic sum of roughly 100 USD in Swedish currency. This leaves us with still having the large part of the grant left, however it seems too little to get a UX designer to create a visually and in other ways user compelling website for us. We are still looking for someone experienced in UX to upgrade the site fully without the risk of having parts of it badly made just because we run out of funds, so so far we haven't used the large part of the funding, but we are still on the lookout.
Jonas Ludvig Daniel Wernstedt
12 months ago
Hi Everyone!
We are now six months in and wanted to update on the funding:
We managed to get a very pro-EA person to update the texts (copy) on our website to increase SEO for us for the symbolic sum of roughly 100 USD in Swedish currency. This leaves us with still having the large part of the grant left, however it seems too little to get a UX designer to create a visually and in other ways user compelling website for us. We are still looking for someone experienced in UX to upgrade the site fully without the risk of having parts of it badly made just because we run out of funds, so so far we haven't used the large part of the funding, but we are still on the lookout.
donated $390
Jason
over 1 year ago
Pushing to minimum threshold based on Henri's endorsement below. Given his role with Ge Effektivt, he should be in a good position to assess this. The rationale in his comment -- pointing to success of a similar idea in another country and synergies with volunteer effort -- are also convincing.
Jonas Ludvig Daniel Wernstedt
over 1 year ago
Many times thank you @Jason, this will likely help us push the message greatly and increase our number of event particpants many times in a much shorter time than now projected. Let me know if you would like updates about how the project is going!
🐹
Lily Chamberlain
over 1 year ago
Upvoting because of the track record, the potential lifetime value of the gifts, and the success of this model in other countries.
donated $390
Jason
over 1 year ago
Why do you think your website would substantially benefit from UX/design/SEO work? Do you have a link (not seeing one on mobile at least)?
Jonas Ludvig Daniel Wernstedt
over 1 year ago
Great question.
Yes the link to our web site is: https://www.makeitcount.se/
As we try to reach a mainstream audience and perhaps especially people middle class, middle age with average income, we are fighting with many others to get the attention of this very large group: we need to stand out. What I have been adviced is that in order to do so the marketing and all communication needs to be great and not the least the website which plays a central role in legitimacy at least for a Swedish audience. This is the reason why getting expert help on this has been the big priority for us now.
donated $390
Jason
over 1 year ago
@Daniel-Wernstedt Thanks! I suspect Google Translate does no favors for my own experience of the website, but I'm not the target audience :)
Jonas Ludvig Daniel Wernstedt
over 1 year ago
@Jason You are most welcome and yes Google Translate doesn't usually capture the quality of a text :/ Thank you for your contribution to this project!
donated $500
Henri Thunberg
over 1 year ago
I supported this project because ...
- I have heard very positive feedback from attendees
- It seems meaningful for me to learn how to better approach non-EA professionals
- The events are, in a relative sense, extremely cheap to run, since people pitch in with their own free time, space, food, et.c. A few thousand dollars will seemingly make a huge difference both on how feasible it is to keep running these, and what qualities they will hold.
- The model has had extensive success in the Netherlands with the 10% club, and I think there's nothing stopping similar success in Sweden
donated $500
Henri Thunberg
over 1 year ago
@HenriThunberg (Note that I have a CoI as the Chairman/Founder of Ge Effektivt, though I am not directly involved in this project per se)