JustGiving Community Raises $4bn For Good Causes Around the World

By Anne-Marie Huby and Zarine Kharas, co-founders of JustGiving

JustGiving launched in February 2001 to help people support the causes they care about more easily, and raise a whole lot more for charity as a result. Back then, the digital world was a very different place — e-commerce was in its infancy, social media unknown, and dial-up modems were the norm.

Fifteen years on and we are extremely proud that $4 billion has now been raised for good causes on our platform, $2 billion of which in the last four years.

At first, our fundraisers, charities and donors turned to JustGiving because of the ease of use, efficiency and reliability of our platform. In recent years, they’ve also come to trust JustGiving to help them extend their reach, and bring their story to a wider audience. It is this, the growing kindness of strangers, that is perhaps our greatest source of pride.

JustGiving would not have been possible, let alone sustained, without the trust of our charity partners, who put up with our constant experiments — many unsuccessful — to grow the world of giving. Our commitment to innovation and systematic re-investment is unchanged fifteen years on.

Crucially, none of it would have happened without the 26 million people who have given, fundraised, and campaigned for the causes and people they care about since 2001. It has been an honour to serve all of them.

Since 2001, they have funded the creation of children’s cancer units across the UK; helped to reopen Manchester Dogs Home after it was burnt down; fundraised for Nepal in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake, rallied in support of refugees stranded in Calais and Greece; funded research into diseases and debilitating conditions and helped countless other good causes get their funding.

And while all charities are good causes, not all good causes are charities. This is why we launched JustGiving Crowdfunding in mid-2015. Since then, 43,000 people have raised money for personal causes and to help family, friends, communities and strangers in need.

This support helped Sue Stephenson to pay off her mortgage when she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer which meant Sue could ensure her five children could stay together in the family home.

It has ensured Great Britain’s Deaf Women’s Football team will travel to Italy and compete in the 2016 Deaf World Cup.

It transported Phevos the tiger from a small zoo in Greece halfway across the world for a better life.

And it helped get 23 year old Naiomi off the streets and into a secure home.

It has been a humbling and inspiring fifteen years, and we’ve only just started. Having enabled $4 billion in giving during that time, JustGiving will continue with its commitment to use the best the web has to offer to help great causes reach more people, and raise more money, than anywhere else.

JustGiving is a platform that allows anyone to raise money to make good things happen. Find out more.