It takes a crowd...
It’s often been said, that it takes a village to raise a child, at The Character Company we know that it takes a crowd! As a long-term mentorship programme for young boys with absent fathers, we know only too well the work that goes into raising boys to be good men. Most of which is not possible, without you…
As our young 5 Values Cycle Team take on the hero’s challenge of 94.7km in this year’s Telkom 947 Cycle Challenge, testing their skills and endurance bringing to life the very values we encourage in them. We’ve been hard at work posting, liking, sharing and getting the word out! And this is where you can make all the difference…
Our #CC2017 campaign runs on two crowd-funding platforms, Back-A-Buddy and Candystick. Whilst many of you have some idea of what crowd-funding is and how it works, we felt we should take a moment to get some facts out and share why we think this it’s better than sliced bread!
It’s a numbers game
It’s the process of collecting small amounts of money from a large volume of people! We like to take this idea one step further, crowd-funding is about marketing your campaign to your network of fans and asking them to share it to their network, and so on and so on. It opens a conversation with people who have never heard of our mentorship programme, giving us the opportunity to convert them into fans whilst introducing us to potential new MENtors and Fatherhood ambassadors.
But is it safe and secure?
It is deplorable to think that cybercriminals would use ‘charities’ to scam people, but to them its simply business. As long as the opportunity exists, scammers will take advantage. So to avoid becoming a victim, always be alert when donating our money. Some useful tips:
Verify the organisation – before committing to a charity, always double-check the authenticity of the organisation by contacting legitimate sources. The Character Company is a registered NPO, and we have all our legal documentation posted to our website.
Know how your donations will be used – while it seems rather obvious where your donations should go, it still helps to know the charity’s process and timeline regarding donations. The Character Company is currently raising funds for the purchase of much needed transport vehicles for our boys and equipment we use on our holiday camps. Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates on our programme and fundraising goals.
Be wary of social media pleas and campaigns – social networking sites are popular platforms used to gain attention. As such, it is easy for scammers to create bogus accounts to lure users. Always be on the lookout for sketchy details and inconsistencies before donating anything. The Character Company operates with transparency and welcomes any contact from the public enquiring about our programme and marketing campaigns.
Make sure your donations go through a secure website – online transactions are always at the risk of being intercepted by hackers and identity thieves. One way, to ensure that you’re paying on a secure website is by checking the URL. HTTPS means that sensitive information like credit card credentials and user information is encrypted before being sent to the server. Crowd-funding sites like Candystick.co.za offer a safe, secure and simple way to donate. They offer secure payment platforms for credit/debit cards and secure instant EFT. Visit www.candystick.co.za for more on how this works.
Handle attachments with caution – avoid opening suspicious attachments or clicking on dubious links. You can tell by looking for bad grammar, spelling errors, inflammatory statements, and outrageous titles. The Character Company posts copies of all our campaign material to both our website and facebook page. Our marketing team can respond to any questions you have about the campaign. Our directors and founders contact information is posted on our website, so check us out!
