ANU business graduate Alexandra Martin is harnessing the power of the millennial dollar, creating her own charity donation platform aimed at engaging young people.
“I was really unhappy with donating and the current methods of donating, and I just wanted a better way to donate,” she says.
“I had spoken to a lot of people who had similar experiences, so they disliked [people] approaching them [and] being pressured into making donations … and some of the other methods like phone calls, cold calling and emailing and all of those methods that a lot of young people see as outdated.”
Ms Martin is working to develop the Woke platform, where people will eventually be able to research, donate and connect with charities all in the one place. She has engaged ChangePath as a preliminary partner, who evaluate charities and give them a score out of seven based on the charity’s transparency, finances and privacy.
“I’m trying to give people a range of different categories and causes, and letting them decide which ones they want to donate to, and at the same time it’s still an effective donation,” she says.
Ms Martin is currently trying to secure funding and a tech co-founder to grow the platform. She says the general consensus among local charities is that the ‘millennial dollar’ is one of the hardest to reach and retain.
“All the charities I’ve spoken to so far have said they have a lot of trouble with reaching millennials, and knowing how to reach and retain the millennial donors. I think that’s why they’re interested in the idea, because it is a new way to reach millennials and sort of tap into the millennial audience [who] are actually really looking to make positive impacts,” she says.
Ms Martin says she hopes Woke will give young people the chance to donate to causes that are important to them, with the reassurance that their money will be spent wisely.
“I think that’s something that hopefully [Woke] can bring more light to; what charities are doing and the impact they actually do have, because there’s really so many great charities out there, and there’s a lot that people don’t know about.
“It’s essentially giving charities an equal playing field, where they can actually pitch their impact against one another for donor dollars,” she says.
For more information, visit wokeplatform.com
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