Campaign.com Gets Institutional Sponsors, Hosts Collective Action for Social Missions

The pandemic that hit various sectors has prompted people to find solutions to survive in this difficult situation. Various initiatives have also been launched by the government, institutions and individuals. One alternative that is used to overcome this problem is a social action platform.

campaign.com is one of the startups engaged in the social sector. Founded by William Gondokusumo on February 28, 2015, the initial idea for the formation of this platform was actually inspired by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a social challenge which turned out to have a huge impact on the world community in terms of raising awareness and support for ALS.

Campaign.com Founder William Gondokusumo said, "Basically, most of the problems in the world, from the Covid-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, require a solution in the form of collective action. In this case, Campaign.com wants to be part of the solution that accommodates these actions. collectively by helping to solve various problems faced by various parties."

The Campaign #ForChange application itself was launched in 2018 as a social action platform where campaign organizers (social organizations) can invite their supporters to take social action and are automatically converted into donations from sponsors. Before the pandemic, this application became a companion application to enliven booth at various events such as festivals and car Free Day.

As a social action platform, what distinguishes Campaign.com from a fundraising platform is that it allows cashless donations through the Campaign #ForChange app, where organizers can challenge their supporters to take action (as evidenced by uploading photos/videos which are then verified by the Campaign team. com) and finally able to open donations from Sponsors.

"It's very inspiring to see how simple and fun actions can connect so many people around the world for a social issue," said William.

The #ForChange campaign itself consists of three main parties; Organizers, Supporters, and Sponsors. Para Organizers is that they are actively involved in the social field and launch social campaigns and design challenges. Then, those who answer these challenges and support social campaigns through action are called Supporters. Meanwhile, those who fund campaigns and convert actions into donations are para Sponsors.

In 2020, Campaign.com has won an award Google Play Indonesia's Best app for Good. Since its establishment, the team claims to have worked with local and international organizations, such as the US Embassy Jakarta, SOS Children's Villages Indonesia, Search For Common Ground, Scholars of Sustenance (SOS) Bali, and also WWF Indonesia.

At first, their team worked from one office, but since implementing the work-anywhere system, everything has changed full remote and spread to more than 30 cities in Indonesia and Singapore, Australia, and the United States. There are various sponsors who fund social campaigns on this platform, including PT Airline Reasuransi Indonesia Tbk. (Marein), Travelio, Danpac Pharma, Alpha JWC, and others.

As of September 2021, more than 320.000 social actions have been carried out on the Campaign #ForChange application, with 332 Organizers joining, and donations disbursed amounting to more than 1,36 billion rupiah. Currently the company is positioning itself as a full social startup.

Full social startup

In running a business that is closely related to social action, monetization is often a difficult thing to do. While the business must remain sustainable. Campaign.com is currently implementing a B2B business model with a focus on Online Sponsorship. The company reveals that this is a new monetization system that is different from online advertising.

Advertising and sponsorship are usually used interchangeably, but they are actually very different. Advertising implies that a payment has been made to place an ad with a specific message in place. A sponsorship, on the other hand, implies a much deeper, often ongoing relationship between two parties.

William admitted, "Our income comes from government agencies, companies, institutions and individuals who sponsor a Challenge in the Campaign #ForChange application. We charge a fee of 5% for the platform fee and verification fee. There is also an additional fee in the form of a management fee if there is a service the extras we provide."

Meanwhile, Organizers and Supporters do not need to pay any fees. The company itself provides a team to help Organizers connect and be supported by Sponsors, and reach more Supporters.

Talking about the target market, it actually includes everyone or anyone who has a smartphone and wants to contribute to making the world a better place. However, his team is currently focusing on attracting governments, companies, foundations, and individuals who wish to support campaigns by social organizations that address issues that align with their social mission. These parties allocate a portion of their budget for advertising and activation to sponsor social campaigns within the platform.

This is recognized to be in line with one of the company's core values, namely: Full Collaboration. "We believe that only by working together can we all bring about sustainable positive change!" said William.

In terms of funding, this platform is still doing bootstrapping from investors angel investors who believe in and support Campaign.com's mission, plus private funding. Currently, the company's focus is attracting more Sponsors to fund the Organizers' social campaigns, and also to achieve financial sustainability.

"In the future, when we can prove our business model and achieve stairs, we would like to invite impact investors to join," added William.

His party is quite optimistic about the future of social platforms in Indonesia. Currently, we can see the rapid growth of various social movements and social entrepreneurship. In addition, Indonesia has been named as world's most generous country by the World Giving Index in 2018. This will be one positive trend.

In carrying out its mission, Campaign.com has partnered with many Indonesian social startups, such as Indorelawan.org, PLUS (Social Enterprise Platform), Kitabisa.com, and Change.org Indonesia.