Evidence for effective conservation fundraising: Comparing social media with traditional mailshot field experiments

Funding shortage limits conservation impact, making it vital to find effective fundraising methods. To explore how traditional and digital conservation fundraising methods perform, we conducted real-world field experiments by using mailshot and Facebook advertisements. We compare three types of message frames (Simple, Seed money, and Ecological) and found that the Seed money frame, which emphasizes the amount already donated, increased the number of donors, whereas the Ecological frame, which focuses on the fact that the fundraiser benefits threatened species, led to a relative reduction in this number. We also found that while on Facebook advertising costs were higher than donations, the opposite was true for the traditional mailshot experiment. Our findings illustrate some of the challenges associated with online fundraising, and importance of behavioral evidence to enhance effective fundraising in conservation.

Kaffee Kostuum: A Dilemma in Retail Financials

John Dong, the founder and CEO of Kaffee Kostuum developed the idea of Kaffee Kostuum in his own MBA capstone project five years ago. Shortly after graduation, he received seed money from business angels, as well as a favorable bank loan. His value proposition was clear from the beginning: “Be a provider of an unlimited variety of affordable suits, directly available from stock.” The idea sprang from his frustration with two less-than-ideal circumstances: He either had to wait four weeks to get a pricey tailor-made suit or purchase from among the limited selection of affordable suits in his local department store. To keep his company's prices down, Dong worked with a production unit in Vietnam.

Success Factors of the Implementation of Crowdfunding for Start-Ups

There are number of challenges which are faced in implementing crowdfunding in Sri Lanka. Crowdfunding platforms in Sri Lanka are being used to gather funds, mainly for charities and to find seed money for startups. This study focuses on finding success factors affecting the implementation of the crowdfunding projects which are hosted to gather capital for startups. The study contains a proposed conceptual framework developed by reading recent literature with the facts contributing to the success of startups through crowdfunding and analyzing information gathered from experts in Sri Lanka. Variables namely web presence, investors, crowdfunding team, goal and rewards were analyzed together with the success of funding startups via crowdfunding Finally, all the variables except web presence indicated significant towards the success of funding startups via crowdfunding.