The crowdfunding platform is using gamification and incentives in what it calls a Cycle of Progress: Listen, Act, Learn. Repeat.
We all want our donations to have the most impact possible. But how do we choose which nonprofits to support? And how does an organization like GlobalGiving that works with thousands of organizations in 165+ countries, measure, compare, incentivize, and reward effective nonprofits?
Well, at GlobalGiving, we’ve made a Big Bet about how we can do just that, and today marks a major milestone in our work to drive more money to more effective organizations. Starting today, the nonprofits on GlobalGiving that we believe are more effective—those nonprofits that are committed to learning—will be rewarded with more visibility and the chance for more funding through the crowdfunding community.
We’re using gamification, incentives, and behavioral economics to encourage organizations to listen to the people they serve, to act on what they hear by testing new ideas, and to learn faster and more efficiently. (We call this the Cycle of Progress: Listen, Act, Learn. Repeat.)
We’ve created a new ranking system, which we’re calling GG Rewards, that helps us identify which nonprofits are climbing the effectiveness ladder as Partners, Leaders, and Superstars. We’ve developed this system in collaboration with our nonprofit partners, with researchers, and peers. We’ll continue to improve as we learn more in the coming months. (In case you’ve been following along on the Markets For Good Blog, the GG Rewards system is a big improvement on the Effectiveness Dashboards and Partner Rewards rankings we’ve been experimenting with for several years.)
When our partners log on to GlobalGiving today, they’ll see their GG Rewards Status, a list of benefits their status affords them, and then they’ll have immediate access to tools and resources that can help them log more Effectiveness and Engagement points that will help increase their scores. Nonprofits not only get points for reporting to their donors, but they can also earn points for interviewing stakeholders, collecting community stories, or collecting feedback from the people they intend to help, for example.
We know that 40% of our nonprofit partners log into our system every week, and we have data that demonstrates that they’ll take actions to improve their ranking because it leads to more funding. We’re making sure those actions will help the nonprofits not only become better fundraisers, but also more effective at meeting the needs of their communities.
As nonprofits demonstrate their commitment to learning and improving, we’ll now give them more visibility on GlobalGiving, and we’re confident that Superstars will reap tangible rewards. Stay tuned as we roll out ways for donors to search for and find effective organizations!