This week, we distill insights around Pledgeit - a crowdfunding platform that invites people to seek pledges or donations in exchange for performing various challenges. 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have further synthesized the insights to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights annual report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement, now available as a Kindle eBook. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/future-of-engagement

1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
Pledgeit
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 26

2. Volume 2, Issue 26,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
Pledgeit
100+ thinkers and planners within
MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring
projects on social data, crowdsourcing,
storytelling and citizenship on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every
week, we pick up one project and curate
the conversations around it — on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but
also on the broader social web — into
a weekly insights report. Every quarter,
we compile these insights, along with
original research and insights from the
MSLGROUP global network, into the
People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from
our year-long endeavor throughout 2012
to provide foresights for business leaders
and changemakers — in the ten-part
People’s Insights Annual Report titled
Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future
of Engagement.
People’s Insights
In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
projects at the intersection of social
data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and
citizenship.
Do subscribe to receive our weekly
insights reports, quarterly magazines, and
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People’s Insights
weekly report
People’s Insights
quarterly magazines
People’s Insights
Annual Report

3. 3
What is Pledgeit?
Pledgeit is a crowdfunding platform that invites people to seek pledges or donations in
exchange for performing various challenges.
Source: fundraising.co.uk
While most charity crowdfunding platforms
have been launched by entrepreneurs to
connect people with worthy causes and non-
profits, Pledgeit was launched by the charity
Leukemia & Lymphoma Research itself to
ensure the most effective use of donations.
How it works
Fundraising events typically focus on a
specific challenge or activity. Pledgeit
broadens its reach by inviting people to set
their own challenge – resulting in a mix of
serious, quirky and fun challenges.
Blogger Nick Clayton noted:
“Instead of somebody deciding to take part in
an activity then looking for sponsors, the new
Pledgeit platform enables people to challenge
their friends to complete task in return for
donations.”
Rosie Baker wrote:
“Challenges can be anything from eating as
many crackers as possible in a minute, doing
standup comedy or running a marathon.”
Source: pledgeit.org.uk

4. Volume 2, Issue 26,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
Pledgeit
Source: thenextweb.com
Source: pledgeit.org.uk/challenge/show/166
People can choose their own challenge,
or nominate a friend to carry out a specific
challenge.
Blogger Emma Klues explains how Pledgeit
works:
“In a nutshell, you can dare your friends
to do any challenge you’d like, back it up
with pledges, and then leverage your social
networks to make your goal and control your
pals, all while donating to charity.”
Rosie Baker reported:
“People can also remove challenges set for them if they do not want to participate.”
Money is deducted from the pledgers only after a participant successfully completes a
challenge, as confirmed by the challenge’s referee.
The website explains:
“The challenge referee is the sole and infallible judge of whether they deem the challenge complete.
That’s either the person who created the challenge (if they were challenging a friend) or the elected
referee (if the person was challenging themselves.) When they decide it’s complete, your pledges
will be cashed. Their decision is final.”

5. 5
Source: causerelatedmarketing.blogspot.com
Source: pledgeit.org.uk/community/hallofpledgends
Source: psfk.com
‘Hall de la Pledgends’
Pledgeit uses gamification to create a
sense of competition, peer pressure and
reward. People who successfully complete
challenges are crowned ‘pledgends’ and
featured on a special page called “Hall de la
Pledgends.”
Christina Foulger commented:
“I think this is a great idea, its fun its engaging
and it has an element of competition and self
worth about it.”
Reaching potential donors
Bloggers, marketers and the people behind
Pledgeit note that the fun approach to
fundraising excites potential donors and
energizes those affected by “donor fatigue.”
Cathy Gilman, chief executive of Leukemia &
Lymphoma Research shared the reason they
chose a creative approach:
“The financial environment for fundraising has
never been more challenging. Our response
at Leukemia & Lymphoma Research is to
focus even more resource on creativity and
innovation to inspire and engage people to in
raising the money we need in ways that are
relevant and enjoyable for them.”
Blogger Emma Klues noted that the
approach helps reach a larger audience base,
beyond the charity’s core community:
“People will be doing this because “it gives
back” and they can make their friends do
stuff, not because they are wildly passionate
advocates of L&L Research. This opens up their
audience far beyond just their dedicated fans,
but keeping the social good option ever-present
makes it far more powerful than just a site to
call out your friends.”
Cause marketer Paul Jones wrote Pledgeit
“puts the fun back in crowdfunding for causes.”
M&C Saatchi’s Fortnightly tech bulletin
pointed out that the approach helps combat
‘donation fatigue’:
“This potentially massive fun factor helps
overcome the growing problem for charities of
donation fatigue.”
Increasing effectiveness
Leukemia & Lymphoma Research opted to build
its own platform to bypass the standard 5%
processing fee charged by charity crowdfunding
platforms like GoFundMe and Razoo.
This approach also lets Leukemia &
Lymphoma Research control and access all
the data collected on the platform. Leukemia
& Lymphoma Research’s Ellie Dawes explains:
“Another benefit is that Pledgeit is ours now.
We do not pay any percentage fee, as we
would to any external platform. We also have
full access to the data. Many crowd-funding
platforms release very little amounts of data,

6. Volume 2, Issue 26,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
Pledgeit
Source: twitter.com/soxles
Source: razoo.com
Source: socialproject.ph/u/StS/solar-power-to-the-people
Source: thedonation.org.uk
Source: easyfundraising.org.uk
and by analysing trends on Pledgeit, we could
gain insight that can help us plan and tailor
our fundraising planning activities across
Leukemia & Lymphoma Research.”
Howard Lake reported:
“The platform has cost around £20,000 so far,
but the charity is confident in can recoup that
within six months if 12 or so challenges are
completed that raise a similar amount to that
achieved by a London Marathon runner.”
Inspiring doers – and talkers
Bloggers and thinkers also commended the
relevance of the platform, both for people
who already do things and don’t mind
associating with a charity, and also for people
who’s friends constantly talk about doing
things but need an extra push.
Wade commented:
“What a great way to encourage people to
take things they are already doing and raise
awareness to non-profits and funds for them.”
Other approaches to raising funds
Not all charities build their own platform
from scratch. Many partner with pre-existing
crowdfunding platforms, like GoFundMe
and Razoo, which have the resources to
maintain state-of-the-art platforms and large
communities of donors and influencers.
Some charity crowdfunding platforms focus
on specific topics. For instance, Start A Cure
focuses on cancer research projects.
A new charity crowdfunding platform,
Philippines-based Social Project, is
experimenting with ways to increase the
effectiveness of crowdfunding campaigns,
and breaks down a large funding goal into
smaller milestones.
Some charities seek to change people’s
behaviors. UK-based The DoNation
encourages people to ‘replace cash with
actions’ to contribute to a more sustainable
world.
Some charities encourage people to spend
for good. UK-based Easy Fund Raising
partners with e-tailers to ensure a percentage
of all online sales go to charity.

7. People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary
crowdsourcing platform and approach that
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
helps organizations build and nurture public
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white
label communities around four pre-configured
application areas: Expertise Request Network,
Innovation Challenge Network, Research &
Insights Network and Contest & Activation
Network. Our community and gaming features
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and
collaborate to find innovative solutions.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
insights and foresight approach, which consists
of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
specific insights communities, and ethnographic
deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
insights from conversations and communities.
People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab

8. For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com