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Disruptive charity: Harnessing the power of the crowd to solve social problems
Technology Zimbabwe
May 21, 2012

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"You will find, as you look back on your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others" - Henry Drummond

What separates people who take action from those who don't depends on their view of reality for reality can be both stubborn and painful. The reality that we, humans, live in an imperfect world. The reality that everyday a child is losing a parent to HIV/AIDS. The reality that men, women and children are everyday dying because of a lack of food. The reality that we are at times powerless in the face of adversity.

Reality will always be out there waiting to be acted upon. Some choose to ignore it, pretending it does not exist simply by changing the channel. Some choose to wait for others to act. Some however choose to take action. People like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Bono. These people are perhaps well known for acting on reality due to the scale at which they have directed their efforts. One thing is true though: No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

The reality or problem

All of us have at one point come across the sad reality of people appearing on various media outlets seeking financial aid for diverse challenges. Typically it is a woman on TV who because of unemployment or the death of the husband, is unable to raise the medical fees required to have her child attend critical life saving surgery in neighbouring South Africa or Asia. She is sobbing uncontrollably trying to solicit funds from the public. In between sobs, and while trying to calm the child (now also crying), she says out the bank account details hoping people will respond with help. She believes in people and rightfully so because people are fundamentally good. If that was not the case she would not bother to ask from the masses or she would seek other means to raise the money.

People are without a doubt good but very terrible when it comes to dealing with inconvenience. For one thing, how many people despite their good heart and intention ever take down the bank details? Probably only a few. If people do get the bank details the business of the day might get in the way of them going to deposit the assistance. All these are examples of inconveniences-'fund raising frictions'-that unnecessarily put people's lives at risk.

Technology can be utilised to lubricate this fund raising friction.

Disruptive Technology

The world at large is witnessing the rapid expansion of the digital economy. This in part due to the ever decreasing cost of connectivity devices and the now affordable cost of broadband internet. mobile telephony is also now ubiquitous with Zimbabwe having at least seven million registered cell phone users. Technology promises to change how things have been done. Disruptive Technology or Innovation is a term that was coined by Clayton Christensen in a book "The Innovator's Dilemma" to describe how technology/innovation could challenge and eventually offset existing traditional markets. An example is how downloadable digital media such as that sold on iTunes has basically killed of physical high cost CDs. In a similar way the internet or eCommerce has several attributes such as real time interactivity, information sharing, virtual capacity and cost transparency that make it 'disruptive in nature'.

In Zimbabwe the electronic commerce application of 'virtual wallets' by the three mobile network operators is 'disruptive' to traditional banking accounts. Not only can virtual wallets be carried around but transactions can be done at any time of the day. Such Disruptive Technology can benefit the non-profit sector and the 'Woman' in particular because people can get to donate at whatever time of the day without the inconvenience of having to memorise or write down lengthy bank details, among other benefits.

The Crowd

Traditionally, corporates have been unofficially handed the task of charitable giving by society. This is not to say that individuals are not interested in giving but that giving has really been inconvenient. If this inconvenience is reduced or altogether removed, funding/giving could be 'outsourced' to the 'crowd'.

Jeff Howe defined 'crowd sourcing' as "the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of a specialized few". The crowd is every one of us, cell phone carrying individuals, different but part of this collectively shared experience called humanity. Everyone is a potential philanthropist. Ubiquitous mobile telephony and its subsequent application of electronic commerce can be harnessed to bring together crowds to solve common humanitarian problems.

For example if all that 'woman' required to have her son operated on is $2,000 it would take roughly 10,000 (from a pool of potentially 7 million mobile subscribers) crowd members donating just 20c a piece. This collective 'crowd funding' removes the burden off from a single person. In addition the time taken to raise the money could be reduced significantly.

What needs to be done?

Individuals whose lives are at risk need our help. It takes the collective action of the crowd, mobile phone operators and the media to make this a reality. The crowd has the resources. Insignificant cents from each and every one of us which collectively make a huge difference. The mobile phone operators have the infrastructure. The media - TV, newspapers and websites-identify the people who need our help. As a community we can mobilise crowds to fund individuals seeking life saving surgery (or any other need).

All we need are ideas and partnerships. Ideas on how we can remove the pain from giving normally associated with going to the bank. Ideas on how people who fund charities (or individuals) can have a way of tracking the impact their monies have. Ideas on how people can be identified and eventually benefit.

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

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