This is a quick follow-up to my recent post about lendwithcare.org.

Even though it’s still in beta, the site has started to generate a fair degree of interest and I wanted to share an example of how one supporter turned in to a whole group of investors.

It has been picked up by @jamesmb of Socialholic, who featured lendwithcare.org on his site by choosing five entrepreneurs and asking his readers to vote on which business they’d like to support.

It didn’t take long for them to find a winner, Lia Puspita, and fund her. They then decided to also help Akoua Kondje who came second. I’ve just checked and she’s now fully funded as is Ibu Nurhaeni, who came third.

This small group of investors are known as the KindaAngels and have the Twitter hashtag #KindaAngels if you’d like to follow or join them.

Their approach to getting involved reminded me about a post I put up in February that suggested that rather than trying to control their brands, charities should concentrate on improving the experience they offer donors.

If that experience is fun and involving as well as authentic, there’s no telling what might happen.

The traditional model that most charities follow doesn’t really lead to a high degree of donor satisfaction. But it appears that offering choice along with the promise of feedback has started to motivate some people to do something more than just write out a cheque.

And I find that rather exciting.

The web has dramatically changed the business models of a whole range of industries and charities don’t have an automatic exemption from the development of on-line technology. They are just slightly behind the curve.

As in every other sector of the economy, people pay for value. And it will be those charities that offer the richest experiences, greater connection and more involvement that will gain most from what the web has to offer.

I’ll keep you updated of any other developments as lendwithcare.org moves to launch, but in the meantime I’d like to thank James and the rest of the KindaAngels for getting involved.

Update: James has just announced a new honorary member of the KindaAngels group – Starbucks Exeter.


All members who visit the store can get a free mug. For more details on this offer take a look at Socialholic.