Campaign.com Gets Institutional Sponsors, Hosts Collective Action for Social Missions

The pandemic that hit various sectors has prompted people to find solutions to survive in this difficult situation. Various initiatives have also been launched by the government, institutions, and individuals.

One alternative that is used to overcome this problem is a social action platform. Campaign.com is one of the startups engaged in the social sector.

Founded by William Gondokusumo on February 28, 2015, the initial idea to form this platform was actually inspired by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a social challenge that turned out to have a big impact on the world community in terms of raising awareness and support for ALS.

Campaign.com Founder William Gondokusumo said, “Basically, most of the problems in the world, from the Covid-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, require a solution in the form of collective action.”

In this case, Campaign.com wants to be part of the solution that accommodates these actions. Collectively by helping to solve various problems faced by various parties.

The Campaign #ForChange application itself was launched in 2018 as a social action platform where campaign organizers (social organizations) can invite their supporters to take social action and are automatically converted into donations from sponsors.

Before the pandemic, this application was a companion application to enliven booths at various events such as festivals and car-free days.

Users Can Donate Without Money

As a social action platform, what distinguishes Campaign.com from a fundraising platform is that it allows cashless donations through the Campaign #ForChange app.

There organizers can challenge their supporters to take action (as evidenced by uploading photos/videos which are then verified from the Campaign.com team) and finally can open donations from Sponsors.

“It’s very inspiring to see how simple and fun actions can connect so many people around the world for a social issue,” said William.

The #ForChange campaign itself consists of three main parties; Organizers, Supporters, and Sponsors. Organizers are those who are actively involved in the social field and launch social campaigns and design challenges.

Then, those who answer these challenges and support social campaigns through action are called Supporters. Meanwhile, it is the Sponsors who fund the campaign and convert the action into donations.

In 2020, Campaign.com won the Google Play Indonesia’s Best app for Good award. Since its establishment, the team claims to have worked with local and international organizations, such as the US Embassy Jakarta, SOS Children’s Villages Indonesia, Search For Common Ground, Scholars of Sustenance (SOS) Bali, and also WWF Indonesia.

At first, their team worked from one office, but since implementing the work-anywhere system, everything is full-remote and spread to more than 30 cities in Indonesia and Singapore, Australia, and the United States.

There are various sponsors who fund social campaigns on this platform, including PT Airline Reasuransi Indonesia Tbk. (Marein), Travelio, Danpac Pharma, Alpha JWC, and others.

As of September 2021, more than 320,000 social actions have been carried out on the Campaign #ForChange application, with 332 Organizers joining, and donations disbursed amounting to more than 1.36 billion rupiah. Currently, the company is positioning itself as a full social startup.

Full Social Startup

In running a business that is closely related to social action, monetization is often a difficult thing to do. While the business must remain sustainable.

Campaign.com is currently implementing a B2B business model with a focus on Online Sponsorship. The company reveals that this is a new monetization system that is different from online advertising.

Advertising and sponsorship are usually used interchangeably, but they are actually very different. Advertising implies that a payment has been made to place an ad with a specific message in place.

On the other hand, a sponsorship, implies a much deeper, often ongoing relationship between two parties. In carrying out its mission, Campaign.com has partnered with many Indonesian social startups, such as Indorelawan.org, PLUS (Social Enterprise Platform), Kitabisa.com, and Change.org Indonesia.