CanDo takes the ‘all-or-nothing’ approach to crowdfunding. It means that if a campaign doesn’t reach its fundraising goal once the time is up, the money is either reallocated to another campaign (of your choosing) or it can be returned to the CanDoer who supported the campaign (subject to the deduction of any card fees).

Not only is this proven to be one of the most successful ways to crowdfund but it also best reflects the sense of urgency faced by the local humanitarian organisations that are crowdfunding. Our local humanitarian partners do not have any other access to direct funding, so they cannot 'top-up' a campaign.

The only exception is with acute emergency campaigns. In the case of acute emergencies, CanDo will release funds on a weekly basis in order to enable partners to respond immediately to urgent needs - therefore these campaigns will not operate on an all or nothing basis.

Because CanDo is registered as a UK charity, we are able reclaim basic tax on contributions from UK residents. By adding Gift Aid at checkout, you ensure that for every £1 you give to a campaign, CanDo can access an extra 25p to support to our activities including supporting local partner organisations, advocating for a transformation of the humanitarian system and working for organisational sustainability. We are also looking to expand our charity status beyond the UK to allow us to reclaim tax on donations from elsewhere in the world.

No. Only humanitarian organisations that provide a healthcare response in war-affected communities can launch a campaign. And before they can do this, they must go through our rigorous vetting process. Read about the local humanitarians here.

 

In short, this is the 10% that we add on top of each donation. Combined with other sources of funding such as grants and awards, this ‘impact fee’ goes towards the work we do to supporting local humanitarian organisations and connecting you to their incredible work.

By applying the ‘impact fee’ separately, 100% of each donation goes to the local humanitarian and our whole process is totally transparent.

Anyone. As long as you own a debit or credit card then you can contribute to a campaign from anywhere.

Matchfunding is where an organisation or an individual offers to match £ for £ contributions made by CanDoers

Campaigners can still receive donations even once they have reached their crowdfunding target. Any donations over and above the original target amount is commonly referred to as ‘overfunding’. Campaigners will, of course, be delighted to receive more support than they bargained for, and will tell donors exactly what they intend to do with the money raised.

Audacity is a prerequisite of the CanDoer. So much so, we’ve fashioned our own enterprising way of doing things which makes us a combination of:

Charity

We are a registered charity. This means we’re regulated and must demonstrate a responsibility to our stakeholders, and operate as a not-for-profit organisation.

Movement

We are a global movement. CanDo is based on the concept of shared humanity and the idea that collective action makes people the next superpower.

Social Enterprise

We are a social enterprise. This means that we have a financially sustainable business model that puts long-term social impact at the top of our agenda.

We provide local humanitarians with a global platform to grow their support base and raise international awareness about their lifesaving work, in their own voices, in a dignified and independent manner.

In one sense, yes. We have certainly had UK charity status since February 2017 (registered charity number 1171844). However, we are also a non-profit social enterprise and a humanitarian movement at the same time. Read more here. 

Healthcare is a fundamental human right. Yet in war zones, limited access to healthcare facilities means millions are dying or suffering needlessly around the world. Without access to healthcare, people are dying of preventable conditions like polio, and treatable issues such as diabetes go unchecked, for example. Healthcare is also CanDo’s area of specialisation, as our founders have been working in the sector for years, across the Middle East and Africa.

Local humanitarians are the doctors and the nurses, the aid workers and the volunteers, that risk their own lives to respond to the immediate healthcare needs of their war-devastated communities. Read more here.

The Syrian conflict is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. It is also our area of expertise. Four of the CanDo team are Syrians who have vast experience of responding to the ongoing crisis. But while our efforts are currently focused on this conflict, we will be supporting local humanitarians working in other war-torn countries too - as the CanDo movement grows. A disastrous consequence of the Syrian conflict is the targeting of healthcare infrastructure as a weapon of war. Tragic, we know. But a reality. The UN estimates that over 11 million Syrians don’t have access to basic healthcare needs.

Your contribution is immediately debited from your card by our trusted payment gateway partner. They hold the funds in an e-wallet account until the fundraising campaign is complete.

The funds are transferred into CanDo’s bank account for immediate onward transfer to the local humanitarian’s bank account.

If the campaign doesn’t reach its target, then you are given the choice of:

• contributing to another campaign,
• or taking a refund (subject to the deduction of any card fees)
• in some cases like acute emergencies, the local humanitarian partner is able to implement part of the project and therefore they will receive the funds even if the campaign does not reach its target. This acute emergency status is communicated on campaign pages where this is the case.

Accountability is central to CanDo. Our vision is all about channelling contributions more efficiently to save lives. We want to be absolutely certain that CanDoers are supporting credible and trustworthy projects - and that money is going to the right places. So before we take on any humanitarian partner, we rigorously assess and vet them. Then during projects we monitor our local partners so that you can have full confidence that your support is having an impact. This means measuring, testing, impact assessing and helping refine partners’ campaigns.

 

No, your credit and/or debit card details are held securely by Bluesnap - our payment host provider. Bluesnap adheres to Payment Card Industry Data Securities Standards (PCI-DSS) and is a regulated and highly secure Payment Card Industry-compliant system.

No, if you only want to contribute to one campaign you only need to give us your email address and payment details. However, we would love you to be part of our humanitarian movement to support local organisations on the ground with resources so they can deliver essential healthcare and save more lives. To stay informed about the movement and how you can help we ask you to sign-up to our platform so we can keep in touch.

Certainly - if you’re the shy or the modest type then just check the ‘anonymous’ box when you add your details.

You can contribute up to £5,000 to any one campaign.

However, that wouldn’t stop you supporting other campaigns. See the local humanitarian campaigns here.

There is a ‘request new password’ feature at login, but if you’re still having problems please email help@CanDoAction.com

No. Crowdfunding campaigns is a big part of supporting our local humanitarian partners but our larger goal is to be part of a community of global humanitarians sharing their skills, ideas, passion and time for the common goal of saving more lives. It’s that simple.

 

Find out the various ways to get involved, or write to us with an idea of what else our community could be doing.

100% of of your contribution goes to the local humanitarian partner running the campaign. We apply a 10% impact fee to make our work sustainable*. Oh, and as a UK charity, we can claim tax breaks and gift aid to make sure your money goes further.

*Yeah, we know - this is much less than the other charities deduct.

Want to cancel your account on our website? We'll be sad to see you go, but simply email us at hello@candoaction.org stating the email address associated with your account and we'll delete it accordingly and email you to let you know this is complete.

We help local humanitarians to run crowdfunding campaigns because they have little access to other forms of direct funding. They work on-the-ground where larger aid organisations cannot (or will not) access - those marginalised and hard-to-reach communities that are cut off from other forms of support. Not only are local humanitarians first on the scene, but they’re the ones that stick around, providing an ongoing response. Perhaps it goes without saying, but by living within the community themselves, they don’t leave when other aid organisations do. Belonging to the communities they work in, these local humanitarians understand the nuances of a crisis like no other aid organisation can. And because they share the same religious and cultural values - as well as language - of those they help, they also have the full confidence of local people. As the situation in war zones can change in a matter of hours, the vantage point of these local humanitarians means they know what is needed and when. They are used to being creative and have the agility to respond effectively - just as their campaigns demonstrate.

Each local humanitarian organisation has to fit certain criteria before applying to partner with CanDo. To be eligible you must be delivering health-related projects (meaning medical, nutritional, clean water, hygiene, sanitation, psycho-social support, mental health and protection) to communities affected by war. This can include refugee communities.

If your application is successful, we then assess and vet your organisation before you qualify to become a partner and go on to launch your crowdfunding campaign.

Our vetting process is rigorous and includes:

* Counter-terrorism searches

* References and reputational assessments

* Third party monitoring and evaluation

* Social media assessment

* Humanitarian principles assessment

It’s great to hear that you want to support CanDo. Please contact Hello@CanDoAction.org for more information on how to partner with CanDo.

While local humanitarian organisations are skilled in their area, most will have no experience of running crowdfunding campaigns (or dealing with donors from around the world). We provide them with mentoring and support on capacity building, fundraising and all the things that come with it. A specially designed Support Programme also trains our partner organisations helping them develop long-term solutions via a series of web seminars, face-face workshops and one-to-one training.

At CanDo is that we don’t pretend to have all the answers. We don’t intend to swoop in and tell people in a war-torn area what is needed to support their particular community.

We believe that critical life-saving work is done at the front lines of a crisis, by local life-savers.* So we support and resource them by acting as the bridge between local humanitarians on the ground, and global humanitarians around the world who want to help save more lives.

*And the stats agree with us. 75% of critical aid work in Syria is done by local humanitarian groups, yet local and national humanitarian organisations receive less than 1% of international aid funding.