Innovation

StockCrowd is a cloud software that turns the digital channels of an organization into a source of money. This start-up turns a financial need for a specific project into a crowdfunding campaign that is embedded in the digital channels of the organisation. Basically, they turn the websites of organisations into their own bank, allowing them to reach new generations and companies through technology.

StockCrowd is the bridge between the NGOs/Foundations and the achievement of the UN SDGs. This is materialised through three channels in the NGO/Foundation's website:

• Permanent donations: quick links to donate for the whole organisation
  
• Crowdfunding campaigns: donations for specific projects
  
• Peer-to-peer campaigns: it allows donors to create their own campaign within the project and reach other people to donate

Inspiration

The inspiration for this innovation goes back to two years ago, when the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona (an internationally prestigious Spanish university hospital specialized in paediatrics, among others) proposed the construction of the SJD Paediatric Cancer Centre: the largest childhood cancer centre in Europe. They needed 30 million euros to make this happen.

This super ambitious goal needed a very complete tool that provided versatility, simplicity and that was completely configurable. At first, they tried to do it by launching a campaign in an already existing crowdfunding website. However, crowdfunding websites have many campaigns that can shadow each other.

In the light of this, Sergio Pallarès and Javier Villacampa (the two co-founders of StockCrowd) questioned themselves: "if HSJD is such an important hospital, why don't they use their own platform to raise funds?". Moreover, they realised that "70% of the crowdfunding website donors were redirected to the platform via the proper organisation's webpages". So, they created a tool that allowed this hospital to self-finance the project via their own website.

Until now, the HSJD has managed to raise 26,392,451 euros from more than 7,000 people and more than 40 enterprises, which have created their own campaigns within the #ForTheBrave campaign.

Overall impact

Many NGOs and Foundations have been able to perform social projects that fulfil certain UN SDGs goals. Nevertheless, this has gone beyond the specific projects. They have been able to develop a way of financing themselves permanently. If society has changed, so has to be the case for NGOs and foundations, leaving behind the old-fashioned ways to reach people.

Besides the case of HSJD, StockCrowd has been involved in many other projects such as the Water Van Project. A non-profit organisation that aims to create access to drinking water for disadvantaged communities in Latin America. Much of its financing comes via one-off donations from people who support the project altruistically.

Looking at the short-term impact we could say that StockCrowd is allowing many social projects to happen and transforming society and companies, who are the donors that make this happen. Furthermore, in the long-term perspective, they are digitalizing donations and creating opportunities from the increase importance of CSR within companies, which contributes to the world development.

Business benefit

The economic benefit of StockCrowd comes from a fixed fee that they charge to every customer plus a variable fee which is subjected to the amount of funds that NGOs/Foundations acquire by using this tool. These profits allow the sixteen employees who make up this firm to live from helping society.

However, this is not only about economic benefit, there is also a personal benefit implied, as the employees are able to see the impacts generated by their work and gain a self-achievement feeling. This is how this firm sells itself to potential employees who are willing to work within this environment.

Social and environmental benefit

By helping many NGO’s and Foundations to materialize their projects, StockCrowd is contributing to make this world a better place. On the one hand, the fact that this start-up connects people and companies to help good causes is transforming people in society rather than individuals. On the other hand, many of these projects are designed to fulfil certain SDGs and with this, allowing them to happen contributes to society and the environment.

There are many NGO’s and Foundations who are already using this software, such as schools that raise funds for scholarships for those who can’t afford education; museums that raise funds for cultural projects as restoring paintings; hospitals that raise funds to contribute to health care; NGO’s that raise funds to carry water and provide basic needs for the poor, etc.

With this, we can conclude that although StockCrowd is not directly supplying the funds to finance social projects, it does it in an indirect way with the help of people, and by doing this also contributes to society by making people aware of the needs of the world.

Interview

Lluis Dionis, Business Developer