About Us
Who We Are
Altruism Ireland is a technological charity and our primary purpose is to reduce the high costs associated with fundraising by delivering a free platform for fundraising and donating, building trust into charity-giving through introducing transparency metrics into the charity sector, and offering free digital education to Irish charities to help them take advantage of the opportunities offered by new innovative technologies.
Our Story
Why does Altruism Ireland exist? In a nutshell, Altruism Ireland was born out of a desire to create a much needed bridge built on trust between the public and charities. Tired of seeing all charities bunched together due to a lack of trust in the sector as a whole, while equally uncertain as a donor about which charity to give to, a few like-minded friends set out to create a platform in their spare time that could try to tackle the issues at the heart of them both. Two years later, Altruism Ireland was ready to take its first steps.
We set out to solve two problems: one for the donor and one for charities themselves. Public trust in the charity sector has been impacted in recent years by both a real and perceived lack of transparency due to charity donations being wasted on potentially questionable projects, golden salaries and transaction fees, making some people sceptical of the sector generally. This has hit many Irish charities hard as they have had to deal with a decrease in their income while demand for their services continues to grow. For charities, the problem is the cost of fundraising itself, with some reports showing that the cost of raising just €1 through different techniques can be as high as 23%.
Our platform reduces the burden on charities so that they can spend more time concentrating on providing the services to those who need them. Our ultimate aim is not only to maintain Ireland’s status as a highly generous population -- The World Giving Index by the Charities Aid Foundation has consistently ranked Ireland in the Top 5 most charitable nations -- but also to be the most efficient and transparent one. This is reflected in our vision, mission and values.
Our Vision
‘To achieve a transparent system for charity-giving, ensuring more money ends up in the hands of those who need it most.‘
Altruism Ireland believes in building up a partnership of trust with the general public; a trust founded on transparency. By placing transparency at heart of charity-giving, we believe more mindful giving will be the consequence.
Our Mission
‘To offer a free non-profit fundraising and donation platform with a fully transparent approach at its very core and to provide education to charities regarding the opportunities in utilising new innovative technologies.’
In order to achieve our mission, Altruism Ireland’s priorities are reducing the costs associated to receiving donations by delivering a free-platform for fundraising and donating; promoting trust through transparency in charities; and offering free education to Irish charities to help them take advantage of the opportunities offered by innovative technologies.
Our Values and Beliefs
We value the often under-emphasised human capacity for empathy and have faith in the act of mindful giving.
We believe that donations given in the name of charity should reach their intended audience with as little interference as possible in the process.
Our commitment to transparency is at the core of everything we do, therefore we believe in creating a relationship of trust between the general public and the Third-Sector.
Why don’t we charge any fees?
We at Altruism believe in living up to our name. Some things in life shouldn’t be made into a short-term profit-driven model, and, for us, donating and fundraising for charity is one of them. The money that you raise should go directly to the charity and into the hands of those who need it the most.* Hence our motto “When Zero Matters”.
That said, people sometimes make the mistake of believing that because something is free, service is compromised. At Altruism, that is definitely not the case. We are simply asking not to be judged on our bottom line but on the value we bring to you, the users. When you appeal to the best of human nature, you might be surprised at the results.
*Our payment processor, Stripe, charge a Fee of 1.2% + 0.25 + VAT. Not one cent goes to Altruism Ireland. Other fundraising platforms have this surcharge, more typically with less competitive rates.
How do we sustain ourselves?
We began as a social entrepreneurial start-up, with each of the co-founders putting aside parts of our salary in order to get the journey started. Through reaching out to professionals who could help, they all agreed to work for below industry standard to develop the platform once they realised what we were trying to create, and working on the platform mainly at nights and the weekends, within two years Altruism was able to be launched.
Since then, we have built up a couple of corporate partnerships and continue to actively seek contributions from individuals and companies who think that we provide a valuable service to the public.
In the future, we also hope to be able to provide free technological education to other charities to allow them to be more efficient and effective. In order to achieve this, finances do come into play. Altruism Ireland is a registered charity itself and anyone can support us by making a donation on Altruism Ireland's charity page here. Help us to help others.
Thank you for bringing out the best of people in Ireland.
Compare Us
| Altruism Ireland | Just Giving | EveryDayHero | iDonate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| platform_fee | 0% | 5% | 6.00% | 5% |
| Platform Membership | 0 | 19€/ month | 129/ month | 0 |
| Credit card fee | 1.2%+0.25* | 1.90%* | 1%+0.23* | N/A |
| VAT | yes | no | N/A | no |
| Total fee | 1.2%+0.25** | 6.90% | 7%+0.23 | 5% |
* Credit card fees are dependent on country and card type. Source: All data was sourced from respective platform's website and is accurate of 12th May 2016.
**Our payment processor, Stripe, charge a Fee of 1.2% + 0.25 for European cards excluding VAT. Not one cent goes to Altruism Ireland.
Codes of Practice
Altruism Ireland is following the 'Seven Steps to Sign-up to the Fundraising Principles' to ensure that as an organisation we have all the necessary requirements in place that will enable us to sign up to the standards contained within Statement of Guiding Principles for Charity Fundraising (www.ictr.ie)
Altruism Ireland is currently on the journey to adopt the Governance Code: a code of practice for good governance of Community, Voluntary and charitable organisations in Ireland.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or queries for the Altruism team, please do reach out to us by email at: [email protected]
Press Enquiries:
For all press enquiries, please contact [email protected]