We started a million dollar donation program for Not-for-Profits. Well, maybe this idea is out of control. But then again, maybe it’s not a bad thing to do. After all, we live in the same world and should contribute in the best way we can.
The philosopher Peter Singer suggests that, when choosing how to contribute, we should choose the actions that will have the most impact. For some people that’s donating their time to a local charity. While, for others it’s working for a charity. And, for others it’s making a cash donation.
For us, the biggest impact we can have is to provide the Calxa application to organisations who are doing good in the world but wouldn’t normally have the resources to fund it.
Recipients of the Million-Dollar Donation Program
Our donations go to a wide range of small and medium Not-for-Profits throughout Australia and New Zealand. For UK charities, we have a donation program through Charity Digital.
One or two of the recipients have national recognition, like Black Dog Ride, but many are regional community groups. These include Umbrella Studio here in Townsville, Next25, Scarlet Alliance NSW, the Old Treasury Building in Melbourne (worth a visit if you are ever in Spring Street) and St Helens Neighbourhood House, to name but a few. Across the Tasman Ranui Action Project, Reach Child Cancer and Student Volunteer Army are just some of the donation customers in New Zealand. In fact, so far we have issued donations to over 1350 organisations in Australia and on the land of the long white cloud.
Measuring our Impact
A few years ago we used ACNC data to find out how much time is spent by charities on reporting. As a result, we calculated that our customers are now able to do their reports in a quarter of the time. Essentially, this is compared to the national average. This is a staggering saving of over $12 million dollars a year. We did this calculation solely on our paid customers. Ultimately, factoring in our donations would have increased the number of dollars saved significantly.
So, it’s easy for us to see that the best way we can help our community is by providing them with the best tools we can to save time with reporting.
As a medium-sized business, there’s no way we could have the same impact by donating our cash or our time. Whilst there are costs to us but one of the advantages of making software is quite different compared to the manufacture of physical goods. We can control our cost. Of course, there’s the infrastructure to provide the online services. However, the largest cost for us is our team and the tools that supports our customers. We have committed to providing all customers with the same high level of support. Regardless, whether they are paying or receiving a donation.
Donation Program with a Million Dollar Target
It started as one of those wild throw-away lines that never actually got thrown away. In 2011, when we started the program, our friends at Connecting Up asked us outright: “How much do you want to donate?”. At the time, a million dollars’ worth of software seemed like something that would be a long-term goal.
It actually took less than 4 years.
After that, we had to set ourselves a new goal. And, that is how the $2,500,000 milestone was born. Now, fast forward to February 2024, and the Student Volunteer Army in New Zealand, became the 1351st recipient pushing us over our second donation target.
But we see no reason to stop here!
If you work with a small or medium Not-for-Profit and want to help us get to the third million soon, we’d love to help.
Find out more about our donation program and see if it suits your organisation.
About the Donation Program
Calxa Australia partnered with Connecting Up and TechSoup, powered by Infoxchange, over a decade ago with an initial goal to provide $1,000,000 worth of budgeting software to grassroots Not-for-Profit organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Through the alliance, Calxa donates its Calxa Premier budgeting and cashflow forecasting software to smaller Not-for-Profit organisations that meet the program administrator’s eligibility criteria.
The program allows smaller organisations to achieve the same productivity increases as their larger counterparts – freeing up resources to be directed towards core services. Everyone expects NFPs to spend more of their resources on service delivery and less on administration. This is Calxa’s way of helping them realise this goal while still providing the reporting needed to achieve good governance. NFP organisations with turnover under $1m are encouraged to apply.
In 2024, the milestone of $2,500,000 in total donations was reached touching over 1350 not-for-profits and charities so far.