Jolkona

Jolkona is a Seattle-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire and empower a new generation of philanthropists, by connecting small donors with nonprofit projects that make a big impact. Similar to Kickstarter and DonorsChoose, Jolkona sets up online crowdfunding campaigns for specific programs, with donors receiving impact reports that detail how their contributions were used.

History

Jolkona's name means "a drop of water" in Bengali, referring to the philosophy that small amounts of money can add up to oceans of change. Founded by Adnan Mahmud and Nadia Khawaja Mahmud, the giving website launched in June 2009. Within 18 months, Jolkona had raised more than $100,000 to fund 100 projects in 40 countries, primarily through small donations from millennials and young professionals. As of October 2013, Jolkona had raised more than $700,000 for grassroots poverty-alleviation projects across North America, South America, Africa and Asia.

Projects

Give Direct: Jolkona's original fundraising model, in which donors choose specific projects to fund on the organization's website, based on country, category or other search options. Examples range from providing artificial limbs in Bangladesh through BRAC (NGO) to funding conservation efforts in Tanzania through African Rainforest Conservancy. Donors receive impact reports that detail how their contributions were used.

Give Together: A subscription-based fundraising model, in which donors sign up to give as little as $10 to one of three nonprofit projects each month. Give Together launched June 2013 with the featured cause of education, offering members a choice between funding reading lamps for students in Ghana through Empower Playgrounds, training for teachers in Myanmar through Educational Empowerment, or a STEM fields summer camp experience for low-income Seattle students of color through Technology Access Foundation.