A common problem that people have with giving charity in the traditional sense is that when you put your money in the donation box, you never know where it goes afterwards. In the fast-paced, highly digitized world that we live in today, the services we choose are based on ease and trust. Ease comes from a smooth user experience and trust comes from the level of transparency and clarity provided as to how funds are used. Some charitable platforms have generic donation options that only function as a drop point for donations with a vague usage plan.
(Generic donation page without full details of the specific campaign, total fundraising target, or execution timeline – Example 1)(Generic donation page only indicating donation amount without explanation of any specific campaign that will receive the funds – Example 2)
With Finterra’s WAQF Chain platform, companies and organizations can now create a much more engaging and interactive experience for donors by creating specific charity campaigns with specified targets and open disclosure of how many donations have been collected in real time.
The Finterra WAQF Chain platform is an online tool for charitable fundraising using the concepts and technologies of Blockchain, Waqf and crowdfunding. The WAQF Chain only hosts campaigns from registered NGOs. This requirement is fixed so that donors can have confidence that their funds are going to legitimate recipients. In addition, all donations made on the WAQF Chain platform are sent directly to a trust account with Finterra’s partnering bank. Afterwards, the funds will only be transferred to the campaign owner if at least the soft target is reached by the campaign deadline. Otherwise, the funds will be refunded back to the donors in full. Receipts for all donations made will be saved on Finterra’s blockchain and can be viewed in the “My Smart Contracts” section of the dashboard.
The Finterra WAQF Chain is also B2B solution that can be customized for the unique needs of NGOs, universities, financial institutions such as banks, or other organizations that want to offer their customers online charitable donation services with greater transparency for the donation collection and reporting process. WAQF Chain can be integrated into any existing online banking platform to allow customers to seamlessly go from managing their personal finances to making charitable donations without leaving the original website they are using.
The basic features provided to make the WAQF Chain platform attractive to visitors are as follows:
Comprehensive Dashboard
(Image 1 – WAQF Chain dashboard upper)
At the top of the dashboard, the first thing that is prominently featured is the “Social Matrix”. This section shows the donor all the various types of positive social impact they are making through their donations. For example, the “Green Contributions” section shows what has been achieved by donating to campaigns that help the environment. Finterra, in line with this initiative, will plant one tree after a donor’s donations reach a certain limit. Subsequently, the “My Influence” section shows how many people you have referred to charitable causes on the platform and how many donations have been given as a result of your efforts to spread awareness about the campaigns by sharing the links and convincing others to donate.
(Image 2 – WAQF Chain dashboard lower)
The next section of the dashboard is the critical entitled “Cause Listing”. This section displays all the live causes on the platform which have been approved by the company. Each campaign will be
identifiable with a photo, a title and the listing of who uploaded the
campaign. Below, these basic features will be a summary of the campaign description, number of supporters, rating, tax exempt status, location, completion target and deadline. The completion target area has a status bar showing how many donations have been collected in relation to the total goal of the campaign. Every time a donation is received, the bar will fill up according to the value as a percentage of the total goal. When 100% of the donations are received the bar will be filled totally. At the bottom are two buttons, on the right there is “Quick Donation” which allows a donation to be made directly without reading the full campaign description. On the left is the “More Info” button which takes the user to the full campaign description page.
Detailed Campaign Description Pages
(Image 3 – Campaign description page upper)
In the Campaign Description pages, you will find a detailed explanation of who the campaign owner is and what the cause is all about. Details, such as who the beneficiaries are and how the funds will be used, should also be present.
The Campaign Pages also provide sections for media links, and cause documents (terms and conditions, etc). The NGOs also have the option to upload the terms and conditions they want to show to donors. This is available in the NGO’s dashboard when creating causes. The importance of these extra windows is to provide extra details to the potential donors so that they can gain a greater degree of understanding about the project. Below the written description of the project, there is a space for a video as well as photos, to give a more visual explanation of the project and its objectives. On the far right of the page, there are buttons to share the campaign on various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and more.
The last four features provide an additional layer of transparency and verification via feedback.
(Image 4 – Campaign description bottom of the page)
Recent Supporters Window – This section of the page (seen in image 3) shows you the name and photo (if available) of the most recent people who have donated along with their donation amount. With this feature, you can see the progress of the donation collection process for the campaign and see how the overall collection for the campaign is divided among all the donors. For donors who wish not to be identified, there is also an anonymous donation option where only the donation amount will be shown, and the name will be displayed as “Anonymous”.
Comments Section – In this section, donors or visitors can express what they feel about the campaign, or they can also raise questions for the campaign owner who can also read the comments and reply. The comments section is a tool that allows campaign owners to get important feedback from donors or post important new updates about the campaign related to progress, changes in the objectives or plan for execution.
Star Rating System – Campaign donors also have the option to give a star rating to campaigns from 1 to 5 stars. This shows the degree to which the donors like the campaign overall. It can also serve as a feedback mechanism for campaign owners to see how much the donors like their campaign.
Mandatory Reporting After Fundraising (Not pictured) – Once funds are released to the NGO after a successful fundraising period, WAQF Chain will require the NGOs to submit periodic updates of the project so donors can keep up with the progress of the projects they contributed to. This is to assure the donors that the money they contributed is being utilized for the identified project. This reporting process is a mandatory requirement for the NGO to maintain its position in the platform. Those who fail to comply risk being blacklisted.
For most people when they open their online banking via PC or mobile app, their focus is usually just to pay bills, make transfers or make payments. The mission of Finterra’s WAQF Chain is to provide an easy-to-use platform that will help in the revival of Waqf through technology. Now with the WAQF Chain platform, financial institutions can add on the option to help all their customers get involved in charitable efforts and create social impact.
