I just realized that Thanksgiving weekend marked the 2 year anniversary of when a little voice in my head woke me up at 1am and told me to “Get started!” On reflecting how far we’ve come since then, it occurred to me that while I often get asked “How did the idea for GiveForward come about?,” I haven’t actually written the story down. So here it is.
Before starting GiveForward, I worked at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City giving grants to colleges and universities for their entrepreneurship centers. It was an incredible learning experience in strategic giving, as I got to see first-hand how much access to information people and foundations with money have before they give.
I remember being distraught when Hurricane Katrina hit because I, and so many of my colleagues, wanted to employ the same practices we used every day with the few dollars that we personally had to give. But, there was no easy way to give directly to a family wanting to rebuild. We talked openly about how much more we would give if we knew money wasn’t being lost in the bureaucracy of the whole situation.
I thought to myself that there should be a site where people can give directly to people and causes they care about.
But, I didn’t do anything with that idea until my 25th birthday. I was planning on leaving Kansas City to move to Chicago, and I was trying to think of my ideal job (a strategy my former boss Judith Cone encouraged me to do). I was imagining everything I loved about my current work and what my personal passions were (corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and strategic giving). Ideas flowed through my head, and I landed on this idea for an adult internship program, where 20-somethings could leave their boring, entry-level jobs to temporarily pursue another field with the hopes of transitioning into that industry.
I sat in a restaurant waiting for my friends, imagining how I would fund such a project, when the idea of raising the money from friends and family came to me. Having been involved in web design with Kauffman, I instantly thought about trying to do something online. Then I remembered the conversations we had about fundraising for Katrina, and it was like a light went on in my entire body.
I knew right then that this was THE idea. Create a site that lets people raise money for anything…charities, new companies, research projects, volunteer travel, even medical expenses.
For the next few months, I investigated competitors, looking to see who was doing what. I was both excited and surprised to find out that during the moments my idea was being born, Change.org was debuting online. A few months later, I met Andrew Mason, who was founding ThePoint.com, and I began to wonder if I wasn’t too late to get started.
Having no money and no networks in Chicago, I tabled the idea for a while. But every so often, ideas would pop into my head about new ways people could use the site.
In November of 2007, on a long, soul-searching trip to Costa Rica (where I was born), I started thinking more and more about this site. Change.org had proven to be a site for non-profits; ThePoint was more about social action than philanthropy; and I knew the need for this service still existed.
Then one night, this little voice in my head woke me up, and it literally whispered “get started.” I got up, made a pot of coffee and worked at my laptop from 1am until 7am writing what would be the foundation of my business plan.
I had been throwing around names for weeks, and the next day it came to me. GiveForward.org. I wanted the name to convey what we were asking people to do…give small amounts of money for people and causes they care about now. I never was comfortable with the idea of waiting until later in life to give back, so this name was perfect.
What was even more perfect, though, was the fact that someone had let the domain “GiveForward.org” expire two months before.
A few days later, I emailed the Small Business Opportunity Clinic at Northwestern University’s Law School. I knew I needed help getting started, and I had funded similar programs at other schools. When Tom Morsch responded positively to helping me…and to the idea, it gave me the confidence to tell my family about my plans.
On December 19th, I sat down and told my grandparents all about the idea. They called me a little bit later and told me they were sending me a small check to help me get started. It was one of the last times I spent with my grandpa before he lost his battle with lymphoma, and it is a gift I will never be able to quantify.
I then found Prosper.com, and miraculously hundreds of people came together and loaned me another $10,000. My mom, my sister, and a few friends chipped in, and I also did three face to face fundraisers in Kansas City, Chicago, and New York.
With enough money in hand to get started, I began looking for the ideal web developers to make GiveForward a reality. In January, I found the Ocean Agency, a local, young, and eager development company who understood my vision and was excited to be involved. In late January I signed my first contract.
After that, I literally told everyone I met about the idea. One thing most entrepreneurship students learn is that nothing is created in a vacuum. You have to tell people about your ideas so they can help you. This is how I met Ethan Austin.
A couple months later at a Super Bowl party, I was telling a friend about the company I was starting. She mentioned that a friend of hers from college had an idea for a fundraising site for marathon runners to raise money for their favorite charities. I got his number, and about three weeks later we had a three hour conversation about my plans for GiveForward and his idea for his site. We decided to have him come to Chicago to meet in person in mid-March.
In March, we met, and within a few hours, we knew that this was a partnership that could really take off. We understood each other, fed off of each other’s ideas, and had a similar way of looking at the world.
While Ethan was getting things ready to move to Chicago in May of 2008, I finished the business plan and did the early design planning with the development team. By early June, we had hired our first team of interns. And on August 14th, the site went live.
Since then, we have helped hundreds of people raise nearly $600,000 to have life-saving procedures, go on amazing volunteer travel opportunities, and support the charities that mean the most to them.
It is our sincerest hope that we will be able to continue this amazing work for many, many years to come.
Hopefully, you found this story interesting. At the very least, thank you for reading and for supporting GiveForward.org.
Desiree Vargas
President & Co-Founder
GiveForward.org
One of our users on GiveForward.org recently had a great idea on how to raise a TON of money in a single day. Erica Flament had a GiveForward fundraising page for her friend’s daughter Maddie who was battling Leukemia. In total, Erica raised over $10,000 to help with Maddie’s cancer treatments. One of the more creative strategies Erica had was to hold a birthday fundraiser for Maddie that raised over $1500 in a single day. Here’s how she did it.
To give a little context, Stefanie and her friends raised $11,000 on her Giveforward fundraising page for Kelli’s treatments (and amazingly, did so without telling Kelli about it until they surprised her with the check at the very end).
Yesterday, 
), and a look at GiveForward’s future. Thanks for picking Ethan’s brain, 
This past Friday, 
get off to a good start is because people usually play follow the leader. In other words, most people will come to your fundraising page, check out how much previous donors gave and then give a similar amount. So if you start with a bunch of $100 or $200 donations you’ll do a lot better than if your first few donations are for $5 or $10. As I’ve mentioned before, one way to get off to a good start is ask your 
Jenn of the ridiculously awesome blog 
