Planning a marriage is demanding. Questions round who to ask, what to eat, the place to take footage, what sort of music to play—the record goes on and on. However when Lucie and Geoff began planning their huge day, no less than one ingredient was a no brainer.
A fundraiser for GiveWell would function their marriage ceremony registry.
“I believe we have been fairly aligned for the reason that starting that we didn’t need to get presents,” says Lucie. With profitable careers and after dwelling collectively for a number of years, the couple didn’t really feel the necessity for a standard marriage ceremony registry with home goods. Providing a fundraiser as an alternative allowed visitors to contribute no matter felt affordable to them, avoiding the social and monetary pressures of shopping for a registry merchandise.
Lucie and Geoff’s marriage ceremony was held within the Czech Republic with a mix of Czech and American visitors, and the 2 cultures rejoice weddings otherwise—weddings within the US usually contain presents for the couple, whereas marriage ceremony visitors within the Czech Republic usually carry envelopes of money as an alternative. “It simply appeared higher for everybody to have a unified outlet.”
“The fundraiser web page was tremendous simple to arrange, and the help for varied fee choices was a giant constructive,” says Lucie. With visitors contributing from completely different international locations, it was vital that the fundraising platform provided an choice to donate by way of financial institution with out taking a lower. “After we have been first deciding to do that, I did really feel slightly overwhelmed with selections—there’s a handful of various fundraising web sites on the market, and I didn’t actually know if one was higher than the opposite,” says Geoff. After talking with a GiveWell Philanthropy Affiliate and studying that GiveWell recommends Each.org, Lucie and Geoff felt assured of their resolution.
Lucie and Geoff designated their fundraiser for GiveWell’s All Grants Fund and customized their web page with a canopy photograph and a blurb explaining why they selected to help GiveWell. “We have been slightly indecisive at the start as a result of you could set a goal in your fundraiser, however we didn’t have a aim in thoughts,” says Lucie. “We selected the smart-target choice, which will increase the fundraiser goal ever so barely every time somebody makes a donation, and that labored properly.”
Lucie and Geoff’s registry fundraiser raised over $24,000 for GiveWell’s All Grants Fund. “We discovered that pre-seeding the fundraiser with slightly donation from ourselves helped break the ice and get extra people rolling in—donating to one thing that’s at $0 can really feel a bit scary,” says Lucie. “We additionally despatched a post-wedding, photo-sharing e-mail that included slightly ‘P.S. Right here’s our fundraiser’ reminder, and that fairly clearly generated a second wave of donations.”
Lucie and Geoff’s marriage ceremony was filled with considerate particulars distinctive to them. Hosted on the grounds of the attractive Lipnice Fort, their special occasion included vows exchanged in each English and Czech, conventional Scottish line dancing, falconry demonstrations, ceramic tile adorning, and celebrating with family members till dawn. Thanks to Lucie and Geoff for together with GiveWell as part of this huge second!
If you happen to’d like to incorporate GiveWell in your marriage ceremony registry, or by way of every other occasion (birthdays, holidays, race sponsorships—there’s no occasion too huge or too small), you’ll be able to simply arrange a fundraiser by way of Each.org by visiting our homepage. You too can attain out to us on to create a customized donation hyperlink if you happen to’d choose to not use Each.org. Contact us at data@givewell.org with any questions.
