Knowing that people put their money towards trivial projects on Kickstarter.com (potato Salad, meat-scented soap, a giant inflated Lionel Richie Head), we wanted to harness this frivolous behaviour for a greater good.

Kickstopper.ca is an online platform where grassroots charities can crowdsource donations to try to stop things affecting the wellness of Canadians such as hunger, homelessness or abuse.

Charities can set up a project featuring tiered donation levels that allow donors to know exactly what will be accomplished with the funds.

Kickstopper has helped charities raise more than just awareness; it has also helped them raise funds to make a real difference.

On Kickstopper.ca, charities create projects explaining their mission and organization. Each project features a fundraising goal and tiered donation allowing donors to know exactly what will be accomplished with the funds. Donations are made easily through PayPal and given to charities whether or not the project fundraising goal is reached.

Kickstopper.ca was populated with charities pre-launch to ensure that the first visitors to the site had charities to support in addition to the charity that first reached out to them.

The site was initially pushed out by the individual charities to their own support base through social media and email.

The site encourages donors to share the site through social media, enabling the charities to turn active and latent supporters into evangelists.

We then supported the initiative with an elaborate PR push and online video.

Kickstopper has only recently launched but already has raised thousands of dollars for multiple charities. Given it's free to use for the grassroots charities, every dollar raised is incremental to existing fundraising efforts. Nearly 100% of the money donated goes directly to the charities (minus PayPal processing fees). Kickstopper also creates a multiplier effect for good: the attention created by each charity on Kickstopper casts attention on the needs of the other charities featured on the site. The site has been an instant hit in social media and the press, garnering mentions in Canada's leading marketing sites including Marketing Online, Strategy, Stimulant, and AgencySpy.