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Wednesdsay December 13, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A5 Appleby grads m ake giving to charity easy C anad ahelps.org allow s d o n o rs easy a ccess to C anada's 7 8 ,0 0 0 ch a rities By Claudia PSouza SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER With the advent of CanadaHelps.org, Canada's first non-profit charitable dot com company, giving to your favorite cause is simply a mouse click away. Launched this month in Toronto, CanadaHelps.org is the brainchild of three Appleby College graduates - Aaron Pereira, Ryan Little and Matthew Choi who have worked for nearly a year to make their dream come true. "In a nutshell, CanadaHelps.org is a non-profit initiative that makes giving donations to Canada's 78,000 charities as simple as possible," explains Little, 19, Director of Operations and Technology and a third year Bachelor of Arts student in foreign languages at Queen's University. "The premise is to save char ities and individuals time and money." The website features a secure elec tronic credit card donation mechanism, a volunteer matching mechanism and a virtual library of information for donors on the charities of their choice. There are no fees to charities or individuals that use the website and CanadaHelps.org issues an income tax receipt by e-mail to donors on behalf of each charity. Regular audits keep the organization accountable for every penny received. If a donation is made to a charity that University, conducted focus groups with the charitable sector in three Canadian cities, Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto, to determine the project's feasibility. The trio then needed to perfect the technolo gy and drum up the financial support of corporate Canada. "Some of the obstacles we faced were logistical," Little notes. "We're a small team of students managing every part of this massive project from perfect ing the technology, to negotiating with banks, to public relations and marketing.It's full-time job and we're all full-time university students as well. It's been challenging." The trio's chief project mentor is CIBC Vice Chair Wayne Fox, who has provided valuable advice and rallied the support of Canada's major banks. "I acted as a bit of a consultant in the beginning," downplays Fox from his Toronto office. "This project stands alone on its own and we thought enough of it to syndicate the idea. There aren't many young people as talented as this group." Simon Cooper, president of Marriott Canada, has also been very supportive. In fact, CanadaHelps.org was launched from a Marriott conference room in downtown Toronto on Nov. 8th. "It's taken flight," he says of the pro ject, "and personally, I feel like one of the Wright Brothers who was pushing the airplane on the ground. I helped them make a few contacts in the early days." The team acknowledges CanadaHelps.org is a `hard sell' in that the payback is societal in nature. "It's easier to raise capital when there's a possibility of a high return," observes Little. "This was tougher because the capital gains come in the form of benefits to society." Several hundred charities are already on-line at CanadaHelps.org and new charities are constandy signing on. The charitable sector has also been `tremendously supportive', reports Litde, especially the Canadian Red Cross, one of CanadaHelps.org's. supporting chari ties. Lois Fleming, Red Cross Director of Fundraising Development, has seen sim ilar website-based proposals cross her desk, but she knew this one stood out from the pack. "It's unique in that they aren't charg ing charities that benefit from the web site," she says. "They weren't out to make money from this. They don't reveal donor lists and the fact that they're receipting on behalf of the charities, was key. These philanthropic gestures set it apart for me. "The perceptions are that young peo ple are selfish and that the Internet tech nology sector is not interested in charita ble pursuits. CanadaHelps.org chal lenges all these myths," adds Fleming. When Pereira reflects on why he and his high school buddies are doing this he replies, "Wayne Fox always says, `Anything's possible in the real world.' I believe that. I've always been very ideal istic. This is the perfect idea to put that idealism into action. The right opportuni ty doesn't come along very often. This is just the beginning." Photo courtesy of CanadaHelps.org Appleby College grads (from left) M atthew Choi, Ryan Little and A aron P ereira a t the Toronto office of C anadaH elps.org is not yet registered on the website, CanadaHelps.oig's staff of two (soon to be four) contacts them and ensures that the money is received. To date, major donations totalling well over $1 million have been made by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), The Bank of Nova Scotia, The Bank of Montreal and RBC Dominion Securities to help finance the project. A large number of technology partners are also on board including Hewlett Packard, Nortel and Oracle. A fourth year Applied Economics stu dent at Queen's University, Pereira, 20, Executive Director of CanadaHelps.org, first thought of the on line giving concept while in church. "I started thinking about it as I watched the passing of the donation bas ket," he recalls. "The goal was to change how the technology sector interacts with the charitable sector. We want to make it the focal point for philanthropy on the Internet." Bringing Pereira's concept to fruition wasn't an easy process. In his role as Chief Strategy Officer, Choi, 21, a third-year student in the Arts & Sciences program at McMaster MADD chapter needs new office space Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Halton will be starting the New Year looking for a new office. According to president Stephanie Dooley, Trafalgar Village Mall will be going through some major changes in 2001 and it will be necessary for MADD to relocate by the end of March. Dooley explained that MADD Halton - which became an official chapter in 1993 - has been located in the basement o f Trafalgar Village for five years. Prior to that, volunteers worked out of the home of former pres ident Norma King. Over the years, MADD members have raised funds for a police van, the purchase of two intoxalyzers and to defray the costs of RIDE programs. MADD Halton is also known for its Red Ribbon Campaign, the annual fundraising effort which runs until the end of the Christmas season. This year, 50,000 ribbons have been ordered. Dooley said MADD Halton needs approximately 700-750 sq. ft. to carry on its efforts. Such small office spaces are difficult to come by, said Dooley, who explained that MADD is willing to share a larger space with another group if necessary. Anyone with space to rent is encouraged to call Dooley at 844-0096. 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