The other day, I was out tramping with my family. After an hour of mirthful skipping along the track marvelling at Mother Nature (just kidding, it was a hot day and my family includes small grumpy children who needed to rest every 10 metres), I paused for a moment. For the first time that day, instead of focussing my energy on moving everyone forward, I looked back along the track. I was shocked to see what an incredible distance we had already walked. In our determination to keep going, we hadn’t fully realised how far we had already come.
It’s been an extraordinary year here at PledgeMe. We expanded into Australia, launched Tā Koha in partnership with Māori Women’s Development Inc, successfully equity crowdfunded equity crowdfunding for the third time, hired a bunch of new people (Liz! Janna! Jon! Brent! Tania! and me, Sarah), gave our sites a fresh new look (thanks Kelsey!), had some technical hiccups and came out the other side stronger, hosted eight successful equity campaigns in New Zealand, hosted our first (wildly!) successful equity campaign in Australia, hosted 70 successful project campaigns, and saw millions of dollars fund things people care about on both sides of the Tasman. Whew!
Of all the things we embarked upon as a team this year, we all have our favourites. Here are some reflections from the team:
“Launching into Australia has been simultaneously exciting and a bunch of hard work – but it was all worth it to see the Food Connect Shed campaign get over the line and raise $2.1 million for their local food social enterprise. The thing that I loved the most, was that the company is majority run by women and owned by women. How cool is that?!?” – Anna
“The thing I loved most this year were all the people I got to speak with. It was great getting to connect with people who were actively supporting funding the things they care about as well as the many grateful and appreciative campaign owners.” – Liz
“My favourite part of joining the PledgeMe team is joyously celebrating each time an awesome campaign meets their goal. Watching people all over New Zealand and Australia activate their crowd is a beautiful and hugely rewarding thing to see.” – Sarah
“I love going to a market or event and spotting PledgeMe alumni – it’s amazing seeing their ideas come to fruition.” – Jess
In the new year, we are looking forward to launching the second cohort of Tā Koha campaigns, more campaigns in Australia, hosting the Social Enterprise Unconference 2019 with Thankyou Payroll, increased work in the regions in NZ, more new people, more tech improvements, meeting more of our crowd, and continuing to work side by side with Kiwis and Aussies to fund the things they care about.
We’re so glad to have you as part of our crowd. Thank you!
Best wishes to the Team for 2019! Impressive last year and we (in Mangawhai) really look forward to working together on successful campaign launching 23 February