Ammado launch Giving Circle – biz model evolving
15th of September 2008 by admin
Ammado, which combines social networking with charitable giving, linking the non-profits with people who want to support them, has unveiled its online donation system – Ammado Giving Circle.
The sbpost has more coverage interviewing its founders Peter Conlon and Anna Kupka – which includes some interesting quotes and comments
“founders claim will help it become ''one of the biggest internet companies in the world''…..''We have created microphilanthropy,…”kept Ammado under wraps for the past three years, while its technology was built from scratch. The company now employs about 70 people at its headquarters in Dublin, regional headquarters in Singapore, and in 11 other locations, including Amsterdam, Washington, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Novi Sad in Serbia.”…..”For donations of that type, Ammado charges a 10 per cent processing fee, so a company wanting to donate €1,000, for example, would make a total payment of €1,100. Kupka said the system could be used to increase employee motivation and allow companies with staff from different countries indirectly to make donations to charities outside Ireland.”
Last week at TC50, a competitor launched – Causecast. – which had very positive reviews.
Update: Anna from Ammado – has provided a comment – which provides more information around Ammado donations – which is very welcome.
“Just to clarify: for individuals ammado charges 5% per donation. These 5% stay in the ammado foundation and help us to cover the cost which are very substantial as we have build a global micro-payment platform, accepting 33 currencies and nearly every payment method around the world (further payment methods are being added).
The 10% you have mentioned are an administration fee for an employer solution: we encourage employers to boost employee motivation by allocating a certain amount – let's say €10 per employee – to all their employees and allow them to allocate the amount to whatever nonprofits they wish. The employee could therefore give 1 Euro of these 10 to their old school in Belarus, 2.50 Euro to a charity in their hometown, 2 Euro for Amnesty in Ireland etc. It can be sliced down to as little as 4cent. That's why we call it micro-philanthropy. Everyone can build their own giving portfolio and if you wish to, people can show whom they are spporting by displaying their ammado Giving Circle (we also have a bebo applicaton for the circle). Cheers, Anna”
Tags: ammado, tc50, techcrunch, web2ireland
9 Responses to “Ammado launch Giving Circle – biz model evolving”
Anna Kupka
September 16th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Hi Fergus, thanks for this. Just to clarify: for individuals ammado charges 5% per donation. These 5% stay in the ammado foundation and help us to cover the cost which are very substantial as we have build a global micro-payment platform, accepting 33 currencies and nearly every payment method around the world (further payment methods are being added).
The 10% you have mentioned are an administration fee for an employer solution: we encourage employers to boost employee motivation by allocating a certain amount – let’s say €10 per employee – to all their employees and allow them to allocate the amount to whatever nonprofits they wish. The employee could therefore give 1 Euro of these 10 to their old school in Belarus, 2.50 Euro to a charity in their hometown, 2 Euro for Amnesty in Ireland etc. It can be sliced down to as little as 4cent. That’s why we call it micro-philanthropy. Everyone can build their own giving portfolio and if you wish to, people can show whom they are spporting by displaying their ammado Giving Circle (we also have a bebo applicaton for the circle). Cheers, Anna
Jay
December 27th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I like the way Anna say’s. Quote:we encourage employers to boost employee motivation.
Just over 4 weeks after she made this statement. Anna and her 2 co-directors at Xsil ltd Peter Conlon & Patrick Rainsfeld refused to pay wages to their employees in Xsil for the month of October.
Recently Ammado moved to new premises. While their Staff in Xsil are forgot about. They made sure that their Xsil employees suffered the worst Christmas ever. Not only do they still refuse to pay their Xsil employees the wages owed for October. 1 week before Christmas all Xsil staff were made redundant.
Jay
Hungry
January 4th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I would advise charities against jumping into bed with Anna, Peter or both as to be associated with theese people will not be good in the coming months.
Also if staff at ammado should read this I’d advise you to form a union as the same thing could happen at ammado as happened at Xsil.
If Peter should read this I hope you had a wonderful Christmas……I DID NOT!!
unpaid
January 5th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Hi,
Unfortunately, ammado.com has some uncharitable people running it. Peter Conlon and Anna Kupka, the founders of Ammado, have refused to pay staff of their other company, Xsil, since September.
This was just before the Christmas, too, so a lot of people with mortgages and children were left high and dry. The staff were only officially let go in December.
Don't be taken in by these crooks. If you want to give to charity, just give to charity. Their web-site is nonsense anyway.
For more info, see:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/1206/1228515634652.html
There are also several other interesting web results, given the correct google key-words.
To any ammado staff: Mr Conlon and Ms Kupka WILL do the same to you.
Thanks.
unpaid
January 5th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Also:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/richlist/person/0,,46711,00.html
Bear this in mind when considering how many people (40+ and their children) he refused to pay.
Enlightened
January 17th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Hi,
Obviously Peter Conlon and Anna Kupka are not very charitable people at the end of the day when you see what they have done to their own staff at xsil (just before xmas). I personally will never donate a cent through ammado.com to fill the pockets of such unscrupulous people and I hope others will see these people for what they really are and take a similar stance! As stated above if you are going to give to charity, give to the charity not these people!
Enlightened
Supportive
January 21st, 2009 at 11:38 pm
The guys seem to have their own blog to try and drum up awareness and counter the praise Peter Conlon is getting
http://exstaffinlimbo.blogs.ie/
Oh Sandra
February 6th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I don’t see the point in Ammado. I think charities around the world are and should be encouraged to publicise their causes visibly on the internet. Companies and corporations who want to help a charity should be able to find their preferred charity / charities without having to pay a single cent. All money should go directly to the charities and the staff who worked hard in the organisations. It is a waste of resources to pay Ammado to match-make.
Bert
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:14 am
I had an interview with Ammando back in 2007 – I found it to be a very unprofessional interview with a hint of snobbery on Ammando’s part.
I must admit there where a cheque lying on the table when I was being interviewed (Ulster bank – a couple of grand nothing really…..was it a test!!!!….No, I think it was just bad management.)
I was glad I didn't get the job working out of a kitchen in a house..well it could have been a toilet.