Changing the world by challenging your friends

Moolta is a place where people can raise awareness and money for charities in creative ways.

By ADAM GONN
Fundraising software521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Fundraising software521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Internet is full of websites that allow innovative and motivated individuals to raise money for new projects or charities. But how does one convince people who may be interested in giving but aren’t as driven to put their money where their fingertips are? Easy – you issue a challenge and make a video about it. That’s the idea behind Israel-based start-up Moolta.com; or, as CEO Noam Schwartz puts it: It’s like You-Tube and Kickstarter’s love child.
It’s a simple, five-step process, Schwartz explains. First, choose a friend to challenge; then, decide what the challenge will be; next, select an incentive for the challenge – a donation to charity or a cash prize; after that, share the challenge to group-fund the prize; and finally, upload video proof to complete the challenge and donate or claim the prize.
Basically, Schwartz tells The Jerusalem Report, Moolta is a place where people can raise awareness and money for charities in creative ways.
“It began around the broader question of what are people willing to do in return for all kinds of incentives, and only one of these incentives was charity,” Schwartz says. “There were also cash rewards and individual points that could subsequently be traded in for prizes.
“As we moved forward,” he adds, “and learned from our users, our first partners and our clients, we came to the conclusion that engaging people to do stuff that they normally wouldn’t do for good causes or something that they really believe in, this is the right way to go with our product.”
Currently, Moolta’s target market includes the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. For now, however, the company is a small one, and can’t really afford all the red tape and complicated legalities that go with working with charities all around the world. Instead, therefore, Moolta has set up a unique partnership with FirstGiving.com, thereby allowing the site’s users to donate money to every charity registered in the US. In addition, Moolta also works with a number of international charities.
“We have one charity from Israel that we work with, but they contacted us directly and we created that connection especially for them,” Schwartz says. “We are getting those reach-outs every day. Our Contact Us section is full of charities, individuals and even corporations that want to use Moolta as a way to give and to engage people to give. We try to answer everyone, but it will take some time before we are able to serve every charity in the world.”
Moolta also offers its users the chance to win prizes by taking on sponsored challenges. Choose the challenge you like, upload proof, and receive your prize. And then, in order to up the prize for the challenge, share with friends and have everyone chip in. Once the challenge is funded, upload video proof of its completion.
“Every single day, several challenges are being completed and more are created,” Schwartz says. “So, since the incubation stage, there have been tens of thousands of challenges.”
And what does the future hold for Moolta? According to the CEO, it’s not all about the number of challenges.
Instead, he says, he wants Moolta to be the place you go to be charitable in a creative way.
Today, he continues, there are various web-based solutions for someone who has a goal and wants to raise money.
So, if you already have your charity and your goal, you will find some way to raise the money. But for good people who want to do something but might not be sure how or where to start, Moolta will be the site they go to. 