Paper details

Paper authors	Anna Arnborg
In panel on	The humanitarian ‘digital divide’
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

In today's fast growing tech landscape, the need to bridge the digital fundraising gap between the private sector, humanitarian sector and academic sector, is larger than ever before.
Seeing that the 2016 Grand Bargain with the pledge to localize humanitarian assistance globally, children and their rights to protection, especially in regards to humanitarian crisis response, has become increasingly pressing, there is also an imminent need to localize funds to ensure the longevity of such important and crucial efforts.

The few digital fundraising tools available today have a clear and coordinated focus between the corporate sector and NGOs.

But where does all of the important work of academics come into play?

We see the need to welcome and include the academic sector into to the digitized fundraising room as the benefits to strengthen the tripod of corporate, humanitarian and academic worlds can only strengthen crucial efforts such as the Grand Bargain and localizing humanitarian assistance globally, strengthening child protection mechanisms as well as boosting funds for humanitarian emergency response. A coordinated and simple digital fundraising solution for university hospitals researching areas such as covid 19, could have hastened the pace to find a vaccin, as many companies wanted to donate to the c-19 fight but were unknowing where to turn for such specific donations.

A strong will exists from Small Middle sized Enterprises (SMEs) to do their part within Corporate Social Responsibility but they often lack the means (both time and human resources) to find the "right" organization to collaborate with and to make donations to. The digital platforms of companies like Target Aid allow both companies as well as NGOs to minimize the time spent on searching for the right fit, whilst maximizing the impact of the funds donated by or to them.

However, this is where we need to also include the academic sector to maximize the funding streams to research and minimize the time spent on searching for the funds.

The need to minimize the digital fundraising gap between the academic and private sector is real, and it needs to be addressed before the next strain of covid 19 sets out.

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