In partnership with a number of environmental organisations, Edge Pledge has launched this week in a bid to make fundraising for threatened species more fun.
As we reported back in April, the Edge Pledge website features a challenge generator feature, which creates three dares for people to challenge their friends to accept. You then use the website to raise funds for one of the ten affiliated groups by voting for the dare you want them to do.
Samuel Marwood, founder and managing director of Edge Pledge, took some time out of his busy schedule to tell us about the launch.
“We’re very excited by this launch, but we’re also highly aware that the real work begins now,” he said. “We’ve had some great challenge ideas already, such as getting threatened species commissioner Gregory Andrews to eat bugs like a bandicoot.”
The new concept has attracted support from a number of celebrities, including TV host Rove McManus and comedian Cal Wilson.
“They’re backing the cause by acting as wildlife in a series of hilarious online videos we’ve created to help raise awareness,” Marwood explained.
Edge Pledge borrows from concepts such as the ALS ice bucket challenge, which ended up raising an enormous amount of money and resulted in furthering research into ALS.
“We want to support as many people as possible to have fun with the voting process for their three challenges and seeing which of their challenges their friends vote for. It’s all part of our plan to start the conversation about the plight of our wildlife,” Marwood said.
Edge Pledge’s environment partners include Taronga Zoo, Zoos Victoria, Mt Rothwell Conservation Centre, Conservation Volunteers Australia and Greening Australia.
See how Edge Pledge works by visiting singer-song writer, Gossling’s challenge page.