The Broncos’ recent Sunday night victory over the Patriots was significant in many aspects, but one of the most surprising outcomes made waves in an unsuspecting corner, the crowdfunding space. The upset by Denver marked the conclusion of a 3-week partnership between Utah based startup FanAngel and Broncos’ linebacker Von Miller’s charity, Von’s Vision. This joint campaign was the first of many upcoming offerings from FanAngel, a crowdfunding platform that allows athletes to raise money for personal charities.
FanAngel initially launched during March Madness earlier this year as a crowdfunding platform rallying around the idea of paying collegiate athletes; then pivoted to the charity space this fall. This shift in focus happened after the founders of FanAngel met with John Brenkus, of ESPN’s “Sport Science”. Mr. Brenkus and his business partner, and now CEO Mickey Stern saw the potential of a platform like FanAngel to “focus on the positive outcomes on sport and community” according to Mr. Stern.
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Mr. Stern also talked a lot of the “bad reputation” many athletes have in media and how unfortunate he found that to be, given the amount of “good guys in sports” him and Mr. Brenkus had come to know. In particular, Mr. Stern talked about the same good guys who wanted to make a difference in their position, “but didn’t have the infrastructure to do so.” With the platform of FanAngel and the vision of giving athletes a crowdfunding medium to donate to charity, Stern said that the partnership with Von Miller was a relatively easy sell because “we gave him a bigger platform and a louder microphone.”
In terms of FanAngel being an easy sell, Mr. Stern says that a bigger challenge than getting athletes onboard is vetting the charities properly. He elaborates, “Reputation is so important that we won’t come near anything that isn’t handled properly. Our legal, accounting, disclosure, and compliance are all very highly vetted.”
When pitching the value FanAngel delivers to an athlete looking to further their charity, Stern says FanAngel draws on three elements that also happen to be trending. This trifecta includes “crowdfunding, fantasy sports, and grassroots philanthropy” he says, adding that “combining these things in a unique way allows fans to partner with players to create a positive outcome, and work together towards a common goal.” One may do a double-take when seeing fantasy sports being an integral facet to a crowdfunding for charity platform. However, FanAngel does this integration in a way that turns pledging to a charity into a fantasy component.
FanAngel employs two methods of pledging. The first is the traditional one-time pledge model that they call Pledge2Day. The second is the fantasy component called Pledge4Play. In the case of an NFL player campaign, backers can donate a dollar amount per sack, tackle, catch, or touchdown by the campaigning player; in addition to the option to pledge a certain amount if that player’s team is victorious. And unlike many other charities where “people are hesitant donating to a cause’s big piggy bank”, Stern says that with FanAngel “we tell you within each amount you pledge, where that money is exactly going.” Not that far down the road will be the involvement of brands in these campaigns as well. Mr. Stern says that “brands with a connection to the athlete’s cause will have the opportunity to match overall donations.”
Although they’re not a non-profit, FanAngel has decided to direct 100% of proceeds raised in 2015 completely to the campaign’s charity. Once the 2016 campaigns kick off, FanAngel’s business model will take a “single digit” percentage of each campaign according to Mr. Stern. Compared to other crowdfunding models, this cut “is at the lowest end of the industry.”
With Von Miller’s campaign recently completed, FanAngel has already announced its second round of campaigns. There will be two campaigns in this round, one for Danny Amendola’s Catches for Kids Foundation and the other for Derrick Johnson’s Defend the Dream Foundation.
Stern said that FanAngel’s software and architecture is “proprietary and built to scale to run as many campaigns as possible. In addition to NFL campaigns, we will be rolling out to MLB, NBA, Olympics and international soccer.” One of the more interesting ways in which Mr. Stern mentioned FanAngel innovating was getting charities involved who have backing from retired athletes in the media world, like LaDanian Tomlinson and Mike Ditka.
And speaking of Von Miller’s Von’s Vision campaign with FanAngel, athletes with charities and generous fans should take notice of how well it did. Von’s Vision’s donation goal was exceeded in up-front pledges alone, with 75 people combining to donate a little over $10,000. In combination with the Broncos victory, and Von Miller’s three tackles and one sack netted Von’s Vision an additional $2,262. In total, the $12,356 pledged to Von’s Vision through FanAngel will provide 617 kids with eye exams and glasses.