Online Ticketing Startup For NFPs Celebrates 1st Birthday
2 December 2010 at 3:02 pm
It's been an eventful first year for Eventarc – an Australian-based online ticketing and event registration platform aimed specifically at the Not for Profit Sector – not the least being trying to convince the charity sector of the benefits of new online technology.
Since launching in December 2009, Eventarc has processed almost $4.5 million in tickets, donations and merchandise; scored an Honourable Mention in Anthill Magazine’s Fifth Annual Cool Company Awards; (a national program developed in 2006 to recognise Australian companies that are doing things differently to bring about positive change) and been part of a Victorian Government Trade Mission to Texas.
Co-Founder Scott Handsaker says despite the successful first year with numbers of organisations growing, it has been harder than expected to convince charities of the benefits of new and emerging online technology.
He says while charities like the concept they are slower to adapt to the technology and more time is needed to educate organisations on the many benefits of the technology.
Some of the charities that use Eventarc for their free and paid events include the Mother's Day Classic, Cancer Council of Victoria, National Breast Cancer Foundation, The Warwick Foundation, Breast Cancer Care WA, Choir of Hope and Inspiration and many others.
Handsaker says the platform has in excess of 20 Not for Profits using the self service online event registration platform for event registration and fundraising. The platform allows anyone to create an event registration page and commence accepting credit card payments in real time, without the need to know any computer code.
He says Eventarc recently integrated with PayPal, and is one of the first startups in Australia to use the new adaptive payments module. Adaptive payments allow payments to be split amongst different parties in real time, making the online billing process for Eventarc much easier.
He says it is possible to use Eventarc as platform to drive online fundraising in ways other than just events. As an example, Eventarc recently launched a fundraising platform for the ASPCA in New York to help them raise money from their existing supporters.
He says Eventarc is also working with a couple of charities in Australia to build a fundraising platform for various initiatives in 2011.
Co-founders Scott Handsaker and Andrew Edwards spent two years preparing the Eventarc interface.
Handsaker says providing a really great interface to what is a deceptively complex process is difficult, but if it's right
then you go a long way to delivering a truly outstanding customer experience.
Eventarc is free for free events. Paid events incur a small 5% booking fee, which can be passed onto the ticket buyer in order to allow the event organiser to effectively use the product for free.
Link: www.eventarc.com
