By Anna Saarentaus, John Nurminen Foundation
The first version of Nutribute crowdfunding platform developed by project NutriTrade will soon be in test use at nutribute.org.
Nutribute is aimed at improving the state of the Baltic Sea. It is a site where all organisations and individuals that carry out measures that reduce nutrient loading can present their activities and start raising funds. Anybody can have a look at the fundraising campaigns and make donations online to the activities they find worth supporting. In this way, the NutriTrade team hopes to boost activities that benefit the Sea.
The name “Nutribute”, which comes form words “nutrients” and “contribute”, was invented by SLU researcher Claes Ek.
On the Nutribute homepage, there is a so-called gallery of measures that seek funding. Each measure is presented by a photo and a short description of its content. After reading it, the reader ideally wants to take a closer look at the and on a campaign page, activities and the project team are presented. There it is also possible to make an online donation. The user can also browse projects by using certain search criteria such as location of the measure, largest impact on eutrophication, and most cost efficient measure.
Valuable help from pro bono experts
The NutriTrade project team of eager Baltic Sea savers would have been lost in the world of software and fundraising without the wonderful professionals who pro bono – i.e. voluntarily and without payment – helped us in planning and implementing the platform:
In summer 2016, the planning of the Nutribute started with a series of workshops involving some potential users of the platform and the project team at John Nurminen Foundation. In the workshops, the central elements of the platform were identified and translated into IT requirements. This work was facilitated by Capgemini’s excellent consultants Krista Luoma and Suvi Anttila.
A lot of work has also been done to ensure the compliance of Nutribute with the Finnish Fundraising Act and to develop templates for legal documents (terms of use and funding agreements) for Nutribute. Here the expertise of Tuomas Aho, Partner at Roihu Attorneys Ltd and Urho Ilmonen, Senior partner at Fact Law Group has been of outmost importance.
Finally, Mikko Ritvanen and Päivi Santalahti from Ritvanen partners helped us non-computer geeks to speak the language of IT and to select a server provider for Nutribute.
Susiluoto Attorneys-at-Law Ltd also provided their services at a reduced rate to our non-profit endeavor. Thank you!
Next steps
Lately we have been busy promoting the platform to various stakeholders in several countries in the Baltic Sea region. By doing so, we can hopefully reach the potential users and can receive their comments and feedback. The remaining project budget will be utilised to realise these development ideas. The aim is also to continue marketing activities and to get some visibility for the platform in the media.
Please have a look by yourself at nutribute.org and spread the word about a new instrument for protecting the Baltic Sea! We welcome new campaigns and donations to the (still very few) nutrient reduction measures!
