Meet the charity champion who has raised £300 million
Yitzi Bude's extra-clever idea has been a lifesaver for charities
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
At Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Jews across the world stand together in their communities and commit to improve themselves and help others. This is a highly significant time for charities, and for many of them it is when a large chunk of their annual income gets raised.
But charity doesn’t just happen at Kol Nidre. It’s a year-round thing and whether it’s a simple email request from a friend running the marathon or a glossy invitation to a gala dinner, the chances are you’ll be asked to give money to charity several times a year.
Yitzi Bude (left), 36, grew up in a north London home where charity was a buzzword. His lawyer father Mendy was a trustee for many charities and did a lot of pro bono work. Yitzi learned how important charity was to the community. As he grew up and established a successful furniture manufacturing business he became a regular attendee at charity gala dinners. He became aware of how dependent the charities were on key donors to be table hosts and get people through the door. But he felt that drawing on the same pool of people all the time was not the best way.
“A table host traditionally asks 10 people to a dinner,” says Yitzi. “It occurred to me that if the fundraising moved out of hotel ballrooms and onto an online platform, lots of people could become ‘virtual’ table hosts and they in turn would ask lots more people to donate.”
Yitzi had taken on a team of developers to build some complicated technology for the furniture business. He explains: “I was involved with some online fundraising that didn’t work that well and it dawned on me that I could ask this new technology team to work with me to create something better.”
The father-of-three approached the developers with his idea and they worked for a year to develop a concept .The idea is that instead of being a table host you become a ‘charity champion’ and ask all your friends and family to donate to the charity. Everyone gets their own individual fundraising page and no-one has to give up an evening or sit through a dinner or speeches.
Charity Extra was launched in October 2019. Working at the time with just his development team, Yitzi reached out to lots of charities and found that many were interested. One of the first to use the platform was Menorah High School for Girls in north west London. They had been planning a gala dinner and a had a target of £250,000. They pivoted to a Charity Extra online campaign and raised £400k. Every parent was asked to be a ‘team leader’. They in turn asked friends and family for support and all donations were made online.
At first Charity Extra was steadily doing three or four campaigns a month and then the pandemic hit, cancelling out all in-person events. Yitzi’s platform became a lifeline for charities and has raised just over £300 million in just three years. It has achieved some remarkable seven-figure sums for organisations such as CST and Chai Cancer, but smaller organisations use it too. “It’s great for smaller charities, which don’t have the backup or infrastructure to do any kind of fundraising, especially as there is no upfront cost for the charity.”
At first Charity Extra worked only with Jewish charities (“you need the community behind you”) but now many non-Jewish charities use it too, including food banks and animal charities. The business employs 20 people in the UK and a further 18 people in the US, Israel Australia, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland. Among these employees are expert fundraisers who work with the charities for two or three months on their campaign before it is launched, so they get exactly what they need. The money goes straight to the charity’s account and no data is held by Charity Extra. “We take care of absolutely everything but it is a partnership,” he says.
Charity Extra fundraisers are short and sharp, usually 36 hours, for the most effect. Many campaigns are matched, which means that the charity approaches its major donors (the table hosts of old) and they agree to double the donations. “It’s very effective when people give an amount and immediately see it doubled, says Yitzi. “The average donation is 30 per cent higher when there is a matching campaign.”
Yitzi believes that online fundraising is the way forward. “ Face-to-face gatherings are still important but just for key donors. Gala events with 800 people are just not needed .Camp Simcha used to hold a gala dinner for 1,000 people – now they can reach 24,000 donors in 24 hours.
“It’s all about the ask. There is no better way of fundraising than through connections, because people like to give to people.”
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