There's a new dawn in adventure & challenge fundraising: Will We Make It!? ™

Wahblo is the social enterprise which owns Will We Make It!? ™. It is managed by Matt Kepple, Winner of Channel4 IDEASFACTORY'S Creative Class Award for PR & Marketing and one of the UK Government's Social Enterprise Ambassadors.

Wahblo is a marketplace of charity projects which people and their friends can support. People choose a project, invite their friends to donate £1/month with them until the project reaches its fundraising goal, and receive updates on the project's progress as it develops. When the project is funded, everyone's £1/month goes towards the next project on their Wish List.

Will We Make It!?™ takes the Wahblo idea and applies it to charity fundraising challenges. It lets people take part in fundraising challenges and see the projects which the money they raise will make possible. It's also better for supporters because it gives them an idea of what their money will achieve, and it's great for the charities because it gives them the opportunity to update your supporters on the projects which you as the fundraiser have introduced them to.

During this beta period, Will We Make It!? ™ is open exclusively to participants in the Mongol Rally, Rickshaw Run and Adventurists Rally: Africa. During 2008, Will We Make It!?™ and Wahblo™ will become open to everybody.

I created Wahblo in 2004 in my last year of uni. A few months earlier I had created The University of Birmingham's first fair-trade fashion show - which has now become an annual tradition - but a few months before that I had been forced to cancel my sponsorship of Angel Maradiaga, a child in Honduras. I'd started sponsoring Angel because the opportunity had been offered one sunday and I figured it would be a cool thing to do but a few months down the line I realised it was just too expensive. And that's when I had the Wahblo £1 Idea of getting my mates to contribute £1/month each towards sponsoring Angel. I knew they'd be able to afford it and I was sure that they'd like the idea of being able to make a difference for £1/month! So, roll on to 2004 and I launched the pilot of Wahblo at my university and it was really popular, not just among students but also among staff. We sponsored children for £1/month and gave students updates on how their kids were doing. In 2005 I won the Channel4 Award on account of Wahblo and the university fair-trade fashion show; and that gave me the final ounce of motivation I needed to make the Wahblo £1 Idea available to all charities, not just child sponsorship ones.

A social enterprise is a company that is created to make a lasting positive impact on society and the environment. To get more of a flavour and see real life examples, point your mouse to www.SocialEnterpriseAmbassadors.org