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38 MBiz | june 2017 FUNDINGCHANGE.CA I an Smith's eureka moment came during a Winnipeg Jets hockey game back in the fall of 2013. "With 10 bucks burning a hole in my pocket, I went searching for a kiosk to buy a 50/50 ticket," he recalls. "Unable to find one immediately, I wondered why I wasn't able to purchase the tickets through my phone." Smith, a sales and marketing professional, spent the third period of that game daydreaming about making raffle ticket purchases possible by smartphone. By game's end he knew that he was going to pursue the idea. Inviting his brother Colin and friends Nicholas Tenszen and Dan Major to join him in his new venture, Smith approached local business incubator North Forge. "North Forge helped us validate the idea," he says, "and pointed us in the right direction." Within a year, Smith and his partners were able to launch FundingChange.ca, an online venture that makes the sale and purchase of raffle tickets in Manitoba more convenient and efficient than they have ever been. By moving raffles online, FundingChange. ca also has changed the way non-profits raise money. "We went to work to be first to market with a simple, well-built platform that was able to supercharge an organization's raffle sales, get more exposure for their cause and at the same time reduce their administrative workload to next to nothing," he says. That innovative platform, built under the watchful eye of the Liquor and Gaming Authority of Manitoba, provides non- profits with the ability to apply for a lottery license; design, deploy and keep track of tickets sales; and draw winners, completely online. It also significantly extends the organizations' reach and networking capacity. With a single click of a mouse, charities using FundingChange.ca can share their raffles with their entire email database and all of their social media followers, who, in turn, can effortlessly share the raffle with their own email lists, followers, family and friends. "Organizations can run one raffle and empower stakeholders engaged with the organization to become a sales force simply by assigning a unique URL and having that organization share the link," Smith explains. "It is way less work, and has more potential to fundraise as well as friend raise." The system, he adds, gives non-profits' raffles more exposure, increases their sales, grows their databases, and helps them to raise awareness about the important work they do. No one has to run around trying to sell tickets, carry around cumbersome raffle books, fill out stubs of paper with names and addresses, or collect money. And supporters of the cause no longer have to worry about putting their tickets in a safe place in case their numbers come up! With a client list that already reads like a Who's Who of Manitoba's most established charities, Smith and his partners are preparing to take FundingChange.ca to the next level. They are making plans to move into Saskatchewan, B.C. and Ontario and they are working on developing other state- of-the-art, scalable, cloud-based gaming solutions for the non-profit community. Charitable organizations in Canada run thousands of lotteries each year to raise funds for myriad programs and projects in the arts, education, health and sports sectors. Because Ian Smith couldn't find a place to spend his $10 one day four years ago, the entire way in which those lotteries are run is gradually transforming — one province, one non-profit and one ticket at a time. ■ Just the ticket Creating an online solution for charitable fundraisers By Sharon Chisvin With a single click of a mouse, charities using FundingChange.ca can share their raffles with their entire email database and all of their social media followers, who, in turn, can effortlessly share the raffle with their own email lists, followers, family and friends. Photo by Darcy Finley From left: Entrepreneurs Ian Smith, Nicholas Tenszen and Dan Major.

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