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Over recent months we’ve spotted numerous initiatives designed to help non-profits fundraise via social media platforms and online networks. Now, in the US, Giifa is a prospective website which hopes to help charities and non-profits find staff and tackle unemployment by using a crowdfunding model to pay for wages. Giifa is the brainchild of Pratyush Agarwal who believes that getting private donors to fund employee wages in non-profits can offer a genuine solution to unemployment problems, as well as presenting donors with a transparent way to see how their money is spent. The Giifa website will profile both non-profit organizations and the potential employees those organizations are hoping to take on. Members of the public will then be able to support an employee — and, in turn, the organization that employee will work for — by donating a sum of money towards their wages and the cost of their employment. Once enough money has been raised to reach the target set by the non-profit, the crowdfunded member of staff will be offered a job at that organization. Agarwal hopes the model will help charities support themselves more sustainably, empower people to take action on unemployment directly, and encourage greater trust in non-profits by putting “a face to a donation”. The website is still in development with plans to launch early this year. A portion of many charitable donations already goes towards a charity’s workers’ wages, but directing funds specifically to human resources adds an interesting twist. Could this model have potential in other sectors? or www.pratyushag.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/what-is-giifa/