From once-off giving to sustained support: How Donors For Life is reshaping crowdfunding in South Africa
In South Africa’s crowdfunding landscape, digital platforms have become an essential mechanism for responding to crisis, from medical emergencies and education costs to disaster relief and family hardship. Through platforms such as BackaBuddy, thousands of campaigns have demonstrated the power of South Africa’s collective generosity, with communities responding rapidly when need becomes urgent and impossible to ignore.
However, beneath this responsiveness lies a structural limitation that is becoming increasingly difficult to overlook. Crowdfunding is highly effective at generating support in moments of urgency, yet it is far less effective at sustaining that support over time. For many beneficiaries, this creates a familiar pattern of initial relief followed by a gradual decline in support once campaigns leave the public spotlight, even when the underlying need continues.
It is this gap between urgency and duration that has driven the introduction of Donors For Life, a monthly giving initiative developed by BackaBuddy and Paysoft Impact. More than a monthly giving programme, Donors For Life connects people to causes they care about and invites them to become part of something larger than a single donation. The model is designed to shift crowdfunding from reactive, once-off donations toward structured recurring monthly support, creating a more stable foundation for long-term need. Rather than changing what crowdfunding is, Donors For Life reflects a shift in what it is being asked to carry, particularly in a context where demand for support continues well beyond the lifespan of individual campaigns.
Catherine Swanepoel, co-founder of BackaBuddy and the Donors For Life programme, says the initiative responds to a reality that has always existed within crowdfunding, but is becoming more visible as the scale and duration of need increases across South Africa. “Crowdfunding is incredibly powerful at responding to urgency. It brings people together at the exact moment they are needed,” says Catherine Swanepoel. “The challenge is what happens after that moment passes. Donors For Life exists because need does not stop when attention moves on, and many of the challenges people face continue long after the initial response.”
She adds that the intention is not to replace existing crowdfunding behaviour, but to evolve it in a way that reflects how support actually functions in practice. “We are not trying to fix something that is broken, we are responding to something that is incomplete,” says Catherine Swanepoel. “One-off giving will always be essential, especially in emergencies, but what has been missing is a way for people who want to stay involved to do so in a consistent and structured way that reflects ongoing need. Donors For Life is about helping people find meaning through giving. When supporters join, they are not simply making a donation, they are becoming part of a community united by a shared belief in a cause.”
South Africa’s socioeconomic environment makes this gap particularly significant for non-profit organisations, which are often operating under sustained pressure across healthcare, education and social welfare with limited and unpredictable funding. Rising living costs, ongoing healthcare pressures and entrenched inequality mean that non-profits are rarely responding to one-off cases, but to sustained need that continues well beyond any single intervention. In this context, the sustainability of funding becomes as critical as the immediacy of response, particularly for organisations expected to deliver long-term support within short-term funding cycles.
“In many cases, the need does not change just because a campaign ends. Non-profit organisations continue to carry sustained caseloads shaped by ongoing medical, educational and social realities, regardless of whether public attention is still there, and the structure of support needs to reflect that continuity if it is to be meaningful over time,” says Catherine Swanepoel.
The introduction of Donors For Life also reflects a broader shift in how digital giving is evolving globally, moving from episodic responses driven by urgency toward more sustained, relationship-based models of support. According to Catherine Swanepoel, this shift is already visible in donor behaviour, where there is increasing interest in understanding long-term impact rather than isolated moments of giving.
In practice, the programme works alongside organisations on two fronts: strategy and storytelling. On the strategy side, that means setting clear recurring giving goals, defining a donor community worth belonging to, and building or optimising the campaign and donation pages that support it. On the storytelling side, it means helping organisations communicate impact more effectively, plan and execute marketing and launch campaigns, and retain donors through long-term relationship building. The aim is not simply to generate more donations, but to grow a community of supporters who believe in an organisation’s work and provide the kind of reliable monthly funding that helps sustain and grow its impact over time.
According to Chad Roberts, Founder and Managing Director of Paysoft Impact, the shift reflects a deeper evolution in how giving systems are structured in practice. “The reality is that generosity in South Africa is not the issue. The challenge has always been continuity,” says Chad Roberts. “What we are building with Donors For Life is the infrastructure that allows good intentions to translate into ongoing impact, without friction, and in a way that is sustainable for both donors and organisations.”
He adds that predictable giving enables longer-term stability for organisations supporting beneficiaries. “When giving becomes predictable, organisations are able to plan, stabilise and grow their support structures. That is where real long-term change becomes possible,” says Chad Roberts. This matters in a funding environment that many non-profits experience as increasingly uncertain, where heavy reliance on grants, corporate funding and once-off donations leaves organisations exposed to shifting donor priorities and funding cycles that can change with little warning. Recent reductions in funding from major international donors have underlined just how exposed some organisations can be, often leaving leaders spending more time searching for funding than focusing on the work they were established to do.
“We are seeing that people want to stay connected to the outcomes they support,” says Catherine Swanepoel. “Monthly giving changes the relationship between donor and cause. It moves it from a single act of generosity to an ongoing commitment to impact, which many people find more meaningful and more aligned with how they want to give.”
Megan Bedingham, Founder of The Royal Drakensberg Education Trust, who participated in the Donors For Life programme, says the initiative has had a tangible impact on how organisations approach donor development and sustainability. “Participating in the Donors for Life Programme has been invaluable for the Royal Education Trust. The programme guided us through the practical steps of building a sustainable donor community, while also challenging us to refine our thinking and sharpen our fundraising strategy. The mentorship, insights and support have been instrumental in helping us understand how to grow and nurture a village of donors who share our vision for education and community development. We are leaving the programme with greater clarity, stronger systems, and renewed confidence in how we engage supporters going forward,” says Megan Bedingham.
While still in its early stages, Donors For Life signals a shift in how crowdfunding may function in South Africa going forward, particularly where need is ongoing rather than once-off. In practical terms, it points to a move away from support driven by moments of urgency, toward support that continues over time. For South Africa, this matters because much of the need being responded to does not end when attention moves on. It points to a future where organisations spend less time chasing funding and more time delivering impact, where support is defined by continuity, and where the impact after giving becomes just as important as the act of giving itself.
