Pray It Forward

Brothers Jamie and Adam Coughlin believe prayer can change the world-so they combined their technological and entrepreneurial know-how with their devotion to God to create a different twist on the crowdfunding trend- PlusGrace.com, a website where people can share prayers and support faith-based fundraising campaigns.

The Manchester company launched in January. The first fundraising campaign was posted by Catholic Charities in Manchester to raise $5,000 for a mobile food pantry. As of mid March, the campaign had 21 prayer requests and $1,505. Requests range from prayers for Pope Francis to a prayer for military families to one for a family with a sick cat.

Every day we consume so much news and so much of it is negative and tragic, says Jamie, CEO and entrepreneur in residence at the abi Innovation Hub in Manchester. People felt helpless to do something. I would say time out. We can pray. We are both practicing Catholics and we want to offer people a way to reach out. Adds Adam, media relations manager at Dyn in Manchester, There is sometimes a negative stereotype of social media that it is superficial. That might be true now, but people want more from it.

Prayer requests can be posted for free immediately with a photo, story and the poster's identity. People can add their prayers to a post by name, or anonymously. Fundraising campaigns require certification before posting and can range from a church fundraiser to a nonprofit that helps disabled children. PlusGrace takes a 5 percent transaction fee for single campaigns and 2 percent for larger ongoing campaigns.

The Coughlins hope to help faith-based fundraising efforts reach more young people. The whole point of faith is to evangelize the word and to go where the faithful are, and the younger demographic is online, Jamie says. The site was publicized in The Boston Globe, Bloomberg Business Week, Social News Daily and the Times of India. It has attracted prayers and fundraising campaigns nationwide. (Prayers may come from anywhere, but fundraising is currently restricted to the United States). Jamie says their early success is due to both their business acumen and passion for the topic.

The site has received thousands of page views since it went up and about 50,000 unique users. Jamie says the faith-based fundraising market is worth $100 billion. Faith needs no translation, says Adam. It's experienced by folks around the world. That's what is really exciting. For more information, visit plusgrace.com.