Most of us remember being in high school, and having people try to sell us candy bars at outrageous prices in order to fund their mission trips, charity organizations, abroad experiences, and other such things. I always remember being impressed at the commitment of people, and confused as to how they managed to raise enough money selling candy bars! Of course, in many of these cases, parents and family members were providing much of the funding.
In this new era of interconnection through social media, it is easier than ever to raise money from your social circle using the internet. This kind of fundraising is called crowdfunding, and most of us know it best through Kickstarter.
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform which allows people to generate funds for various projects. These projects range from the mundane such as this (for anyone who doesn’t feel like clicking on the link, that is a man trying to raise $15 to make a french toast pancake waffle) to the brilliant (the Pebble smartwatch) , to the truly disappointing and scandalous (the Yogventures video game).
One cool aspect of Kickstarter is that only successful kick starters are able to keep the money. For instance, if your project requires $100, you must actually raise $100 dollars in order to be granted the money. If it is not successful, the money is returned to the donors. This leads people to be more likely to fund projects, as they know that if the project is not fully funded, the creators will not abscond with their cash. In addition, many Kickstarters include rewards to people based on how much they donate. For example, a video game development project might give a cool exclusive skin to people who donate $5, a signed copy for people who donate $30, and a studio tour for people who donate over $1,000.
Now you may be asking, “this is cool and all, but how does apply to me? I have no intention of creating a video game or developing some huge project.”
Crowdfunding does not need to be limited to projects and startups. For instance, if you are a member of an Registered Student Organization here at UMass, you may (ok you almost definitely do) find yourself thinking that you do not have enough money! Maybe you have a trip to go on, or an event you want to host, or equipment you need to buy. Crowdfunding is a great way to raise some funds! The UMass Minute Fund is a website which allows student groups on campus to crowdsource money. For RSOs, the Minute Fund is a better platform to raise money than places such as Kickstarter, because it does not take any cut of the money raised (as Kickstarter and other for profit companies do). This really works too! Here is a trip that I went on, funded by the Minute Fund. Here is the HackUMass Minute Fund (which was also fully funded).
In short, when your organization is running out of cash, your social circle might be able to sponsor you. Create these pages, share them on Facebook, Twitter, etc, and watch the money for your organization roll in!