Here are some simple facts about crowd funding:
1. Every person can have an impact on an important cause with whatever amount of money they can afford
2. Lots of small contributions can lead to a huge impact.
3. It brings awareness to the arts, important causes and inventions that would not make it to be… without CF.
4. It gives the opportunity to turn someone’s dream and hard work into a reality.
Like so many great ideas they often go up in a puff of smoke due to the lack of funding. My husband Jim began creating Ember Deflector Systems (EDS) 7 years ago.
Our close friends, who knew a lot more about social media than we did, saw that we were working hard to get EDS off the ground. We were doing this through the use of our own money, and with the support of a few friends/investors who came to the table and really believed in what we were doing. It was with their support that really helped us in the early stages. It was then that our friends told us we should consider Crowd Funding/Crowd Sourcing to help us get to the next level of development.
At first, I was clueless, and resistant to the idea. I wasn’t sure why….but with a little thought I realized we all get so inundated with solicitations that we automatically get suspicious, and tune them out. We are on “offers overload.”
It was the plea, from a colleague of mine, to support the brother of Chelsea King, who needed financial support for his CF campaign that opened my eyes. I began to see the power of reaching out to one’s community for contributions of any size to help a worthy cause. Cumulatively these contributions had the power to make a huge difference. Up until now raising money required presenting to venture capitalists, banks, or using one’s own resources.
Crowd Funding is actually very simple. Go to a reputable CF site…check out their campaigns (or more specifically your friends campaign 🙂 …read all about it, and if you deem it worthwhile, contribute any amount at all and become part of the team that supported someone’s dream to actually become a reality.
It’s normal for people to get cautious with new ideas, especially when they are being asked to contribute their money. With CF, as more and more people understand the importance of an idea and contribute, the more it raises confidence in others to do the same. As people contribute, no matter how small or large, it creates traction and movement. It’s that amazing energy and the power of numbers that leads to a successful campaign.
I cannot even imagine the amount of ideas that have never come to be because they did not have the funds to support their cause…or the ideas that big business scooped up because they did have the money. How many of your ideas never came to be because you didn’t have the resources to make them happen? I can think of at least 10 off the top of my head.
I love the idea of being able to make a difference. Since developing our own campaign, over the last two months, I have become acutely aware of what an important platform this is for raising capital so that inventions and ideas have a fighting chance of making it. I myself have contributed to 3 campaigns over the past 2 months and will continue to.
I hope this helps you to understand a bit more about CF. I feel so fortunate that we live in a time where technology affords us this level of influence. You can find our campaign at igg.me/at/emberdeflector as well as many other amazing campaigns. Three of the top CF websites I would recommend are:
Indiegogo
Kickstarter
Gofundme
With Gratitude
emberdeflector 