Crowdfunding is a bit of a buzzword right now, thanks in no small part to the success of KickStarter and it’s numerous poster-child successes such as the iPod Nano Wristwatch, Blue Like Jazz Movie and The Glif iPhone Tripod. The theory is simple and it goes like this – instead of trying to raise significant investment from a small number of people, what if we could harness the power of the global community and online payment systems to raise insignficant investments from a large number of people. In short, don’t ask for thousands from a few, ask for pounds from the many.
So in the time is recession and austerity, could the same model help poverty stricken charities and charitable interest companies? Websites such as Kiva, JustGiving and Crowdfunder certainly think so and so do we, at Pop Up. When we realised that we needed to seek another round of funding for our development into the Autumn, and beyond, that we needed to not just try the same routes as before – the Arts Council, Patrons, Sponsors, Corporate Social Responsibility Schemes – we decided to try tapping into the vast goodwill that our schools, communities and festival programme were generating. Ask lots of people to help us in a small way.
So we’re now live here and are currently in the process of reaching out to those who might be able to help. We don’t know how it’s going to work out – the target seems a long way off right now – but it feels good to be building a community of supporters for our company and that might even be more valuable than the money they donate.
Perhaps you can help us too? Perhaps you can spread the word? For less than the cost of a round of drinks you can become part of our story.
After all, as we’re so often told, every little helps.