Tag: crowdfunding platform

How many of us will end up “Crowdfunding” the system?

Author
Charlotte Marsh
Date

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Reason I ask, it is becoming more and more common for people to raise money directly for educational events or for new equipment for hospitals, donations would normally be associated with charities and research but these days we chose to step in and help out others.

You are ultimately backing a good cause of course and I have no problem with that whatsoever.

A few years back I decided to donate a small amount of money a month to some charities, I try to spread that amount of money across a few charities and change them from time to time so everyone gets a small donation. I’m no saint and I am not trying to make myself feel better, it’s just a good thing to do, in my opinion. These charities do great work for many different reasons, funded by most of us and a little help from elsewhere.

The problem is when I was asked to donate to raise some money towards new hospital equipment it occurred to me that this isn’t a charity, this is a hospital which I’m already funding through my taxes, or am I? Of course I didn’t object and donated to this very good cause and pleased to say my friends and their children raised just over £1000!

If we the population, the “Crowd” are stepping in and helping out with the local services, are we letting the Government off the hook? We hope we have helped additionally to what the Government were going to give and not instead of.

But should we feel the need to step in, because the help is to slow to come? Are we just helping out? How many of us will additionally “Crowdfund” the system?

Adopt a classroom

Author
Alex Taylor
Date

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According to the UK Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) over 90% of teachers buy supplies for their pupils. While most purchases are to enhance in-class or extra-curricular activities, as many as half of all teachers have bought stationary, pens and disturbingly textbooks. UK school teachers are dishing out on average £250 a year from their own pockets.

In the US teachers are turning to Crowdfunding to help fund everything from pencils to microscopes.

One such schools Crowdfunding platform, DonorsChoose.org, have raised a staggering $250 million for 464,596 projects that have assisted the education of more than 10 million pupils across in the US. Most Crowdfunding requests are for grass-roots supplies.

The thanks from Reddit’s ‘Gifts For the Teachers’ Program, which raised £200,000 in 2013, gives an indication of the level of appreciation Crowdfunding can bring to our children’s teachers – ‘Thank you so much for your generous gift of colored pencils and tape! I literally squealed in excitement when I opened the box…I can’t wait to give the supplies to my students who cannot afford to buy their own. THANK YOU!!!’

Crowdfunding for schools is not just about basic school supplies. Some are reaching for more lofty targets, science Crowdfunding platform experiment.com have seen a number of teaching related projects aiming to get secondary school students involved in real science.

Crowdfunding in schools has yet to really kick off here in the UK. Hubbub is an education reward-based platform that is well placed to be there when it does. While most projects through the platform have so far have been university focused, it is open to schools, teachers and individual students.

As the gap between state funding and the ambitions of schools grow, Crowdfunding will have a greater prominence in UK education.

 

 

Investing in Property, Investing in Family?

Author
Charlotte Marsh
Date

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As First time buyers continue to struggle to save their deposit to climb onto the property ladder, some of the lucky ones get to call on the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. But other family members are not receiving much interest on their savings so they are also lending to their nieces/nephews or grandchildren.

The more the merrier, Family Crowdfunding, clearly the details need ironing out before you lend to this close network! If the deal isn’t clearly labelled for what it is Christmas and Family parties could get a little awkward.

“The Borrowers/The Kids” sign up for a Two or Three year fixed mortgage with the aim to remortgage once that fixed term is over and from the remortgage they release the deposit raised back to the “Crowd” plus a bit of interest.

Loads to think about before you sign up, especially having various Aunts and Uncles having a percentage in your home, but it’s your family what could possibly go wrong?

It’s not Amazon  

Author
Ian Anderson
Date

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In early May of this year Bob Ferguson, the Attorney General of Washington State, filed what is believed to be the first consumer protection lawsuit against a Kickstarter campaign from investors wanting their money back.

Many in the US believe the current raft of new tech products across sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter (take Smarty Ring as an example) are either chasing a commercially unviable space or will simply never deliver on their promises and Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit is just the start of a new era where the ‘Crowd gets Angry’.

Kickstarter was initially frequented by a very savvy crowd who had expertise to help them judge whether or not tech projects were ever capable of being delivered. Now the audience of such sites has broadened to include average consumers and some of those consumers treat Crowdfunding like an Amazon.com for products that don’t yet exist.

Stronger screening and better communication of what a project’s level of complexity is along with more responsibility by the platforms is the only way to avoid a free for all in legal claims that could kill Crowdfunding.