Raising Money for Projects - Journaling and Documenting Activities for Full Project Support

How It All Started and Where Will it All Go?

It's been interesting to observe the rise of online fundraising around the world. It's not hard to understand why. It's merely a next step in the social media progression. What I mean by that is that social media was dying for an outward expression mechanism. Sending cat and stupid videos - even if they happen to go viral - can get old fairly quickly. Actually, those two genres have flourished in the past five years. But to me, once you've seen one "hit him in the crotch" video you've seen enough to never want to see them again. I'm not sure of the intense fascination of those types of videos. Now, Russian road rage videos...now that's another fun topic.

So once it was determined that social media needed an outlet other than viral videos and "vines," the question became, then what's next? Well, when you have a million artists, three million musicians, and several million entrepreneurs needing to get funding for their newest project, they welcomed the first site to provide them with a tool to get reach their goals. Then, when they realized that they could actually use social media to help contribute to their causes, it was a business dying for participants.

But what was not known about this new phenomenon was that total strangers could sign on and contribute to the projects. That means if Grandpa Bob Smith in Boise Idaho really liked the style and grittiness of rapper Down Wit Dat, then he could contribute a few bucks to get the word out about Down Wit Dat and his music. Simple. Down Wit Dat could reward the rap loving grandfather with an instant download of his soon-to-go-viral production after he got all the funding he needed. What could be cooler! Grandpa Smith would never meet Down Wit Dat but the two could have a mutually beneficial relationship without strings. Then if Mr. Smith decided to promote Down Wit Dat to his vast social media Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr audience, everyone wins. Down Wit Dat is getting his music spread by a grandfather he doesn't know or has never seen. Grandpa Smith on the other hand is getting serious street cred with his social media homies. What is not to like about that scenario?

That's just one project. Multiple that by thousands of project across the world and you'll see why it has grown so quickly.

Equity and Startup Costs for New Businesses

The great part about raising funds online like this is that it has now crossed over into other areas of interest. You just knew that the financing gurus would want to get involved. Someone from a two-thirds world country posts a job and needs $5000 to start it up. They've created projects before and are good at paying back their backers. Divide that $5000 up into manageable chunks and many would be willing to invest $50 for some really awesome feel-good vibes. Ok, so they'll make two or three dollars in the transaction. Fine. They're probably not in it for the money at that point.

Now, if that donor gave the full five grand, then she stands a chance to make a few bucks. However, the downside for one person ponying up the entire amount is the risk associated with such an investment. If the sum is broken up into 100 piece, no one person has much risk at all. If the project fails, the initiator loses a hard earned reputation. The donors lose fifty bucks each. No biggie really. Plus one hundred people will really come down hard on the initiator. You have potentially 100 bad strikes against you. If one investor loses, it's much worse for the investor. And he only has one negative comment he can make. The project initiator will be dinged (and rightly so) but not nearly as much as if he did it for 100 investors.

 

Real Estate Building and Reconstruction Programs

Next is real estate fund raising. This falls into the same category as startup project funding. Joe Schmoe found his dream home and would like a thousand or ten thousand people to invest in it. The only reward would be a decent interest rate for the donors.It's not a bad deal for either investor or person needing the money. The risk in the transaction is the reliability of the recipient to pay back the amount invested. Groups such as 'Prosper' grade the recipients based on credit scores and other objective criteria. If the potential recipient looks like a credit risk, then he may have an extremely difficult time getting people to donate. If his credit scores and records are stellar, many will want to pitch in.

The argument that people might bring to this conversation is why can't this person get a loan the way millions have other people have. It's valid, but we live in different times with different circumstances. Some may use this method to skate past lenders, but others are using it for legitimate purposes.

Christian Missions and Charity Programs

Missionary and charity work has always benefited from lots of people giving to one person (or family) to sustain that one person indefinitely. This is certainly not new for raising support. What's new is being able to do it online and have a lot of eyeballs on the project so that complete strangers can jump in and help out.

Musicians and Artists 

Musicians and artists on the whole are not wealthy. Yes, Nashville and Hollywood promote the biggies, but for the most part there are millions of starving artists and musicians. If you are one of them, then you could easily produce your record or painting with the help of seventy-five very generous people. Thousand of talented people have done it already, and some have even made it big. It starts with the demo or the first big series of paintings.

Troubling and Controversial Legal Cases

This is perhaps the most controversial of all the activities. Often legal means that people or organizations are being persecuted for what they believe. Then, the people must defend themselves in a court of law, which is costly and nonsensical. Several cases in point come to mind. First the Christian baker, florist, and photographers. Clearly they did what they thought was the right thing, after all it is their business, right? Wrong! It seems the heterophobes didnt't take too kindly for being snubbed so they did what they always do; they whined about it until some obscure judge fined the businesses for not playing their game. Whatever happened to No Shoes No Shirt No Service??

Without getting into too much of a political diatribe about constitutional items, suffice to say this site is very much open to handling donations to causes that other organizations refuse to handle.

Difficult Medical Cases For Which No Other Funding Is Available