‘Crowdfund’ Your College, Creative Idea & Even Your Wedding!

Sunny | Opportunities | December 29, 2011

Wouldn’t it be great to get other people to pay for things like your college, that creative idea you’ve had or even expensive essentials like a wedding?! Sound too good to be true – well, not quite.

When we discovered this relatively new way to raise money online we knew we had to bring it to the attention of our frugal hair sellers.

The method I’m talking about is called crowd funding – it’s where you create a funding request and then ask friends, family and even strangers to back your cause; and the site that is spearheading its way into this niche is Go Get Funding.

Unlike other crowd funding sites, Go Get Funding lets you raise money for ‘personal plans, projects, events and causes’. Here’s how it works:

• Register on the site and create a funding request (for free) which details what you need the money for and why people should pledge. When creating your funding request, you need to incorporate rewards in exchange for pledges. This is the essential step that helps drive pledges. For example, if you’re trying to crowdfund your wedding, you could say that people that pledge $10 – $50 will get a special mention during the wedding speech. Similarly, if you are trying to crowdfund your college fees, you could volunteer a few hours of your time to help the backer with whatever they need. To encourage larger pledges, rewards should get better as the amount being pledged increases.

• Share your project with everyone you know and start getting contributions via PayPal.

• Update your project with your progress and once you’ve hit your target, money gets released to you. You then need to deliver the rewards you promised!

The crowdfunding concept is really useful to those that need money and are happy to take advantage of their social networks. You also need a fair bit of creativity in order to come up with good (non-financial) rewards in exchange for pledges. But remember it’s not plain sailing and simply free money, you do have to put in some work promoting your project. Create something than you’d be happy to back yourself.

So next time you need money for something that really matters to you, consider the benefits of crowdfunding it!