Crowdfunding, Indiegogo and Kiva

This week I am hoping to launch my first "crowdfunded" campaign on Indiegogo.com (http://www.indiegogo.com/). You may be asking, "What is crowdfunding?" Well, it's when you use the power of social networks to raise money for an issue or project. Many people point to Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a hugely successful crowdfunding effort, as most contributors actually only donated small amounts of money ($5-10 each donation).

In my case, I am hoping to raise money for a school field trip. As with many districts, ours took a budgetary beating this year and funds for trips, some clubs and sports dried up. I won't let that stop me, as I believe the most important learning in school often happens outside its walls. I teach a STEM course called Project Lead The Way, in which my students learn a great deal about design. It's my goal to take my class (along with our school's Art class) to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) to see their Architecture and Industrial Design exhibit. Additionally, we plan to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The art teacher and I performed a rough calculation - for the bus, admission to 2 museums for 42 students and 5 chaperones, it will cost approximately $2000.00. I think the experience truly will be priceless, as this will present a unique and potentially inspiring opportunity for my students (many of whom are embracing a love of design) as most have not ventured outside of their hometown, Red Bank.

By setting up an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign, we hope to utilize another avenue to bring money into our district (when we sorely need it). The campaign will run between 30-45 days. I will post the URL once the campaign goes active.

Along these lines, I saw a wonderful TED Talk the other day. The presenter, Jessica Jackley started a website called Kiva, which specializes in microlending ($25.00 at a time). This allows peer-to-peer lending around the world, letting charity cut out the middle man and do the most work. In some cases this means loaning a poor family enough money to buy a goat or improve their business or home. It's an amazing concept and worth learning more about. Here's her TED Talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jessica_jackley_poverty_money_and_love.html

Here's the link to Kiva.org: http://www.kiva.org/