What Happened?
The Windy City Hoops Program in Chicago is seeking funding through an online crowdfunding website IndiGoGo, rather than through increased taxes or cuts made to the city’s budget. The crowdfunding project has already raised $30,260 of its $480,000 goal that will help support the expansion of the city basketball league with an additional 3,200 spots at 10 parks.
So What?
The online crowdfunding page was able to raise more than $30,000 after 58 days of launching, helping increase support for a basketball program aimed at keeping youth away from drugs, gangs and violence. The strategy is to turn the league into a year-round activity for participants, providing safe after-school activities 12 months a year.
How It Works
On the IndieGoGo website, donors can purchase a jersey, pay a referee for a game, reserve a court or provide funding to other aspects of the program. Donation sizes are categorized as FAN, MVP and COACH, encouraging contributions of all sizes to make the expansion a reality. The online crowdfunding platform allows donors to provide tangible support in small, manageable portions to help build up the project in pieces, rather than relying on significant donations from a few major donors.
The crowdfunding system creates a community-wide call to action to strengthen the youth program that can benefit a large number of children and families, relying on hundreds of smaller donations. The program targets communities in the city housing at-risk youth, working to address safety and crime issues at the source.
Crowdfunding Basics
Based on the idea of micro-lending, crowdfunding projects work to acquire a specific dollar amount to support a project through small contributions from a large pool of donors. Because the donations are typically from normal residents or consumers, contributions are smaller and more are needed to reach goals. Crowdfunding requires an individual, organization or cause to:
- Setup an online profile or website
- Share information for the project or mission with friends and colleagues via social media channels
- Allow interested supporters to contribute to the fund directly online whenever convenient
- Track visits and review donation information to see what strategies are working
Some projects may choose to host their own website to collect donations, while smaller organizations and causes could launch the donation page through a third party provider. When working toward a specific dollar amount to fund a project, crowdfunding platforms can offer a running total of donations to keep contributors informed of progress in real time.
Likewise, the small contributions to tangible items or efforts make it easier and more comfortable for donors to provide support, seeing where the money goes directly rather than supporting a large organization with no real updates on use of the funds. Because the donation forms are online and easily accessible, no fees will be charged to contributors, allowing for every $10 gift to be made and counted toward community-wide projects.
Other Creative Funding Efforts
Operating under tight budgets, municipalities are looking to support community services through outsourcing and other funding measures without increasing taxes.