A closer look at today’s biggest crowdfunding sites for K-12 and beyond
Crowdfunding, which harnesses the “crowd” to gain needed funding for a product or cause instead of specialized donors, and often enlists the use of social media to increase the so-called virality of a project to make it more successful, is unique for education. In the scope of classroom or school crowdfunding, most donations go to a specific fund or cause, and because the money goes to supporting a larger nonprofit organization, donations may be tax-deductible.
Also, because of the nature of crowdfunding for K-12, its structure typically varies slightly from the usual crowdfunding campaign. Where a product-based campaign might offer the donor first release of the product upon production, most school or classroom projects do not have the same type of tangible product — at least not ones that the community can share. For that reason, these types of crowdfunding campaigns typically offer giving levels or project-specific perks to incentivize donors. Levels usually explain what the specific donation amount will do to help the project, whereas perks will offer individual recognition to the donor for their support to the cause. Sometimes it’s as simple as a handwritten thank you note.
According to marketing blog HubSpot, all institutions should look for these three characteristics in a crowdfunding site before moving forward:…Read More