I happened upon the potato salad Kickstarter crowd funding after seeing an article in my Facebook feed over the holiday weekend. I clicked the link. I smiled and even laughed a little, but then I really started thinking. While funny I'm really over the potato salad crowd funding campaign. It's makes me sad and minimizes the value that crowd funding can bring. It is clouding judgment and hiding real crowd funding opportunities for companies building great products, beautiful art and families who in crisis who are looking for financial help. We need to be discussing these things.
So instead of clicking to join the masses and participating in the internet potato salad party, I set out to research and look for alternatives after dipping my toes into the crowd funding waters for a company and the cause of workplace productivity I have partnered with recently. Unlike the potato salad crowd funding is not easy. It takes research, strategy and planning to elevate your crowd funding project above the noise. Founders spend months building relationships and developing the perfect messaging to fund or fuel whatever the project, program, cause or passion to the masses to gain traction and fund your purpose or dream.
And because of that, I set out in search of finding great projects on sites like Kickstater, GoFundMe and Indigogo. The challenge is that these sites are hard to search and I spent two hours looking for meaningful campaigns to fund and write about. It was excruciating. And so instead, I tapped into my social media network and relationships asking them about. Here are their recommendations on 7 campaign alternatives to potato salad to be checking out.
- From Oregon to Patagonia - Novel of a Journey. This campaign funds an autobiographic novel based on Jedidiah Jenkins 16 month bicycle journey from Oregon to Patagonia and also based on his life. At current the campaign has raised 12,000 with 121 backers. Click here to learn more.
What crowd funding campaigns are you excited about? This is your opportunity to share what matters to you. Together, let's raise awareness about a project that can change the world.