Looking for Crowd-Sourcing websites

[Pirian]

Don't know if this is the right place for this, but move it if necessary.

I've been working with a local non-profit that is trying to bring literacy up to grade-level or better for children in kindergarten-2nd grade by working with teachers to spend more time with at-risk children (e.g. children in poverty, title 1 children, etc.) and motivating the children to read by giving them the books that they read to keep as their own.

They have shown initial success with their pilot program last year, and are trying to vamp it up a little, but as with any charity, finding funding is the hardest part. They've asked me to figure out which would be the best crowd-sourcing for a non-profit like them to use, so I've been doing a little research and have found the following websites:

http://www.crowdrise.com/
http://www.kickstarter.com/
http://www.indiegogo.com/
http://crowdfunding.com/
http://www.gofundme.com/
http://www.rockethub.com/
https://www.somolend.com/
http://www.razoo.com/
http://www.openideo.com/
http://startsomegood.com/
https://www.causes.com/


If you know of any other crowd-sourcing sites, if you would post the name here then I would be greatly appreciative.

Oh, and the website for this non-profit is http://readerfish.org/ but the website is still mostly empty at the moment.

[Kohan]

I have no immediate recommendations, but I'd like to say two things. For one, I greatly appreciate what you're doing, and wish you and the non-profit continued success. For another...

trying to vamp it up a little

You may not want to associate the phrase "vamp it up" with anything involving little kids.

[Pirian]

lol, completely non-formal turn of phrase that I didn't really think about when writing it out

[BaneTheBrawler]

Of the ones you listed, Kickstarter is the only one I've heard of. So there's that.

Also, I hope you and this group are successful. It makes me very very sad when people tell me they don't like to read, or even that they don't read. BITCH I WAS ON A SPACESHIP BLOWING UP A SUN 20 MINUTES AGO HOW THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT BORING

[Aksannyi]

I've used crowdtilt with success, and they are one of the only sites I've seen that only charges a fee if you successfully meet your goals.

[Tokitoki]

My girlfriend and a few friends work for non-profits that have successfully used crowdrise to fund some of their projects. Unfortunately, I do not know of any others that were used. For reference, they work for National Audubon Society, Solar Youth, and Indego Africa. Mix of big and small non-profits.

Kickstarter has been a big funding thing recently that Audubon has considered using. I can try to press the gf for more information when I get home later. Maybe there is a reason they use crowdrise over any of the others.

[Pirian]

I've used crowdtilt with success, and they are one of the only sites I've seen that only charges a fee if you successfully meet your goals.

Thanks for that one!

My girlfriend and a few friends work for non-profits that have successfully used crowdrise to fund some of their projects. Unfortunately, I do not know of any others that were used. For reference, they work for National Audubon Society, Solar Youth, and Indego Africa. Mix of big and small non-profits.

Kickstarter has been a big funding thing recently that Audubon has considered using. I can try to press the gf for more information when I get home later. Maybe there is a reason they use crowdrise over any of the others.

I'm doing quite a bit of research into each one, but any information you would like to volunteer about any of them is more than welcomed.

[Tokitoki]

So I talked to them, but they just said that their organizations already had used Crowdrise before they were hired, had accounts with them, and found the site was easy to use for both themselves and would-be donors. I thought there would be something else to it, but that was really it. The only thing the GF said in regards to KickStarter was her boss and the consultants on one project in particular thought that their page would be lost among the masses since KickStarter is growing rapidly.

Sorry it was not as helpful as I thought it would be. :/

[Norrissnake]

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog...s-e-mails-etc/

All i got on the whole crowdfunfing thing

[Pirian]

So I talked to them, but they just said that their organizations already had used Crowdrise before they were hired, had accounts with them, and found the site was easy to use for both themselves and would-be donors. I thought there would be something else to it, but that was really it. The only thing the GF said in regards to KickStarter was her boss and the consultants on one project in particular thought that their page would be lost among the masses since KickStarter is growing rapidly.

Sorry it was not as helpful as I thought it would be. :/

Food for thought is plenty helpful, thanks!

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog...s-e-mails-etc/

All i got on the whole crowdfunfing thing

And thank you!

[Caiyuo]

I don't have a comparison for the general/all-purpose crowd-funding sites, but something that really helped me when looking into medical cost & family funding was breaking down which sites allowed you to keep everything you made as opposed to needing to reach a goal as well as figuring out what their take would be. Another thing I tried to consider and what made things a little more difficult was deciding if the built-in audiences and membership for sites like kickstarter would cause it to be more worthwhile than something that took less money or had more allowances. I'm not sure if that's anything that you can really know or has been written about already, though.


also "guppies" :3

[Tokitoki]

For reference, here is a current campaign by Indego Africa on wedid.it. I had never heard of this site before they used it and I think it shows (their campaign is not doing as well as they hoped). When you do set these kinds of things up, make sure to set up multiple ways to reach out about them. If I learned anything listening to the GF it's that they are most successful with multiple outlets.

By that I mean, don't just set up the donation page and advertise on Facebook. Use all your social media outlets to your advantage. This may sound like common sense, but some of the Audubon's campaigns, their biggest ones of the year, don't get publicized on their social media accounts as much as they should. I remember a rant about them only advertising their Holiday Giving campaign once per week over Facebook and Twitter while the rest of the week they were advertising for projects from branches or affiliates.

And as a side note, my friend is the one who shot and narrated that video. She's spent the last two summers in Africa helping set up the outreach for Indego Africa. It's actually nice stuff, but I fee they should focus more on the stories of the people they are helping than the stats and figures they give. Like my girlfriend said last night, the Indego Africa campaign does not compel you to give. You don't get enough of the history or problem to understand why they need your help other than there was a genocide in '94.

EDIT: After-thought. If you have rewards for donation, make sure it's clear what they are and how they are earned. This one is a little unclear about it.

EDIT: After-thought #2 - Their wedid.it site doesn't show up on Google until page 4 of the search. If possible, invest some of the money in making the donation page a higher priority result.

[Pirian]

Thanks for all the responses in this thread. With your help, I've given them a breakdown of all the crowd funding websites that I could find and my recommendation on which I thought would be best for their purposes. I'm recommending CrowdTilt (thanks Aksannyi), but ReaderFish's social network presence isn't that great, so they may decide to go with a very higher-traffic choice.

[Caiyuo]

Good to hear!