Crowdfunding a growing method to fund projects

By Claudette Olivier
claudette.olivier@eunicetoday.com

Assistance for Charlie and Charlene Montz is the latest example of the crowdfunding phenomenon in Euince.
Knights of Columbus Council 1745 and St. Anthony Parish men’s group That Man Is You! have set up an online account to help with the Montzs’ expenses in the wake of a Thanksgiving week fire that destroyed their Park Avenue home and its contents.
The account is gofundme.com/hqs89o. Contributions can be made anytime, from anywhere.
An overabundance of crowdfunding and a whole lot of peddling -- the bike kind -- helped fund a new endowed scholarship at Louisiana State University at Eunice.
“I wanted to raise $5,000, and I was a little worried at first because that’s a lot of money,” said Kathleen Warner, director of respiratory care. “I only had six weeks to do it. Raising the funds wasn’t even the hardest part.”
“We reached our goal in six days, and we eventually raised almost $11,000.” 
Earlier this past summer, Warner decided to raise funds for a memorial scholarship to honor her mentor and late LSU Eunice respiratory care staff member Ed Calloway, who died from cancer in the fall of 2003. 
“Ed was a real gentleman,” Warner said. “He was very sweet, well liked and well respected. He was a good husband and father. He was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer with no other symptoms except a little bit of congestion. He died three months later. 
“It was a hard blow to his family, friends, me and just everyone.” 
Warner was determined to up morale at the university in a year that saw no raises for faculty and staff, lower numbers of students and faculty members who were parting ways with the university. 
“Every college campus is suffering,” she said. “I thought, ‘What can I do to help with all of these things?’” 
Warner had contemplated just how to raise the funds for the cause for quite some time, and she eventually got the idea to use crowdfunding from a student in one of her classes who was using crowdfunding to raise money for a class trip. 
“Crowdfunding was new to me,” she said. “It seemed like an easy way to reach as many people as possible.”
Crowdfunding, funding a cause by raising money from a large number of people via the internet, has been around since about 2003, and there are at least 15 crowdfunding websites for those looking to raise money.
One of the earliest crowdfunding websites, ArtistShare, serves as a record label and business model for creative artists. Crowdfunding site RocketHub is popular amongst entrepreneurs, scientists and game developers who are looking to raise funds and spread the word about projects and endeavors.
As for the hardest part of her campaign, Warner, an avid cycler, decided to accept the Rapha 100 Kilometer Cycling Challenge to raise funds.  
“I wanted it to be a challenge, to grab people’s attention,” she said. 
From there, Warner started a crowdfunding page at www.gofundme.com. She posed for photographs for promotional items for the campaign, put out a brochure, recorded a video that was posted to the school’s Youtube page and worked to spread word of the campaign on Facebook. The campaign was eventually shared 317 times on social media.
“I asked all of my Facebook friends to share the page and talk about how much we were hoping to raise,” she said. “I was constantly updating to keep the momentum going. I’m on the shy side, but I approached a lot of people, and I wrote lots of letters explaining what I was doing. I did lots of legwork.”  
The campaign went public June 9, and in less than a week, the goal of $5,000 was reached.
“I was quite surprised,” Warner said. “Our next question was whether to keep the goal or keep accepting donations. We had 88 donors. LHC donated $1,000 and a several area physicians donated $500 each. Most of the donations came from the area, and there were also some from Houma and New Orleans.” 
“I was quite impressed with how easy it (crowdfunding) was,” she added.
The amount of money raised allowed the Edward Calloway Memorial Scholarship to be endowed, and each year, a clinical student in the school’s respiratory program will receive a $750 scholarship. Students will have to write a letter about why they think they are worthy of the scholarship and have a minimum GPA to qualify. Warner made her 62 non-stop mile ride on July 20, and her hard work will fund the scholarship for the next 10 years.
“I would love to raise funds again in a few years and do the 100-mile challenge,” Warner said. “Maybe I’ll go to Baton Rouge and back, if I can find a safe route.” 
Warner is not the only person in St. Landry Parish using GoFundMe to raise money. A quick search of the web site showed fundraisers for two area families who lost everything in house fires and another page to help cover funeral expenses for a man who had been in a coma.
Since 2010, GoFundMe has helped people raise money for travel, wishes, competitions, community, faith, newlyweds and creative purposes. The most common fundraisers on the site are medical, volunteer, emergencies, education, memorials and sports causes. For its services, GoFundMe deducts a 5 percent fee from each donation received.
While no state-specific data is available on crowd funding, the phenomenon has certainly caught on in Louisiana.
“I can confirm that GoFundMe has become very popular across the state of Louisiana,” said Kelsea Little, marketing associate with GoFundMe. “GoFundMe users have raised over $450M from more than seven million donors since our launch in 2010. It’s clear that more and more people are trusting GoFundMe to help them raise money for the things that matter to them most.”

According to Little, the keys to a successful GoFundMe campaign include a bright, colorful campaign photo, a clear, concise campaign description, a Facebook account connected for verification and sharing frequently with friends and family on social media. 
“The best piece of advice for GoFundMe campaign organizers is this: “Share your campaign,” she said. “It is a common misconception that strangers will donate to your GoFundMe campaign. In reality, it is your personal networks of friends and family who will support your cause. It’s also important to ask your contacts to share with their friends and family as well - that way, your network will grow.”
“The more effort you put into your GoFundMe campaign, the more you’ll get out of it.”