Fund a Kickstarter campaign in someone's name instead of giving them a meaningless holiday gift

[Michael Shiloh]

Many charitable foundations allow donations to be made in the name of a
third party, an act which has become fashionable in many circles in lieu
of meaningless holiday gifts.

I'm starting a campaign to encourage people to fund Kickstarter
campaigns as a holiday gift. The idea is identify a campaign that might
have meaning or relevance to the gift recipient, and then to contribute
in their name. Then, if the campaign succeeds, any gift from the
campaign would go to your friend, not you.

You could write a card to your friend indicating that you've made this
contribution in their name. (I suggested to Kickstarter that they add
the ability to contribute in someone else's name, but they won't have
that set up in the next couple of weeks.)

Seems to me like a fun way to fund some interesting Kickstarter
campaigns, as well as give novel gifts to geeky friends and other
hard-to-shop-for individuals.

Thoughts? Feedback?

And finally, if I may make a suggestion for a perfect campaign that is
sure to excite everyone is the giant Tesla coil project by my friend
Greg Leyh:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/648673855/the-lightning-foundry

[Sam Cook]

why not fund a company on Kickstarter designing and making custom e-cards for people who've funded kickstarter projects as a holiday gift? you could even make that the rewards for funding $5 for the company.

Seriously what's the actual point of this post other than asking gift advice (which I think is a bit off-topic for this list, some of us have strong political feelings about gifts that aren't destined for them) or possibly raising money for the lightening farm? 

S

[Ken Boak]

The only problem with Kickstarter is that you have to be a US resident.

Rather a kick in the teeth for any of us on this side of the pond.



Ken

[Anthony Bowyer-Lowe]

There's CrowdFunder.co.uk here in the UK but I can't comment on how effective it is.

A.

[Clare Greenhalgh]

There are alternatives: 

http://www.microloanfoundation.org.uk/MLFHome

http://www.lendwithcare.org/

Just as two examples....

Noko

[Brett Hutley]

Yeah, that annoys me about Kickstarter too. I believe the requirement is that you need to have an Amazon Payments account, which I think is hard to get outside of the US.

Here is a list of crowd funding sites compiled by Omar Miah on the OpenCoffee list:

http://www.seedrs.com/ - new yet to be launched
http://www.profounder.com/
http://www.civilisedmoney.co.uk/
http://www.fundingcircle.com/
http://www.kickstarter.com/
http://www.sponsume.com/
http://www.cofundos.org/
http://www.indiegogo.com/ - original (and biggest?) - importantly, u can use, being in the uk - kickstarter, u can't - they've raised £350m according to their founder
http://www.quirky.com/
http://www.rockethub.com/

--
Brett Hutley - Stimuli Limited
work: br...@stimuli.co http://stimuli.co
home: br...@hutley.net http://bretthutley.com

[Paddy Duncan]

You need to:
Be a permanent US resident and at least 18 years of age with a Social
Security Number (or EIN), a US bank account, US address, US state-issued ID
(driver’s license), and major US credit or debit card.

[Michael Shiloh]

My goodness! I had no idea!

Well, I'm certainly glad you brought that stunning oversight on my part
to my attention. Much appreciated!

--
Michael Shiloh
Artist, designer, tinkerer, teacher, geek
KA6RCQ
www.teachmetomake.com
teachmetomake.wordpress.com
Interested in classes? Join http://groups.google.com/group/teach-me-to-make

[Michael Shiloh]

To get brilliant ideas such as yours?

(Seriously, great idea. Thanks!)

On 11/28/2011 03:03 AM, Sam Cook wrote:
> why not fund a company on Kickstarter designing and making custom
> e-cards for people who've funded kickstarter projects as a holiday gift?
> you could even make that the rewards for funding $5 for the company.
>
>
> Seriously what's the actual point of this post other than asking gift
> advice (which I think is a bit off-topic for this list, some of us have
> strong political feelings about gifts that aren't destined for them) or
> possibly raising money for the lightening farm?
>
> S
>
> On 25 November 2011 23:13, Michael Shiloh <michaels...@gmail.com

> <mailto:michaels...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Many charitable foundations allow donations to be made in the name
> of a third party, an act which has become fashionable in many
> circles in lieu of meaningless holiday gifts.
>
> I'm starting a campaign to encourage people to fund Kickstarter
> campaigns as a holiday gift. The idea is identify a campaign that
> might have meaning or relevance to the gift recipient, and then to
> contribute in their name. Then, if the campaign succeeds, any gift
> from the campaign would go to your friend, not you.
>
> You could write a card to your friend indicating that you've made
> this contribution in their name. (I suggested to Kickstarter that
> they add the ability to contribute in someone else's name, but they
> won't have that set up in the next couple of weeks.)
>
> Seems to me like a fun way to fund some interesting Kickstarter
> campaigns, as well as give novel gifts to geeky friends and other
> hard-to-shop-for individuals.
>
> Thoughts? Feedback?
>
> And finally, if I may make a suggestion for a perfect campaign that
> is sure to excite everyone is the giant Tesla coil project by my
> friend Greg Leyh:
>
> http://www.kickstarter.com/ projects/648673855/the-
> lightning-foundry

> <http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/648673855/the-lightning-foundry>

[Alex Smith]

On 28 Nov 2011, at 11:26, Anthony Bowyer-Lowe <yno...@ynohtna.org> wrote:

There's CrowdFunder.co.uk here in the UK but I can't comment on how effective it is.

And of course PledgeBank. Slightly different focus mind.