Do you have a worthy project you want to do but you don’t have the funds to do it? If so we want to hear about it. If the reason why you aren’t doing it is because you can’t afford to, we might be able to help you raise the funds you need to get it done.
On April 14th, 2014, The Christian Culture Center will roll out a new way to raise funds for worthy projects. It’s called, The Community Funding Initiative. I’m sure you’re already familiar with this concept, better known as “crowd funding” or “crowd sourcing.” In the context of Christian community, we’re calling it “Community Funding.” It allows the community being served the right to decide what’s funded and what isn’t.
Instead of raising tons of money ourselves and asking people to submit grant applications (which there is nothing wrong with, and which we will do also), this Community Funding model allows the community to decide what to fund. People post projects and offer rewards for people to contribute at various monetary levels. Once the funds are raised, they are distributed and the funded project can be carried out.
Here’s how The Community Funding Initiative works in more detail:
1) Post a worthy project on The Christian Culture Center’s Community Funding Initiative page. We’ll review your project and approve it as long as it meets our minimal guidelines (posted on the site).
2) Offer rewards for people who want to contribute to your project. Offer smaller rewards for smaller contributions and more substantial rewards for higher contribution levels. Typically you would have rewards for each of the following levels: $20, $35, $50, $100 and perhaps higher levels depending on the project. The key to successful funding often relies upon the quality of the rewards that are offered. Don’t worry, we can help you figure out what rewards to offer that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
3) People who want to see your project completed make pledges according to your reward levels. The money isn’t collected until all pledges are in and the total goal amount has been reached.
4) When your total goal amount has been reached, we collect the funds and distribute them to you. You’ll receive 90% of the pledged funds. The Christian Culture Center keeps 10% of the funds raised for three things:
- 10% of what we keep is donated to Christian charity
- 50% of the amount we keep is put into an “Over the Top” fund. When a project is very close to its funding level but is not quite there, and time has run out to raise the funds, we will review the project. If we feel the project is worthy of those funds and that we have the funding needed to help reach the goal, we will pledge the missing amount out of our “Over the Top” fund.
- 40% of the 10% we keep goes to the Christian Culture Center operating fund.
Once you receive the funds for your project, you’ll be expected to use those funds how you indicated in your project. We will audit the use of those funds to preserve the integrity of The Community Funding Initiative. We want to ensure that everything we do is above board, legal and ethical.
We will accept any project that is in line with our mission statement available here. We vet the person or organization sponsoring the project for obvious reasons.
If you have a project that helps to establish more of a Christian culture, consider listing it on The Christian Culture Center’s Community Funding Initiative. We’ll help you raise the funds you need, and at the same time you’ll be helping the Christian Culture Center.
Get ready for April 14th. Send me your intention to list a project so I have a heads-up and I’ll send you information updates and tips as we get ready. For the project definition you will need an attractive image, a catchy title, a clear description of about 500 words, and at least one video where you can introduce yourself and explain about the project and why you are doing it.
If you have a project you’d like to raise funds to complete get ready to list it in our Community Funding Initiative on April 14th, 2014. We’ll be looking for your project application!