Crowdfunding for a cause

We sitting in the city might feel that “crowdfunding” are all just concepts on paper, “who really benefits?”

Well, the good news is that it is not just a concept, it is apparently a concept that is working and some farmers in Karnataka have actually reaped great benefits. Crowdfunding, in the most simplified definition is where a person or group puts a need on the website and people from around the world, contribute money, anything from Rs.100 to no upper limit. People can choose what cause they want to contribute for.

So this parched dry village in Karnataka, known as Horti has been desperate to get the Govt to build a canal. Obviously, that never happened. And the farmers did not have enough money within themselves to do so. On the suggestion of a local NGO, they decided to try crowdfunding on a website known as ‘FuelaDream’. They never had faith in this but felt why not give this also a try?

The NGO helped the farmers  write a proposal that explained how a canal would help feed local families and put it up on the website. Within a couple of weeks, their canal project collected Rs.3 lakh from some 100 people, all strangers, donating for a cause. The farmers also put in another Rs.3 lakh and built the storage duct – 8 kms long and 10 meters wide. Monsoon came calling and today, this duct has become a waterway, running through fields parched for water. Farmers are now getting ready to sow soybeans, sugarcane and cereal grains.

In US, crowdfunding is used mainly to fund start-ups. In India, crowdfunding has become the best tool to deal with social causes – right from education to building infrastructure and farmer welfare, everything is on various such websites. This is truly the revolution that internet can be – making such life changing, positive changes.