Crowdfunding - New age magic lamp to make dreams come true

We all live in an era where financial strength is prized and is actually considered quite aspirational. However, with the economic conditions being dire, it is about time we come to terms with the fact that it might not always be possible to be able to financially back everything that all of us wish for. This is where crowdfunding for personal causes comes in as an option.

Personal crowdfunding is when someone can raise funds online for any personal cause that’s close to their heart - be it a passion, a project, or an art show, education or a dream destination that you have been dying to get to. One can choose to raise funds for any cause they please, whenever they please, so long as you can attract the right kind of donors to support you.

All you need to do is log on to a crowdfunding platform, create a crowdfunding page, share details about your project with a goal and start sharing the page on social media with friends, family and eventually strangers contribute small amounts each. It all depends on how creative your appeal is and how good you are at reaching out to your networks. Good crowdfunding platforms allow you to integrate your crowdfunding page with your social media handles so sharing becomes very easy and really quick. The best thing about crowdfunding is that anyone can create a fundraiser for themselves or for someone in need.

Here are four use cases that has been able to successfully leverage the aspect of personal crowdfunding:

1.      Health based

With out-of-pocket expenditures making up 62% of health care costs in India, it is definitely not uncommon to see people raising funds to save their loved ones from dire medical conditions. With the acute awareness of India’s Universal Health Coverage claims ringing in the background and the promised Rs 5 lakh coverage per family, it is now more important than ever for health based crowdfunding to be in action. An average transplant in India costs anywhere between Rs 5 lakhs - Rs 30 lakhs - as a result of which a lot of common people have resorted to crowdfunding to settle their medical bills lately. Monica Das was able to crowdfund Rs 20 lakhs for her daughter’s liver transplant on our platform.

2.      Occasion based

It is not unusual to see personal crowdfunding happen to mark an occasion in one’s life. It is usually done to act as a tribute to the spirit of a special occasion in someone’s life; birthdays, anniversaries or even marriages. People are usually high on the spirit of giving on special occasions and personal fundraisers harness this spirit of giving. People crowdfund to contribute to a social cause that’s close to their heart or on for a social organization that they resonate with. Now, it has become a trend to even crowdfund on major Indian festivals like Diwali, Holi, Eid etc. Akarsh from Bengaluru decided to raise funds for providing Solar Powered lights to Women street vendors during the festive season of Diwali.

3.      Passion based

Let’s admit it, passion is not the easiest thing to pursue in today’s world. Passion is followed by a “conditions apply” tag in most cases. For instance, someone wants to start their own music band, shoot a documentary or foster animals - in most cases, all these dreams are usually put on hold due to the lack of finance. Crowdfunding has definitely stepped in to bring around positive shifts in this scenario. DJS Racing is the Formula student team from D.J Sanghvi College of Engineering in Mumbai who have raised Rs 4.6 lakhs to fund and test their prototype while students of Symbiosis successfully crowdfunded for their short film - Mitr Mandal!       

4.      Education based

It is no secret that we live in a country where education still remains aspirational to a lot of people. Crowdfunding has definitely done its bit to alleviate this situation by empowering individuals to be able to raise funds towards bettering education. It can be an individual raising funds for their educational pursuits or it could also be someone raising funds for an organization that works with fulfilling educational needs. Educational crowdfunding is playing an increasingly important part in making education more accessible. Rachel Chacko, a 20-year-old raised Rs 17.8 lakhs to complete her dentistry dreams earlier while organizations like Teach for India, Magic Bus Foundation, Child Rights and You have engaged in a lot of successful crowdfunding efforts as well!

Crowdfunding is increasingly giving a voice to personal causes of every kind in India. Be it saving an animal shelter, starting your own band or even continuing your higher studies, it has managed to pervade every aspect of our ordinary lives!

Khushboo Jain, Co-Founder and COO, ImpactGuru.com