The Community of Crowd Funding

I have always been fascinated by crowd funding. I remember hearing about this concept for the first time and visiting Indiegogo to see what types of projects were being posted and funded. There were inventions, videos, products, web series and more. I think this is such a smart idea – many people can contribute small amounts to help fund a larger project. What a sense of community!

I’ve always thought that the Internet has actually made the world a smaller place. People from all over the world can connect with one another and support each other. It feels like a small town when you open your computer.

I have been making videos on You Tube for many years now. Over the years I have received such heart warming comments:

Thank you for posting…I loved your video with your sweet daughter signing! Fun way to Learning and very helpful to many! Great job!!! 

Hi I’m from manila Philippines, I just want to say thank you for making this video, I used to teach this to my cousin who had mild cerebral palsy,and she’s having a problem communicating with us, And now she knows how to do this sign alphabet and its lessened her frustration because we all understand what she wants. She use this sign alphabet to spell what she wants, More power and thank you so much  ) LOVE from Philippines

I love this video! I would probably never had learned sign language so fast without this video! Thanks!

All kids learn because of this song

And many more comments like those. I love what I’m doing and people respond really well all the videos. I now have over 470 videos online and get an average 250-300,000 views a month. That is approximately 3 million views a year. It’s a staggering number! I can’t believe all my videos combined get that many views.

Those numbers and the amazing comments got me thinking. I should post a crowd funding project. I’ve had a project I’ve wanted to do for a while now but it is going to cost a bit of money. I want to continue posting the videos online for free for all to enjoy. The crowd funding option for this project is fantastic. If even 10% of the people who enjoy my videos fund $1 to the project then I will easily get all the funding I need.

It will be interesting to see if the numbers of views translate into support. The project has only been live for a couple of days now and at the moment I haven’t seen the support I expected. I imagined there would be an outpouring of support coming in. Fingers crossed that it will happen as the campaign gains momentum. Either way it is an interesting experiment. Will my campaign reach full funding by the time it ends? Who knows? We will see…

Visit my campaign page here – Learn ASL Signs With Fireese

It literally only takes 20,000 people to donate $1 each to reach my goal. And every dollar helps! Thank you for taking the time to support me!