Community Funded Update

I would like to take this opportunity to explain some of the cool features and projects that are on Community Funded.  For a little background, I have been working on this site since I was brought in as a consultant in August, and became the Director of Development in November.  The website is a crowd funding website that takes advantage of the power of Mega Community Collaboration (MC2).  Here is what this about: MC² happens when motivated groups of individuals and organizations focus on common goals to maximize their community’s resources. Modern technology allows for the connection of many diverse communities to form The Community – which possesses all the resources and funds needed to make incredible things happen. Community Funded will transform this potential into energy through the power of MC² . The website has some really innovative features that separate us from some of the other crowd funding websites. Giftbacks While other sites bind you to a funding level, our site works more like E-Commerce.  We allow our Project Creators to offer items at a minimum pledge level.  So a project can offer items "piece-meal" which are normally part of levels on other sites.  A project can offer, for example, a Tee Shirt, A Shout Out, Tickets to Exclusive Events, Music Lessons, Gift Cards, Pint Glasses, etc.  There is no limit to what a Project Creator can offer.  This allows a member to do some cool things.  The first being, you can go from project to project adding Giftbacks to your Giftbasket (think shopping cart), and pick and choose what you want in return for your pledge to the project.  What this then allows you to do is fund multiple projects at one time!  You can swipe your credit card once and fund many projects at one time.  This is a really cool advantage to using our site. We take this to another level with our ability to Explore for Giftbacks.  If you are either undecided about what project to support or just want some cool shwag and just want to make your community stronger, you can just browse for the Giftbacks that projects are offering.  You can then check out and voila, you have supported projects and your community. Non-Profits Most crowd funding websites are dedicated to normal threshold style pledging (project creator has to raise a certain amount of money in a given time to get the funds).  There are some other types of sites that are dedicated to fundraising for not for profit companies, our site allows for both styles.  We have a proprietary system in place that allows you to fund both types of projects in your Gift-Basket at once!  The monies pledged to not for profit projects go directly to the organization.  You get an email receipt that you can use as your tax deduction where appropriate.  So not for profit projects have a goal, but they get whatever is pledged. They still have a time frame, but it is not threshold style pledging.  Being able to tap into the not for profit networks means we are able to gain access to the people who are used to giving and then they become exposed to the normal projects. Matched Funding We have a great system in place that allows for our members who are inspired by a project to offer matched funding.  This is fun and makes the site more powerful.  So when an organization or individual offers to match funds, a standard pledge that comes in is worth more!  If a project is being matched for $5,000 and you make a pledge, your efforts are worth 2x.  And a project can have more than one matcher, so your pledge can be worth 2x,3x,4x, or more. More coming soon... We are working on some more amazing features that will empower our communities and make this an even better tool. Here are some links to check out on the site http://communityfunded.com/explore-projects/ http://communityfunded.com/explore-giftbacks/