Micropatronage

Many are familiar with the concept of micro-lending (a.k.a. microcredit) or giving people small loans to start local businesses. My hero Muhammad Yunus pioneered this idea with the founding of the Grameen Bank in his home country of Bangladesh. He found that many potential entrepreneurs, women in particular, lacked the start up capital needed to start small businesses. In many cases it was a matter of $20 or less, needed to buy materials to make baskets or other products that could be sold for profit. Yunus found that these small loans were effective in launching sustainable small businesses,and the recipients were very good about paying off the loans. In terms of fighting poverty, the rate of return was excellent.

In 2005, Brooklyn start up Kickstarter.com put a twist on this concept, pioneering micro-patronage: a way for anyone to financially back creative projects, in big or small way, via the internet. The projects are pretty diverse in scope and practicality. One woman wanted to raise $365 to send a homemade postcard everyday for a year. She's offered to send postcards to the people who give and its been so popular that she has raised more than her original goal. Another man is trying to raise $25,000 to complete a floating mobile clinic. A doctor and marine biologist, he's enlisted the help of 19 other doctors to sail to remote locations around the world and offer basic medical services. Artists and social entrepreneurs have struggled for centuries to find funding for their creative endeavors and it just makes sense to use the internet as a platform to do so.

I would love to use Kickstarter for my organizing film idea. Once you have a profile for your project on the site, you can e-mail blast, share and tweet the hell out of the link and anyone who likes your project can give online. It even syncs up to your Amazon account so you don't have to enter credit card info.

To get started on the organizing film, I figure we'll need upwards of $5,000 for a camera, mics and editing equipment (if I can't acquire these things otherwise). We will also need cash to buy some TV news footage. To take advantage of the Kickstarter model, I will need to figure out what I might offer people in return for their patronage of an organizing documentary. It seems the best Kickstarter projects offer patrons something in return. One musician offered givers upwards of $100 the chance to join him for some homemade gumbo and a preview of some unreleased tracks in his New Orleans home. I'm not sure I can lure people in with my shep pie so if you have ideas readers, let me know.