Mother of two Nicole Bodell has launched a new website to host crowdfunding campaigns for island folk or groups to promote and manage their fundraising campaign online.
The website is open to projects from films, music, art, technology, design and charity events, in fact just about anything that needs funding can use the crowdfunding site so long as it is legal and in good taste.
Nicole, 32, an island civil servant, said: This type of fundraising has become extremely popular in the USA and is rapidly gaining a following in the UK and Europe.
Douglas woman Nicole said there are three distinct models of crowdfunding available in the UK today:
l equity fundraising for investing in businesses,
l debt fundraising to provide loans to businesses and
l creative and community fundraising to provide funding for non-commercial purposes which is the model used by this new Isle of Man based venture.
Nicole, the founder of www.letscrowdit.com explained more about her website, ‘I was very impressed by how crowdfunding has helped a wide variety of projects in the USA and the UK and wanted to bring it to the Isle of Man as a way for local people to raise funds for a project that they are passionate about that is of a creative, community or cultural nature.
‘We are a strong community in the island and crowdfunding very much fits with that spirit.
‘It brings together likeminded people who support local projects with donations in exchange for small personal rewards’.
Nicole added, ‘The people who post campaigns typically use them for things such as artistic projects, social projects, community events, club fundraisers etc.
‘For example a band might want to record an album, a filmmaker might need funding to produce their film or maybe a local community wants to refurbish a children’s playground.
‘They can all publish their campaigns on the web site and upload pictures and video clips to give potential supporters a good understanding of what they will be doing with the money raised.’
Each campaign has its own project page and owners can share their projects to their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts.
Their supporters can simply log in to the project page and make a donation by either PayPal or by credit/debit card using a secure gateway.
Nicole explained that setting up a project page offers a great focal point for fundraising campaigns and because www.letscrowdit.com is open to projects from all over the UK projects could reach a much wider audience than you anticipated.
For more information visit: www.letscrowdit.com or email: Nicole@letscrowdit.com