It seems that time has done one of those funky things again. One minute my trip is, “Plenty of time … it’s not until the end of March.” All of a sudden it’s, “Holy crap … it’s at the end of March!” I still have most of my equipment to buy, but my budget is about as lucrative as that of the US government. Unfortunately, I don’t have any credit with Russia or China, and my attempt to shut down the kitchen until I go what I want really was not all that productive. But I will not give up. I will am going to try that always so effective budget tool, and ask the average man on the street to fund my personal projects. I have one advantage that the Gummint Guru’s do not. I don’t have to call it taxation. Instead I can call it Crowd Funding.
For those of you unfamiliar with Crowd Funding, It is basically a way for the average joe to ask other average joes (and maybe even the occasional above average joe) to help fund a project. There are several forums in which this can be done, I think I will be using Kickstarter. This does not mean someone just posts somewhere, “I need a million dollars to put a pool in my back yard,” and suddenly people start showering them with money. Rather one needs to make a proposal, and sell their project, and hope people find it worthwhile enough to make a contribution. This is usually done with a good solid video or the like … basically a commercial.
So my challenge is to come up with a valid reason WHY someone might be willing to help out in this endeavor. Basically I need to let everyone know what benefits THEY might get for a contribution. I tried going to the streets and asking a few men (and women) on the street. After getting bailed out and the black eye healed, I figured it might be safer for me to try the internet instead. So I am once again looking for some feedback here. What would be an incentive for someone to maybe throw a few dollars my way to help me make this trip happen?
What my commercial will explain:
Reasons for the hike …
- For Mark, and Michelle, and anyone else who has had big dreams derailed by that mean bastard called Life.
- For myself, just to prove that I can do it.
- An inducement to folks to maybe help others who might be in need (via charities).
- A reminder to an over industrialized and technologied worlds that humans are actually capable of doing things the simple way still.
- To remind people that nature is, and always will be, part of our world, and needs to be cherished and nurtured for our world to remain healthy.
- To provide the material for a book.
Ultimately, my goal is to put together about $5000 dollars. How will the money be spent? About $2000 will be for the basic equipment needed. The rest will predominantly be food (and logistics) with a healthy buffer for emergencies and any replacement equipment that may be needed. Anything left over at the end of the hike will either go towards the book or charity.
The bit that is the most challenging is incentive. Most people will be thinking “What’s in it for me?” on some level. I can offer such things as a free book to anyone who contributes. If the contributor is say a business or an organization, I can offer publicity. But are these incentives enough? What else might someone want? That is my challenge at the moment. Any suggestions are most welcome, and will probably be used …. because I am that short on ideas. The one thing I DON’T want to do is to bully or guilt anyone into doing it, nor do I want to make anyone feel obliged in any way. In my mind any help will be appreciated, and even if no one is able … the trip will still happen. I will just have to find another way 🙂
