CASHING THEM YOUNG

Children are crowdfunding for a cause, crafting powerful online campaigns to help other kids pay for lifesaving surgery, craft lowcost tech solutions, or help senior citizens regain their sight

No one is too young or inexperienced to make a difference, that’s the message teenagers are taking away from their successful crowdfunding initiatives.

“Kids typically raise money for two kinds of projects — innovations they want to create, or causes they want to help fund,” says Ranganath Thota, founder and CEO of crowdfunding platform FuelADream.

With help from platforms like FuelADream, Ketto and Bitgiving, they’re learning how to use videos to elaborate on their cause, interviewing potential beneficiaries to give donors a face to identify with.

They’re also learning how to raise funds effectively — identifying a first batch of donors before the campaign goes live, for instance, to make sure there’s initial momentum, and using parents’ LinkedIn ids to reach the right audience.

In some cases, they’re helping other children get essential surgery, in others they’re helping an NGO raise rent.

“It’s a good idea for kids to crowdfund for a cause. That’s how they will learn to give back to society. We just have to make sure that they are not too young to be exposed to the online world when they do it,” says Varun Sheth, founder and CEO of crowdfunding platform Ketto.

Sometimes, the initiative starts as part of a school social work quota. Sometimes, it’s the school that introduces the concept of crowdfunding too.

That’s what happened at Delhi Public School (Bangalore North). “I first heard about crowdfunding in February, when I met Mr Thota and invited him to speak at our assembly,” says principal Manju Balasubramanyam. “At the assembly, a group of students asked if the school could

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