5 Things to Crowdfund

Your neighbors have been busy! Help fund their wonderful and creative projects.

August 12, 2014; 7:19 AM • by Sam Davies

August is named after Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome. Historians1 say that he was the first “crowdfunder,” asking his armies to contribute their own small arms, precious metals, and livestock in exchange for not being murdered and stickers. While modern day crowdfunding Terms of Services prevent physical coercion, you can still probably get some stickers for helping your neighbors fund their projects.

1. Studio C at WRIR

Everyone’s favorite independent radio station, 97.3 FM,2 WRIR is celebrating its 10th anniversary by converting an old office into a third studio, Studio C3. This will allow WRIR to offer even more programming such as live performances and breaking news.

  • Goal: $7,000
  • Campaign Ends: September 15th
  • Best Reward: While it’s not stickers, a $30 pledge gets you a “supremely wearable” Retro WRIR T-shirt.

Amaranth Arts 2014 Fall Season

The Amaranth Dance Company, comprised of mostly VCU alumni, is raising $10,000 for its Fall Season, as they perform in Richmond as well as a residency at the Denver School for the Arts. Most of that is travel and lodging costs, but you can also help pay for the theater rental, sets, and for the dancers to buy things like food.

  • Goal: $10,000
  • Campaign Ends: September 20th
  • Best Reward: All reward tiers come with unending gratitude, which makes me worry that we’re dealing with the undead. Give them all your money, just to be sure.

3. Wall of War

Artist Dylan Halpern is taking approximately 463,000 combat incidents of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, coding them according to a graphical key, and laying them out chronologically over 85 feet. Visitors to the exhibit will be able to zoom in to individual incidents or step back and try to process these two wars as a whole.

  • Goal: $1,500
  • Campaign Ends: September 10th
  • Best Reward: $25 earns you the digital version of this data visualization project.

4. Urban Doxology

Making A Melody is a faith-based non-profit in Church Hill that is releasing an album of gospel music from its Urban Doxology project. They’ve already blown past their initial goal and are looking to reach stretch goals to help fund their creation of “quality worship music for the urban context.”

  • Goal: $15,000
  • Campaign Ends: August 26th
  • Best Reward: $15 gets you a digital download of the music you helped fund.

5. SEW for SOS

SEW for SOS is a project out of Richmond’s Collegiate School, where positive pillows with kind and inspirational messages inside are sewn for individuals who are going through rough times. You can read more about the 7th Grader, behind the project, Luke Tyson, here. He’s almost hit his stretch goal of $900. Let’s put him way over the top.

  • Goal: $900
  • Campaign Ends: August 15th
  • Best Reward: Knowledge that there are middle school students who are pretty OK people in the world.
  1. From the University of College-State, which has the best Making Stuff Up Graduate program this side of the Rockies. Go Fightin’ Brontosauruses! ↩
  2. In high school electronics class, I built a circuit that sent a frequency modulated signal through a fiber optic cable. So, I’m kind of a Big Deal. ↩
  3. I have to assume the other two studios are Studio 1 and Studio Bravo. ↩
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Sam Davies

Sam Davies is the father of two daughters (ages five and eight) who lives in Northside Richmond. He and his wife Kat are trying their best to not raise sociopaths.

August 12, 2014 7:19 AM 2

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