Crowdfunding for Social Good: Financing Your Mark on the World
by Devin D. Thorpe
Over the last year of writing my Forbes blog, I have had the opportunity to really dig deeply into the world of crowdfunding. I’ve just completed my first draft of my new book, Crowdfunding for Social Good: Financing Your Mark on the World.
The book is a guide to successful crowdfunding for people who want to change the world.
The book is not a sequel to my book, Your Mark On The World, but it is written in the same spirit. I’ve studied a dozens of successful crowdfunding campaigns, interviewing the people behind them to learn their secrets for success.
Devin’s Book, Your Mark on the World, was downloaded over 75,000 times and reached the #19 spot on Amazon’s free book list–among all free books. It remains on the top 50 free nonfiction books at Amazon.
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Excerpt:
Shaun King Brings Hope(Mob) to Crowdfunding
This article appeared on Forbes.com on March 28, 2013. It is included in Crowdfunding for Social Good by Devin Thorpe and is reprinted here as an excerpt from the book.
Shaun King, founder of the nonprofit HopeMob is revolutionizing crowdfunding for social good with his web site that, unlike most crowdfunding platforms, actually comes with a crowd.
Born in Kentucky in a working class family, as a fifteen-year-old he was beaten so badly in what was one of the first registered hate crimes in the state that he needed a series of surgeries that required two years. He notes, “When bad things happen to some people it hardens their heart, but for me it softened my heart.” He attended Morehouse College where Martin Luther King had attended and was required to do service.
While at Morehouse, using bulletin boards and chat rooms, King began using technology to rally people to volunteer for causes.
When he graduated, he took a job teaching civics and continued using technology to help nonprofit organizations. Eventually, his career morphed until he became a technology consultant for nonprofits.
In 2008, he became a pastor in Atlanta. He visited an inner-city school and promised that his church would provide each student a toy and a new uniform. He didn’t appreciate that it would cost $55,000—money the church didn’t have.
In the earliest days of Twitter, he used the social network to raise the money.
His work caught the attention of the media and in 2009 he raised $1 million for flood relief in Atlanta and organized 10,000 volunteers there. In January 2010, the earthquake in Haiti caught his attention and he raised $1 million for relief there.
He then created HopeMob, to make it easy for people to give to a cause or to people in need. HopeMob has now raised more than $5 million for causes of all sorts. HopeMob is different from other crowdfunding sites, he says.
“If you don’t have your own social network it’s almost impossible to raise money on other crowdfunding sites.” At HopeMob, Shaun and his team are actively involved in vetting the stories to validate the needs and then they help to write up the story and bring the money from the HopeMob.
HopeMob has over 450,000 followers on Twitter and 113,000 likes on Facebook. In addition, everyone who signs up at HopeMob.com will get email notifications of people in need. While many crowdfunding platforms are better described as peerfunding platforms where you bring your peers, HopeMob brings the crowd.
In addition, HopeMob doesn’t charge any fees to the fundraiser. Every dollar raised for a campaign on the site, goes to the campaign. At check out, donors are asked to volunteer to pay a little extra to help cover these costs. Corporations sometimes “sponsor” a campaign and cover the costs. HopeMob is also working with Dwolla to reduce transaction costs; Dwolla charges just $0.25 per bank transfer over $25 and waives the fee entirely for transfers under $25.
Shaun wants HopeMob to become all that crowdfunding promises to be for those in need.
About Devin:
Devin D. Thorpe thinks he is the luckiest person alive. After being “let go” from the best job he’d ever had—as the Chief Financial Officer of the multinational food and beverage company MonaVie—he and his wife ended up living in China for a year where he wrote Your Mark On The World and embarked on the career he’d always wanted yet hadn’t dared dream.
Now, as an author, a popular guest speaker and Forbes contributor, Devin is devoted full time to championing social good. His current life isn’t much like his past.
As an entrepreneur, Devin ran—at separate times—a boutique investment banking firm and a small mortgage company. He served as the Treasurer for the multinational vitamin manufacturer USANA Health Sciences years before becoming CFO for MonaVie. Over his career he led or advised on the successful completion of $500 million in transactions.
Devin squeezed in two brief stints in government, including two years working for Jake Garn on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Staff and another year working for an independent state agency called USTAR, where he helped foster technology entrepreneurship during Governor Jon Huntsman’s administration.
Devin is proud to have graduated from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, which recognized him as a Distinguished Alum in 2006. He also earned an MBA at Cornell University where he ran the student newspaper, Cornell Business.
Today, Devin channels the idealism of his youth with the loving support of his wife, Gail. Their son Dayton is a PhD candidate in Physics at UC Berkeley (and Devin rarely misses an opportunity to mention that).
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