Crowdfunding and education

What are we talking about?

Financing education is expensive, costing up to 4.6% of GDP on average worldwide according to UNESCO, and even more so in Western countries (7% in France). Colossal sums are invested in the realization of educational programs calibrated by the States.

Of course, if states don't wish to finance their children's education, they can rest assured that the fruits of ignorance are likely to be bitter. By default, some countries are developing "informal education". All along the street" replaces "all along life". It's here that proximity plays its role as teachers, sometimes this proximity is not very frequentable.

The question of how to finance the educational effort thus arises both to make up for the lack of state resources and to facilitate a dose of creativity in padlocked programs. Sometimes for the realization of educational micro-projects recourse to "crowdfunding" is conceivable. Crowdfunding is defined as participatory financing that supports an emerging collaborative economy. United we stand, stronger we fall remains a motto of humanity, so often verified.

Participatory financing has nothing to do with the organization of a tontine (collective savings) or a micro-credit (to be repaid) it participates in a collaborative philosophy, or even patronage. This financing via small sums by a crowd of donors enables local initiatives to emerge that, without the light of the internet, would have remained in the shadows.

Some of the players

One of the oldest players KissKissBankBank claims 67 million raised, for 26,000 projects with over 1,170,000 KissBankers. The principle is based on the selection of projects brought to the attention of the general public, a 90-day deadline to raise the funds and an 8% commission taken by KissKissBanBank to pay itself for its connection. The money raised is only passed on to the project owner if the total amount has been raised, at which point the commission is deducted from the funds raised. Funds are returned to KissBankers if the amount is not reached, in which case no commission is charged.

The Socio-Financing Directory from Thot Cursus presents over 70 sites active in participatory financing, including several specialized ones.

21 crowdfunding sites are spotted by Dynamique Mag in France, but this niche seems buoyant and continues to grow perhaps because "the crisis" is generating more collaborative reflexes perhaps also because the internet offers more transparency to a growing number of donors, who are prepared to be generous but want to know where their money is going.

Education crowdfunding

Crowdfunding sites are becoming increasingly specialized. This specialization will eventually lead to even greater visibility, so there are crowdfunding platforms in cultural sectors, associative real estate but also exclusively dedicated to education like the landmarks Sydology

• Whisbone offers students identified as passionate about their studies the means to pursue them by raising funds for them;
• Adopt a classroom helps supply school classes;
• Incited which seeks to spread efficient solutions around the world.
  

Many projects are identified via the project kit platform: the pedagolab of an elementary school in northern France is looking for €16,000, or a school in the Aude region is looking for €5,000 for a trip to Spain.

Sometimes these are more ambitious projects, such as the project "An Hour of Code for Every Student"(on IndieGogo), which aims to teach computer science to every child in the world.

So, if you're an educational activist, a teacher in a remote corner, a student studying why not make your project a reality by trying the crowdfunding adventure?

Illustration: bykst - Pixabay

Sources

Socio-Financing Directory - Thot Cursus
http://cursus.edu/institutions-formations-ressources/formation/24383/repertoire-des-sites-financement-participatif

Tontine - Wikipedia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine

Microcredit - Wikipedia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcr%C3%A9dit

Crowdfunding - Wikipedia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financement_participatif

Finance - Ulab

KissKissBankBank https://www.kisskissbankbank.com

Rezogo http://www.rezogo.fr/financement-participatif/projet/type/4-formation

My Major Company https://www.mymajorcompany.com/

Sydology http://sydologie.com/2015/03/5-plateformes-crowdfunding-en-faveur-leducation/