Candace- The latest Mega Million lottery jackpot was $600 million. We, like most hopefull yet naive people who stood in long lines and bought a ticket played out the “what if” scenario’s of what you would do with your “could be” winning lottery ticket. Our friends who also bought a ticket even told us they would buy us a few babies if they won. What amazingly kindhearted friends to think of us in their lottery-dream-spending! Then I thought about that comment, they would “buy” us a baby. Sad right? There is a price on human life. On the way home from this assured investment, I was listening to the radio where they said that you were more likely to give birth to identical quadruplets, then win this jackpot. DAMN, I can’t even conceive one, much less 4!
This is what made me think of KrowdKidz. Since none of us in the barren land of ‘IF’ are highly likely to have quadruplets on our own, it is safe to say that being a lottery winner of $600 million is out to. There are grants and a few foundations set up to aid those in need for family building but not enough to fill the demand. 1 out of 8 couples suffer from infertility issues, so yeah, there is a large demand here.
Chris- We’ll there is a different way to fundraise that has become available thanks to social media…DUN DUN DUN DAH… crowdfunding! What?! {Disclaimer: please do not read this as a hapless attempt to get you to donate to our crowdfunding sites. Really, we are trying to get the word out on other ways you can make an impossible dream come true and harness a newer opportunity to garner donations for you family building activities} Lawyer-like duties out of the way, and back to it then.
We were approached by an incredible author and advocate for all things infertility and someone who has walked the road already, Fran Meadows. If you have a chance check out her website and book. She also had the brilliance to connect us with a founder of a new crowdfunding site dedicated to family building causes, Jeff Crump founder of KrowdKidz. He has designed this website to be a sounding board and crowdfunding conduit for couples seeking to beat the willies out of the infertility monster. We had the opportunity to ask him a few questions recently and wanted to share his answers with you. Check out the site, sign up! Also, if you would like ideas on how to generate your own crowdfunding account check out our post there and other couples looking to start or expand their family.
C&C-Why did you start KrowdKidz and what tie do you have to the infertility community?
Jeff- It may come as a surprise to many that prior to KrowdKidz I had no ties tot he infertility community, however, I am an active philanthropist and technologist. When I took a step back from the work we were doing at ciValidator related to managing crowdfunding and private securities fraud and regulatory compliance I knew I wanted to tie in my philanthropic side and my technology side. I was doing research for under-served areas in our global society and read about how pervasive infertility is. It was then that it clicked in my mind that I wanted to do whatever I could to help others experience the same joys of parenting that I had. Being a father is by far my greatest and proudest accomplishment.
C&C-Why crowd funding for raising money for family building and why now?
Jeff-Well, I started ciValidator off specifically to serve the equity and non-equity crowdfunding markets so I was familiar with the space. As I dug deeper and deeper into the challenges infertility families face I was torn by their emotional turmoil and financial constraints. As an entrepreneur, I have to spend a great deal of time assessing ideas and concepts to determine their viability. However, as a humanitarian I don’t have to do that. When I feel the need to help I do so and I felt the time to act was now to somehow help these families. The people I have come to know since the KrowdKidz journey began have been nothing short of awe-inspiring. I am so proud of the families that have stepped into the limelight to share their heart-wrenching stories. I am touched by the individuals and companies we have worked and partnered with because of their dedication. It truly has been rewarding on levels I never anticipated.
C&C-How long do you plan to have the website up? Indefinitely?
Jeff-Yes, I anticipate the site being up indefinitely or as long as there is value being delivered. We anticipate the site evolving over time so that it continues to add value. In fact, the desire to build more of a community aspect has already spawned another line of business. On KrowdKidz I knew I wanted infertility advocates, families and businesses to be able to share and support each other. As great as blogs and other stored content can be I wanted to tap into the incredible power of live interaction. As a result, we began building a service that allows our community users to schedule and connect via live video chat in one-on-one or small group sessions. Then I realized that this is a benefit that could serve a much broader market. This new service, Hangout Universe, is nearing completion and we expect to enter beta test in the next couple of weeks. I am very excited in how this will help families seeking information and support about infertility, surrogacy and adoption.
C&C-First yard sales and spaghetti dinners, then raffles and restaurant charity events, now crowd funding, what do you think the next great mechanism for fundraising for fertility treatments will be?
Jeff-LOL. Are you trying to peek into my crystal ball? But seriously, I honestly hope that the next great wave comes from people. Although it is impossible to discern, it is my suspicion that the people that donate on KrowdKidz are not much better off financially than the families seeking help. It’s my hope that there will be a dramatic increase in the amount of donations made by the wealthy. There is such an incredible amount of wealth held up in company coffers and personal bank accounts that could be put to work to help so many in need. It saddens me greatly to think that our society would rather donate to help an already wealthy and famous actor pay for an independent film to be made than give to help a family on KrowdKidz who so desperately want to bring life into this world or help a child enter a loving family. Nonetheless, we have to keep up the good fight and have hope!
C&C-What is step 1 for raising money for fertility treatments/adoption in general? What is step 1 for your website?
Jeff-What is very, very important is to detail out exactly how the family arrived at the amount of money being sought…down to the penny. Donors feel better about helping when they get a sense the funding request is based on actual data and not ballpark figures. Step 1 on our site talks about telling your story but when it comes to crowdfunding there is A LOT more planning that has to take place before the story video is created. Aside from having the details of the financial need, they need to identify a significant number of initial donors, which includes themselves. Donors outside of a family’s immediate circle of influence want to see that the families are contributing to their own request and they want to see others making contributions. A funding request will always perform better over the long-haul if it comes out of the gate with a bang. Families should target trying to achieve 30-50% of their funding goal through these initial donors.
Thank you Jeff for taking the time to let us interview you and for letting us take part in the Beta test of KrowdKidz. And most of all, thank you for ALL you are doing to help couples start families!
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