I started the one dollar fund to try and raise funds for a startup business which I have been working on since last year. After securing a supplier and distribution network we needed to raise funds for payment of product to supplier including the shipping of product. Instead of asking people to donate large sums of money – if I can get 200 000 people to donate a dollar each, one which they have to spare I could reach my goal of necessary funding. The banks will not give the necessary funding and will fund smaller amounts – but not enough to cover everything from shipping or marketing or even sufficient product. Funding from the banks will result in me taking on large amounts of debt, without even raising the necessary funding. This is simply a story about trying to raise funds from people I don’t know who have a spare dollar to help me get to my goal.
In 1987 a young man named Mark Hayes raised around $28 000 for his collegue tuition. He contacted his local paper who ran a story about Mark not wanting to put his parents in debt for his collegue tuition. He set up a post box and after the story was run in the Chicago Tribune, people sent pennies from far and wide – enough to pay off Mr Hayes education, in pennies. People today refer to him as the penny man.
My project runs off this idea. We dont need post boxes anymore and communcation is so much faster and easier. Instead of asking people to donate lump sums of money, I’m asking any person with a spare dollar to help assist with my fundraiser. Just one dollar. If I can find 200 000 people willing to share a dollar with me, I can hopefully make the necessary funding to get my product to shelf. Otherwise all my work for the last year has been in vain.
It doesnt matter who supports me, where they are from, what they do or look like. Anyone with a spare dollar can help me reach my goal. With social media so much larger and reaching such a diverse audience today, I have to believe this goal is achievable.