Coming Soon - Crowdfunding Donation Tool
We’re excited to announce that work has begun on a new website feature that will allow our volunteers to begin using our website as a donation platform for the projects they’ve taken on. With the advances in web based technology and popularity of sites like Kiva.org and Kickstarter.com, it’s getting easier than ever for supporters to donate to projects online. Kickstarter.com just announced that they just had their 1,000,000 supporter of projects on their site. This confirms that people are interested in supporting initiatives via online donation and they want to direct where their funds go to. Here are a few screen captures of what our layout will look like. It’s not getting any easier to find big sponsors or to get funding from local foundations for the type of work we’re doing. Plus we believe that everyone can and should play a role in supporting these projects through donating their time and financial resources. This new tool will give those interested in supporting the work of NeighborLink Fort Wayne volunteers the option to direct 100% of their funding to the project they choose in order to ensure the volunteers who are giving their time can get the project done. How it will work: Coaches will choose a project and determine if resources are needed at the time they review the project. Then within their Dashboard page they will have the option to request funds for the project and upload additional info about the project, the amount needed, date of the project, and whatever pictures/video they have for the project. Once that’s done, it goes for approval from each NeighborLink’s director who will then make the request live to the general public and other NeighborLink supporters. Once the funding goal is reached, the NeighborLink director will work with that Coach to secure the materials needed for the project. In order to make sure we’re close the communication circle when the project is finished, the Coach will be required to update the project and the site will notify everyone involved with that project that the project is done and how it went. All of these tasks are designed to keep everyone connected to the project to let them know that their support was used how they intended it to be used. We see this being a tremendous way to empower our volunteers to take projects and meed the needs of those they meet through NeighborLink. It also invites and gives so many more people the opportunity to participate in the great work God is doing through NeighborLink. We’re excited to get this new feature rolled out in the next month. We hope to enter testing by the end of October, early November at NeighborLink Fort Wayne. Once testing is over, we’ll roll it out to our other NeighborLink affiliates and make it available for all new NeighborLinks that launch through the Network. 
