Often, you have an idea you wish to pursue to fruition but you are blocked by the reality of insufficient funding. So what can you do? Run around asking for investors or borrowing money from the bank? That's the traditional way. Recently, I discovered this cool site, http://www.kickstarter.com/, which funds projects purely through individual donations. The catch though is that the donor doesn't donate right away. You, the project owner, must set a money goal that you're trying to reach within a time frame. If you don't get enough money by that point, there will be no donation. This is to ensure that all projects actually get sufficient money to be successfully completed.
Anyone can sign up for an account and submit a project allowing anyone to donate if they're interested. The only limitations are that the projects must
1. Have clearly defined goals and expectations.
2. Be creative. It must fit within the fields of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater.
3. Not be for charity or donation.
4. Offer rewards and not financial incentives. You cannot offer ownership, financial returns, repayment, etc. Instead, you must offer rewards like copies of the work, fun experiences, etc.
If your project fits these requirements, all you have to do is then fill out a short proposal form answering a few basic questions:
1. What is your project (750 characters max)
2. What rewards will you offer? (1000 characters)
3. Where can we find out more about you and your project?
4. Which category fits your project?
5. How much money would you like to raise?
6. How did you hear about us?
And if you're looking to fund some project, there's loads for your money to go into some worthy cause: http://www.kickstarter.com/discover
Some of the more interesting projects (in my view) that entrepreneurial-minded people have raised include. Check them out and/or post one of your own:
ISS-Notify
A LED light that shines whenever the ISS passes over your head.
And this was also interesting since originally he made one to detect near earth asteroids:
Paintings for Satellites
Rooftop paintings for the specific purpose of art observable from orbit.
Team Prometheus N-Prize Mission
Launch a small satellite into LEO from a high-altitude balloon of 100000 feet. Note that this funding failed.
Lumi Co. Textile Products
A new textile technology that makes some products made of the material.
Windfarms Project
Grassroots way of growing vegetables in the windows of homes in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Aperture Science Sentry Turret
Sentry gun based on the one from the amazing game Portal
Mapping Gulf Oil Spill
Group of citizens got together to build balloons and kites attached with cameras to map out the Gulf oil spill.
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