Have you thought about crowdfunding? Try Kickstarter

Earlier this week I was reading an article in the Evening Standard about the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.

If you've never heard of crowdfunding, it involves people contributing or investing money in creative projects.

There isn't a financial return on your investment - what you normally get in return is a 'reward' as a thank you for backing a particular project.

For example, if you backed someone's project to get their book published, your reward could be a free copy of the book once it's published.

Kickstarter is the world's biggest crowdfunding website. The Standard's article included an interview with Yancey Strickler, co founder of the site along with Perry Chen and Charles Adler.

I was interested in the article as a few days earlier I made my very first contribution to an artistic project on Kickstarter. It was to help a painting project in a Rio Favela in Brazil.

Check out the video below for an idea on what the project involves.


Having spent time in Rio earlier this year and visited one the city's biggest Favelas, this was a project that immediately appealed to me.

I decided to invest $15 and I'm pleased to say that it contributed to the project meeting its overall investment target.

What I received is a personal thank you message and I should receive a snapshot of the favela once it's been painted in April of next year.

So why did I decide to invest in this project?

As a writer I see myself as being a creative kind of person and it feels natural that I would want to support other creative people and projects that I think have some real use and value.

If you haven't done so already have a look at Kickstarter and see if there's any creative projects out there you'd like to help with.