We were talking yesterday about the online fundraising entity “Kickstarter.” There are many sites out there these days for the suddenly popular practice of “crowdfunding.” It isn’t so different from old-fashion panhandling, except you do it on the Web. I chose Kickstarter for our experiment, because it has been around; it’s a pioneer. Plus, they have real people in a real office somewhere in San Francisco. Several other things make Kickstarter different. It primarily serves creative projects, projects that supposedly have an appeal and a benefit to more than the supplicant. The biggest difference, however, is that fund raisers set a goal for a Kickstarter campaign at the outset, and if that goal is not met, no money is collected. I’m not sure why that’s a good thing, but it seems reasonable to me. Potential donors don’t get nickeled and dimed to death, I suppose. If the goal is exceeded, that is,well… exceedingly good.

It will work something like this. Readers, hereafter referred to as “you,” will not be buying anything. You will be contributing money to the project. More about that later. However, if you contribute at certain levels, you will receive a “reward.” Much more about that later, too. For example, you might choose to receive an Arlo & Janis back scratcher as a reward for pledging $25. Or more. (Did you catch that last part?) But don’t get excited; the back scratcher is just an example. More tomorrow.