Okay, not by any stretch of the imagination can I be considered a pauper, but bear with me here.
More than once, twice or twenty times have Thane and I said, "If we were millionaires, we'd support...." Fill in the blank with any number of worthy causes: not just feeding starving children in Africa, but helping support struggling artists here at home. We're no Rockefellers, however (hench the pauper reference).
I've recently been introduced to a way tha I can do my small part to support deserving artists. Kickstarter is an on-line clearinghouse of all types of artists who are looking for financial help to realize their dreams.
The first time I'd heard of it was when Megan was looking for monetary assistance to produce an original play. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get the idea then, and am sorry to say I did not donate to support her efforts.
My next introduction came from Andi Cumbo, the writer from whom I took my first on-line creative nonfiction writing class. Andi's project, You Will Not Be Forgotten, is a book she is writing about the people who were enslaved on her family's Virginia plantation. She raised $7500 to help pay for travel and research to aid her efforts to learn as much as possible about a group of nearly forgotton people.
A Kickstarter artist sets the amount of money she wants to raise, sets up a Kickstarter webpage to describe her project and entice others to support it, and establishes pledge levels with greater incentives for those who donate more. A donor uses his credit card through Amazon to made a pledge, but the artist doesn't receive any of the money unless her full amount is realized. For example, I donated $50 to Andi in exchange for a copy of her book when it's published. If Andi hadn't raised the full $7500 she was aiming for, however, she wouldn't have received any of the money. Luckily, she was successful and I am looking forward to eventually reading her book.
Just today, I was introduced to another worthy project. Athena, a friend of Megan and Mandy's, has written a book called Murder of Crows, the first in a series about the muses in modern times. She had the first few chapters available on-line and I found it intriguing. Athena's looking to raise $6800 to produce, publish and market Muder of Crows as an e-book. She has until March 28 to reach her goal, and my small donation of $30 will help her get there.
Athena's great cover art is by A.M. Sartor
I suppose a true philanthropist would donate funds with no anticipation of anything in return. I admit, I made sure I donated enough to both of these women to be able to read their books when they are finished. There's no way I'd pass up an opportunity to get a book, after all!
If you're at all interested in helping to support worthy projects, I highly recommend you check out Kickstarter. Click on the Discover Great Projects link at the top of the page to search for projects meaningful to you. If nothing else, it's inspiring to see all the amazing things the creative people in our world are up to.
