15. Kickstarter + Back Office for Jewish Innovation
You may have noticed by now that I have a lot of ideas that could use outside funding and support. And if I’ve got 31 ideas (at least), there’s got to be dozens if not hundreds of others in the Jewish community with at least one good idea and the need for some support. But support ain’t easy to come by.
I recently stirred up a mini-shitstorm in Jewish philanthropic circles with a JTA op-ed discussing the limits of existing incubator programs for Jewish innovators. These programs are not for everyone, I explained, because they require a time commitment and financial compromise that not every innovator is in the position to make. Nonetheless, many individuals have meritorious ideas they’re working on part-time, that could have significant impact if only they had the means to promote those ideas and attract funders, as well as the back office support to manage their accounting needs.
Last year, a new Web site launched called Kickstarter, which describes itself as “a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers…” Kickstarter lets individuals and organizations post a project idea to their Web site and then collect donations for their project from the online community.
Now, there’s nothing inherently new about the idea of microfinancing. There was another Web site I encountered some years ago I can’t recall the name of now that let people post about even the most banal personal woes — their need for boob-jobs and Playstations — and then have people donate to those with the worthiest needs, which, occasionally included some actually worthy causes. And obviously, there are now sites like Kiva that do this for social entrepreneurs working in the developing world, addressing the worthiest of needs. Whatever the cause, for better or worse, it seems, microfinancing works, in effective and unexpected ways. And so Kickstarter brings this model to “new” ideas, experimental ideas, artistic ideas…innovation. Which is sorta right up my alley.
Readers may also be familiar with Jumpstart and their relationship with Community Partners, a non-profit which provides fiscal sponsorship and back office support to Los Angeles area non-profit startups. Jumpstart vets Jewish startups for their meritoriousness, and if accepted, extends to them Community Partners’ fiscal sponsorship. There are several other organizations in the Jewish community that provide fiscal sponsorship to worthy projects, as well, like the Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Center for Jewish Culture & Creativity, which enable organizations to take tax-deductible donations and manage their payroll and billing without having to deal with the daunting process of becoming a 501©(3) and hiring accounting staff of their own.
So nu? Let’s merge these two ideas together. Create an organization that is specifically engineered to manage the accounting and HR needs of Jewish startups, and a Web site where innovators can apply to have their projects supported. Once approved (meeting very minimal requirements so that the barrier for entry is as low as possible and there are as few gatekeepers involved as possible), they can accept online donations from individuals interested in supporting new and innovative Jewish initiatives.
The new organization (I’d call it Kikestarter, but I’m already in enough trouble for Niggun Please) will provide tax-emption to approved startups and manage their payroll and billing. They could also provide online trainings and support akin to that offered by incubators like Bikkurim and the Joshua Venture. Furthermore, they could partner with major Jewish foundations to provide matching grants to those projects receiving the most public support. Similarly to what Chase Community Giving has done on Facebook, users can vote for their favorite ideas, not just with clicks but with dollars, and those ideas that gain the most financial support from the public, can get major support from the organized Jewish community.
Finally, I would add a component that allows people to find volunteers to contribute “sweat equity” (every Jewish incubator’s favorite catchphrase) to their projects.
I provided the context for and promoted this very idea in my G.A. speech in Nashville in 2007. (I, for some reason, then thought the boob-job site was the Robin Hood Fund, but apparently that’s not correct.) It’s now over two full years later, and the closest we’ve gotten is JGooders, which is entirely awesome for what it is, but which is not geared towards startups, and which does not provide fiscal sponsorship and back office support.
Maybe we’ll get there in another two years. Who knows? Maybe JGooders could take it on as a branded node of their site and partner with an organization like Community Partners that is in the position to run the back office.
As for now, my only hope is finding a sugarmama or quitting my day job so that I could do Joshua Venture…if they’d still take me.
