The crowd-funding platform Kickstarter has been used to fund creative projects such as film productions or music projects. In a new project called BrainFund, crowd-funding is used ‘to change the way people think about college finance’.
BrainFund was created by Casey Hinson, a University of Houston finance grad and current MBA student of University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business, to provide a platform for students who are looking to finance their studies without accumulating huge amounts of debt. The students create an account and profile page, providing informatioin about their school, major, minor, GPA, and the amount of money requested for a semester’s needs. Prospective donors – family, relatives, friends, but also perfect strangers – can browse these profiles and donate a micro-scholarship of anywhere between $10 and $2,000 to any students they choose.
Hinson and his partners hope to reach $1 billion in funding for students and to attract 10% of the nation’s current 20 million college students over the next five years as users.
To read more about this project, read the article ‘College by the Crowd: The New Future of School Funding?’ or go directly to the BrainFund website.
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