Crowd-funding website PledgeMe.co.nz is experiencing unprecedented success, giving New Zealand’s creative community reason to celebrate.
Through PledgeMe more than $275,000 has been pledged to the arts so far this year.
This is a huge coup for the site’s co-founder 26-year-old Anna Guenther who recently completed her Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship.
PledgeMe works by providing a collaborative way to help fund projects through supporters pledging to donate a set amount in return for a creative reward.
It is a home-grown version of the American crowd-funding giant Kickstarter which once raised more than $1 million in a week.
Guenther explains crowd-funding is for all artists, not just those who are well known.
“We have helped everyone from a dance troupe wanting to raise money for a trip to Hungary to a young artist wanting to attend an illustration course.”
However, big names such as Lawrence Arabia, Rhys Darby, and Don McGlashan have also been part of PledgeMe campaigns.
The other man behind the PledgeMe magic is Brazilian Camilo Borges. Borges is a technical guru, who decribes himself as “crazy, passionate and not a typical I.T guy.”
On the back of the site’s 50th project success, Guenther and Borges will host a launch party in Auckland next Friday, 29 June.
“We’re going to have a blast celebrating with project creators, fans, and musos, and members of the media,” she says.
Want to join? RSVP here.
Video of the making of our launch party poster below: