Community Funded establishes Old Town office, sets out to change world with MC2

By: Steve Monday March 25, 2013 Tags: community funded, Crowdfunding, Fort Collins, James Durnin

FORT COLLINS -- Taking up residency in the basement of Mugs Coffee Lounge in Old Town Fort Collins, the Community Funded (CF) team is developing a social funding website targeted at increasing economic development in communities throughout the U.S.

CF provides an alternative source of funding that artists, entrepreneurs, municipalities, educational institutions, non-profits and small businesses can use to implement projects that impact their communities. The new office space allows the CF development team to further their innovative efforts in designing a site that has the potential to change the current economic landscape in local economies.

James Durnin, Community Funded's director of research and public relations, said the recent downturn in the U.S. economy resulted in an emergent crowdfunding industry, and -- according to Crowdsourcing.org -- $1.5 billion was raised in 2011 by crowdfunding platforms. As of April 2012, there were 452 crowdfunding platforms operating globally, he noted.


Durnin said reward-and-donation-based crowdfunding is the idea in which a large group of individuals each give a small amount to a project or cause they believe in. In return, he said, donors receive a gift, service or recognition for their funding.

"This simple cycle of giving and receiving has a great impact on local communities, because it democratizes consumer dollars," he said. "The new office space allows the CF team to develop strategies that shift the traditional fundraising paradigm. Donors are now able to have a direct role in supporting the projects, businesses, organizations and causes they want in their communities.

"Beyond democratizing consumer dollars, CF allows access to funding and resources that were not readily available before. It has become increasingly difficult for entrepreneurs, non-profits and small businesses to gain access to funding and donors through traditional means. Many successful projects on CF were generated by local businesses, such as CharlyBar and Akinz Clothing, that were searching for an alternative source of funding."

Durnin said while funding is important to any business venture, these local businesses were also looking for a funding solution that was sustainable, responsible and focused on building the communities they represented, and CF was the answer.

"CF distills the best crowdfunding industry practices and combines them on a social platform that allows users to positively impact their communities," he said. "With unique features like digitized 'in-kind' giving, giftbacks, social media integration, customizable pages, blogs and supporter maps, Community Funded creates Mega Community Collaboration (MC²)."

Durnin said MC² happens when communities use effective tools to efficiently exchange resources. He said it requires a belief that there is an abundance of resources on our planet if we can all commit to using them efficiently and effectively.

"MC² is a practice of 'networked intelligence' that promotes sustainable economic, environmental and social growth," he said. "This is the change that the CF development team, along with project creators and donors, is creating in local economies."

Durnin said the Mugs Coffee Lounge is "an excellent locale" for the CF team.

"This new office space provides an ever-flowing stream of caffeine, but more importantly, provides a space in which the team and the community can collaboratively develop crowdfunding strategies focused on the triple-bottom-line of people, planet and profit," he said.

"Every day a new solution is found, and our community of collaborators grows. It's time to think big, because together we are."