This is how crowdfunding is solving India’s biggest education inequity

Crowdfunding platforms can be used to raise the fees for one's personal education or that of other people. The money can come from friends, relatives or random people. Today, the digital platform has taken over the world making it easier for people to contribute with a click of a button.

There are many ways in which crowdfunding can help in developing the education scenario in India:

Funding Fees:

Ideas are generic, they come and go. But the ones which are executed, wins the game. Every crowdfunding platform allows people to execute and grow their ideas into tangible long term goals. Accountability to the public creates a scenario that makes educational pursuits stay on track.

Funding Infrastructure and Resources

Many teachers have come forward and used crowdfunding to save their respective schools and colleges. For instance, the principal of Sikkim Himalayan Academy is raising funds on Ketto to continue providing good education to underprivileged children from remote areas of Sikkim.

Customiised Funding for Educational Endeavours:

Ketto allows users to customize their funding according to particular needs and fundraising pages are categorized by need, such as fundraising for sports, travel, or creative projects.

Know about Online Crowdfunding

Online crowdfunding for education is gaining more and more recognition, not only because it's safe, easy and effective, but also because one can reach a much larger pool of people in far lesser time. Ketto offers a platform to crowdfund for education, not only to students and teachers in need of funds, but to anyone who wants to fundraise for education in the country and the world.

Some of the best players in the Crowdfunding space

Bitgiving

Based in New Delhi, Bitgiving enables people from various backgrounds (artists, engineers, etc) to come together, share their story and raise funds for several causes – entrepreneurial, social as well as creative projects. They focus 15% of their attention in raising funds for medical purposes.

Catapooolt

Founded in July 2013, Catapooolt has a long list of success stories to vouch for. Catapooolt focuses on project categories like sports, politics, social enterprises and startups apart from creative projects. Catapooolt claims to be the only crowdsourcing platform in India to give fundraisers access to distribution in 300,000 retail outlets with exposure to all their customers.

Impact Guru

Based in Mumbai and founded in 2014, Impact Guru is a crowdfunding platform for non-profit organisations and helps fund social projects. Till now, it has helped startups, social enterprises and non-profit organisations with donations, crowdfunding and investment fundraising. It has helped over 100 projects get funding globally.

Ketto

The Mumbai based platform offers fund raisers with the facility of cash pick-up and allows fund raisers to keep all the money they have raised even if they have not been able to achieve the targets.

The platform has so far raised USD 5,990,400 through more than 100,000 backers to support over 10,000 projects (averaging just under USD 600 per project). Its partners and supporters includes Google Grants, KWAN, CAP India, DASRA social Impacts.

Crowdfunding is still in its nascent stage but online fundraising is steadily gaining ground. In the context of revolutionizing the Indian education sector, crowdfunding opens up the possibility of initiating a mass movement and thus, making education everyone’s business.