Piggybackr

Piggybackr
Crowd funding
Founded 2012
Headquarters San Francisco, CA
Key people
 Andrea Lo, Founder
Revenue $325,000 (through April 2013)
Website piggybackr.com

Piggybackr is a US crowdfunding website for students and youth teams to fundraise for their schools, projects, and causes online.[1][2] It is compliant with the American Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, meaning that children as young as 5 can run fundraising projects on-line. Backers of projects can post public comments, but cannot communicate directly with the children posting projects. Children under the age of 13 must have parental involvement with their projects. Piggybackr charges a flat 5% + 30 cent transaction fee for any donations processed through the platform.[3]

Description

Piggybackr has been described as “Kickstarter for students.”[4] Unlike Kickstarter, children offer "thank you gifts" including advertising for companies, such as committing to running a lap, putting a business' logo on their page, or giving someone a shout-out on Facebook.[5][6]

History

Piggybackr was founded in 2012 by Andrea Lo and Keenahn Jung. It was launched out of the AngelPad accelerator.[7] Andrea Lo's 12-year-old sister had just begun to fundraise the year before, in the same way that Lo did 10 years earlier as a child. Lo spent about a year developing a way to fund raise for children that used Facebook.[8] After another year of private beta, Piggybackr launched nationwide on April 17, 2013 with over 1,500 projects and $250,000 raised by kids. The website's customers include national and regional chapters of youth organizations like FIRST robotics and YMCA.[9] Andrea said that the biggest challenge they have faced is catering to a large age range on the site.[10]

Example projects

  • Norcal Crew youth rowing team raised $45,000 to buy a new eight-man racing boat[6]
  • University of California at Berkeley Alternative Breaks raised $14,565 to support college students doing volunteer work during spring break[9]

Endorsements

A number of youth organizations have suggested fundraising on Piggybackr. These include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.piggybackr.com/about
  2. ↑ http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/technology&id=9313828
  3. ↑ https://www.piggybackr.com/pricing
  4. ↑ “6 Women Entrepreneurs To Watch Empowering People Through Crowdfunding Platforms: Piggybackr, SoMoLend, Indiegogo GiveForward, Kiva, Catapult” Forbes, 21 December 2012
  5. ↑ Lee, Ellen (May 21, 2013). "Piggybackr Helps Kids Fundraise Online". San Francisco Chronicle.
  6. 1 2 Rodriguez, Joe (May 21, 2013). "Silicon Valley website Piggybackr helps kids use 'crowd funding'". San Jose Mercury News.
  7. 1 2 3 Taylor, Coleen, “Piggybackr Launches Its ‘Kickstarter For Kids’ To Let Youth Get In On The Crowdfunding Wave”, TechCrunch, 17 April 2013
  8. ↑ Taylor, Coleen, “Meet The 10 Startups Who Just Got Their Wings At AngelPad’s Spring 2012 Demo Day”, TechCrunch, video interview of Andrea Lo at 1:00, 10 May 2012
  9. 1 2 3 Koldony, Lora (April 17, 2013). "Piggybackr Gives Kids A Kickstarter of their Own". Wall Street Journal.
  10. ↑ Karol, Gabrielle, “A Site to Teach Children How to Raise Money”, Fox Small Business Center, 23 April 2013
  11. ↑ USPSA newsletter, March 2013
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