It is no secret that a lot of the world’s richest people are also some of the most generous philanthropists. One of the most notable is Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. He contributes to various sectors using the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Apart from his contributions, contributions from other high-profile businessmen fund this foundation. Through this charity, grants have been provided for health care and education initiatives to combat polio, build educational infrastructures, and more.

It’s Possible

While these rich people obviously have a lot of extra money and resources to give to charity, it is not all that impossible for regular people with limited funds to set up and support their own charitable initiatives. The key to being able to run a prosperous charity that you can’t completely fund by yourself is to seek help from other people. This can be done by doing crowdfunding.

Concept

The concept of crowdfunding is, in a sense, similar to crowdsourcing. In crowdsourcing, you obtain donors for money or any other needed resource through the internet. Crowdfunding seeks to raise funds to support a specific program, usually for non-profit initiatives. There are other people like you who are interested in the same causes but also have very limited resources. Pooling contributions from numerous donors will give everyone a chance to share more towards the same advocacy.

Your Project

You can be a philanthropist even if you are not rich. You can initiate a crowdsourcing project through which people like you with limited resources can collectively raise the necessary funds for your cause. Here are a couple of ways through which you can be a philanthropist:

1. Choose a crowdfunding charity and donate regularly – Some people choose to make smaller donations on a regular basis. This works for those who receive income regularly as well. They can include their charity contribution in their budget. There are others who set their own goal and then donate the money when they reach their target amount. Whether you choose to give on a regular basis or in fixed amount increments, your generosity will go a long way.

If you are unable to commit to donating a certain amount, you can still do your share in helping the cause. You can simply share the links of your chosen crowdfunding charities on your social network pages. Promote these to your friends and contacts, and encourage them to donate.

2. Start your own crowdfunding charity – you might think that your small amount of contribution would not really make a big difference to your chosen charity. What you do not realize perhaps is that crowdfunding can actually help you generate a more substantial amount from many others like you who can contribute small amounts of money. In your own little way, you can make an impact and help a specific cause that you are interested in.

Choose a cause or a recipient for which you want to raise funds. Get on a crowdfunding platform and set up an account. Share and promote your cause and solicit help from your network. Most of the platforms used today have online tracking resources that allow you to see how your collective efforts snowball into resources for communities in need.

It is not impossible for someone with so little to make a big difference. Through crowdsourcing and crowdfunding initiatives, small amounts of contributions can make a big impact in the lives of others.