Colorado company provides creative, alternative funding to small businesses, non-profits and organzations

Press Release

Fort Collins, CO based CommunityFunded.com is excited to announce the successful funding of the
website’s first ten consecutive projects!

On June 26, 2012, “Help CharlyBar Take The Leap,” a CommunityFunded.com project started by entrepreneurial health food maker Charly Clifford, concluded its online funding campaign at 101% of its goal of $15,000. The CharlyBar project became the tenth-consecutively successful project to raise funding using the new website.

CommunityFunded.com was created by a small team of Fort Collins locals who wanted to bring the power of “crowd funding” into people’s everyday lives: providing a platform where communities can collaborate and share resources to make good things happen.

After a year of development, the site launched May 3, 2012, and has become a growing online community of 1,200 individuals and 230 organizations that have pledged over $70,000 to projects in their communities. Projects range from startups and small businesses seeking alternative funding streams, to non-profits, charitable causes and relief funds for those affected by the High Park Fire in Colorado.

Grant Family Farms had the first successful project on the site (June 8), raising $3,000 for their annual Spring Farm Tour. They were quickly followed by Akinz Clothing Company, Determined Nation Magazine, The 2013 Farmers of the Front Range & Brewer’s Calendars, and various other small business and charitable causes. LoCo Food Distribution raised $25,440 for their project through their efforts online and off, receiving a portion of their funding from Weld County’s Healthy Weld 2020 program.

This fund-raising model works in part by providing “Giftbacks” to supporters: pledges are made in return for goods and services provided from the project itself or offered by local businesses and organizations who support the project. CharlyBar raised funds by offering CharlyBars and apparel, tune-ups and gear from Full Cycle Bike Shop, and Mugs Coffee Lounge gift cards. This unity of projects, people, and organizations is what Community Funded seeks to create.

Charly’s project had an incredible one hundred and forty nine supporters whose combined efforts raised $15,179 to help his small business grow in an economy where cash is tight and loans are difficult to secure. While some of these pledges came from people simply exploring the website, most of them were driven there by Charly’s efforts to engage his friends, family, and community through real-world and online social networks.

Community Funded gives project creators the ability to showcase their ideas and gain support from their communities large and small. The Fort Collins, CO based team celebrated the launch of the first out-of-state project Wednesday June 27,Reopen Books and Breadboard” from Asheville, North Carolina. “We are excited to see this idea taking root in new communities. The word is spreading: Anything’s possible when it is Community Funded!”

For Contact information for individual project please email Amy@CommunityFunded.com
You can also find more online at www.CommunityFunded.com.