A British man named Thom Feeney had the brilliant idea to crowd-fund Greece’s debt— or a portion of it, using Indiegogo.
He wasn’t successful in raising the €1.6 billion for the IMF payment that was due back in June, but he did generate tons of international buzz with practically every news organizations the world writing about him.
Indiegogo returns the money to contributors if the goal isn’t met. They also have a “flex funding” option, which Feeney didn’t select, which would have meant the money would have been kept— and used to fill Greek coffers.
In the end, Feeney’s campaign raised €1,930,577 by 108,654 people in 8 days— but since he didn’t reach the goal and he hadn’t selected the “flex-funding” option, all of those pledges were returned to all those who pledged.
“The Greek Bailout Fund campaign may have not reached the target, Feeney said in a post on the Indiegogo site, “but it is definitely a heartwarmingly huge success. Over 100,000 ordinary people from 182 countries raised almost €2million for the people of Greece. Isn’t that just wonderful? Awareness was raised of the plight of ordinary people being affected by dithering politicians. This is a humanitarian crisis, not just an economic crisis and it’s about bloody time someone did something.”
Feeney started a new crowdfunding campaign— simply called “Greek Crowdfund” shortly after the other one— hoping to capitalize on the buzz from the previous campaign.
The new one— a real campaign aiming to support people in need in Greece and help Greek youth find jobs, is a partnership with Desmos, a charity that helps feed tens of thousands of people and provide other valuable services.
Unfortunately, all those hundreds of thousands of people who were quick to jump on the first bandwagon, haven’t responded en masse to the second campaign.
With just under 12 hours to go before the campaign expires, Feeney’s second campaign has raised €276,762 from 13,365 people.
