Kickstarter: A new way to pay it forward!

A little over a year ago a good friend of mine generously assisted me at a time I was very broke. She would not hear of letting me pay her back and even asked that I not bring up the subject again. Since then my financial situation has improved some and as I could not pay it back, I decided to pay it forward.

I had heard of Kickstarter when it first launched in 2008 and I considered it more as a means to launch a project of my own, but never did. Then in late 2010 I read about a project for a short film called “The Waltz” that was put forward by Dillon Wall who was the son of my friend “J” (@jclementwall) on Twitter. It was exciting because Dillon was using a short story that J had written as the basis for the film. It was a twofer! In supporting Dillon, I was also supporting my friend J. It also occurred to me then that I could also pay forward the kind gift I had been given and help many others.

Sadly, that first project by Dillon Wall did not raise enough funds in the allotted time so it was not funded. But, Dillon came back with a new pared down budget and was funded the second time to cover the cost of filming and a third time to cover the post production costs.

In total I have donated money to 6 projects. All but the first have been funded. In addition to Dillon Wall, I have helped on a project that would bring artists and writers together for Call + Response annual art show in Washington DC. The next project I funded was “Sirenstories” for Mimi Cross, who had written a children’s book and needed money to hire an editor to polish it so she could attract an editor and eventually a publisher. The most recent project I helped to fund was the The BellyFULL project from the HopeFULL Company.

Each time I pay it forward through Kickstarter to help to fund a project, I think of the wonderful gift that was given to me and the generous friend who came to my assistance when I was in need.