Funding the Future at Carleton

March 29, 2019

Carleton University was looking for a way to engage with alumni and their existing social networks to create a pattern of smaller, more frequent alumni giving. To help establish this behaviour in the alumni community, they built Futurefunder, a crowdfunding platform for the Carleton community to raise money from their networks towards projects they would like to see funded at Carleton, including scholarships, educational experiences, sports programs and more.

Futurefunder was created as a platform to enable grassroots funding for initiatives from many disciplines. Any student or professional initiative at Carleton can apply to be featured on the platform, allowing the communications team to tell a variety of stories from its campus, and connect them with new communities to support projects of all kinds.

By featuring individual projects, Futurefunder allows donors to connect with the project. It also allows for micro-donations, which helps to engage a wider audience. The platform helps groups and individuals on campus to solicit donations from their personal networks over digital channels, including social media.

Visitors to the site can explore the projects by browsing the different tags and categories, to find a project they’d like to support. Once they select a project, they follow a check-out process that was designed to be quick and simple for the donor.

Futurefunder was designed to align with Carleton’s existing brand, while still creating a distinct visual identity for the site.

In the short time since its launch, Futurefunder has successfully funded several projects, with additional projects being launched to secure funding regularly.