THERE’S a new antidote for the headaches and fist-clenching associated with filling out government grant forms for agricultural projects: it’s called crowdfunding.
The peer-based fund generator has been used successfully in urban communities for nearly a decade, but it’s now gaining popularity in the regions.
“People in the rural areas have that strong sense of connection with their community, so when someone community is asking for help, it’s often received really well and quickly,” says Shu Shu Zheng, a co-founder of crowdfunding website Pozible.
Crowdfunding is an alternative way of raising money from a large number of people, via websites like Kickstarter or Pozible.
A project must have a funding target and a set time period (usually a few months) in which they have to raise the money.
Rewards are offered to people who pledge money as an incentive to contribute. If a project doesn’t reach its monetary goal, no money is withdrawn from those who pledged, and it’s back to the drawing board for the project.
Speaking at the inaugural Women in Australian Agribusiness forum in Melbourne last week, Ms Zheng captured the imagination of the audience with what one delegate called the “breathtaking potential” to engage community involvement in agricultural projects.
The resourcefulness, generosity and creativity of regional communities, paired with the infinite possibilities of the internet, have seen the Pozible create an entire ‘collection’ devoted to Landcare and environmental projects, Ms Zheng said.
Standout moments from the recent Women in Australian Agribusiness forum.
Creative partnerships manager at Landcare NSW, Jen Quealy, said the combination of women, agriculture, and community involvement was a recipe for success.
“People are over the fact they can’t ask government for things now, and they’re getting a bit more ‘friendly’ toward social media,” she said.
“There are a lot of women behind these projects and they love the creative side of it.
“Rural and regional communities are conservative on some things, but they’re very creative people and they’re very good at networking and knowing what to do.
"They just need to believe in themselves and their projects and get young people involved to help with the technology and social media side of things.”
However environmental projects are still less likely than urban and primarily arts-based peers to reach set funding targets.
Of the 24 Landcare projects Ms Quealy is currently managing, just one has hit its target ahead of the cut-off date, and the remainder have about 30 days to pool enough contributions to get off the ground.
Part of the crowdfunding challenge is to change the way farmers think about asking for money, Ms Quealy said.
“I had to stand up in front of a group a few weeks ago and talk about crowdfunding to them, and it was really hard for me to gauge what they were thinking. But later on they sidle up to you and have a chat about what it is.”
Turning around their mindset from wrangling with bureaucracy to appealing in a creative way to their community has been a challenge for the Landcare initiatives.
Sticking points included thinking of rewards to offer potential investors and marketing the project on social media.
“Farmers think about things differently, and there’s a bit of ‘let’s suck it and see’ approach to crowdfunding at the moment.
“They know what they want the money for, but they’re not great at engaging in social media.”
Ms Quealy’s advice to those with farming or rural projects suitable for crowdfunding, but unsure where to begin, was to engage with the “younger crowd”.
“Ask them to help you with the job, and you’re probably going to engage your young people who are a bit disengaged anyway, and get the help you need with the technology side of things.”