By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist
We've had so many wonderful girl-empowering crowdfunding campaigns shared with us recently that we've decided to share them with our supporters in one post. A few of the projects featured are focused on stories starring Mighty Girls while others are about products designed by girls or women and there are even projects about encouraging literacy and a love of reading. All of them are great options for people in our community who would like to support innovative projects by or about girls and women.
If you know other crowdfunding campaigns that are related to girl empowerment, please feel free to share them in the comments below.
Seeking Support: Projects Not At Their Funding Goal
These projects are still seeking funding to meet their minimum goal. For those fundraising on Indiegogo, they will receive partial funding even if they do not hit their goal, but Kickstarter projects receive no funding unless their target is reached.
Lili’s Alphabet Book: Alfabe Kitabim: Nil Navaie created this book to teach her toddler the 29-letter Turkish alphabet, but she’s also hoping to use proceeds from the book sales to support girls’ education in Turkey, where hundreds of thousands of girls still don’t attend school. Funds will go to cover printing costs and fees, as well as 10% to go to girls’ education causes.
Chasing 200: As 16-year-old Kaylin Stewart seeks to become one of the youngest racing drivers to join the 200MPH Club, the aspiring film director/producer is also hoping to make a documentary about her attempt and the other, very rare, women who hold Land Speed Racing records. The majority of the filming will take place during Speed Week, the August event at the Bonneville Salt Flats where drivers can attempt record-breaking speed runs. Funding will go to cover the costs of principal photography, including staff costs and travel expenses, permits, and production insurance.
projectSUSAN: Nolan Beck’s high school English teacher, Susan Miller, gave him a 1939 Kodak camera in December, and he decided to use it to chronicle the stories and accomplishments of women who inspire those around him. Beck’s book will capture a diverse group of women from all walks of life. Each story will be accompanied by a photographic portrait taken by the camera Susan Miller gave him. Funds raised will cover travel costs and printing costs.
Jump! Mag Online Magazine for Kids: Lynn Schreiber created Jump! Mag when she couldn’t find an informative and entertaining magazine that included positive messages about girls for her daughter. It focuses on promoting self-confidence and showing girls and women with a wide variety of careers and interests, and is accessible to both boys and girls. Their Kickstarter allows donors to pre-purchase subscriptions, at a discount, to their in-development subscription area. Funds will allow Jump! Mag to upgrade their site to create the subscription section, to incorporate external content like games and videos, and to index the site of easy searching, as well as to pay staff to create content.
Donations of The Dot Girl First Period Kit: Dot Girl Products was created with the goal of helping every girl feel prepared for her first period. Their kit includes pads, disposal bags, wipes, a warming pack for cramps, a period diary for tracking cycles, and a question and answer booklet tackling girls’ most common questions, all packed in a reusable bag. With help from crowdfunding, they want to donate 2,500 kits to schools and organizations who will distribute them to girls. Funds go to providing the donated kits to schools and organizations that have applied for donations.
Over The Top: Ongoing Projects That Have Met Minimum Goals
These projects have met their minimums, but are looking to go over the top to expand what they’re able to offer!
The Unbreakable Kangaroo Cup: 11-year-old Lily Born designed the Kangaroo Cup for her grandfather, who has Parkinson’s Disease and was having difficulty using a regular cup. The Kangaroo Cup is designed to be easy to grip and stable; you can put it down on uneven surfaces, and its legged design eliminates the need for a coaster. It even stacks for easy storage! After crowdfunding to make a ceramic version of the cup last year, it turned out to be popular with nearly everyone, so now Kangaroo Cups is looking to make a polypropylene version that would be nearly indestructible. Additional pledges beyond their goal will allow them to make more cups in their first run.
IAmElemental Action Figures for Girls: Julie Kerwin and Dawn Nadeau created IAmElemental to provide female action figures that emphasized strength and courage rather than sex appeal. The seven characters from their Kickstarter line, The Elements of Courage, feature realistic female bodies and embody Bravery, Honesty, Energy, Industry, Enthusiasm, Persistence, and Fear. Additional funding over their goal will allow IAmElemental to produce additional figures to sell to brick and mortar retail stores, and to create a limited run Kickstarter Edition figure in Courage Red.
Embrace: The Documentary: Taryn Brumfitt posted an unconventional "before and after" photo last year: "before" was at her slimmest and fittest, at a sports figure competition, and "after" was later, once she'd regained some weight and stopped training so furiously. She had discovered was happier with her body when her approach to fitness — and the rest of life — was more balanced. She founded The Body Image Movement to promote an understanding of health that goes beyond weight, and is now working on a documentary about her story — and "explore why body loathing has become a global epidemic and what we can do to create a brighter future for women everywhere." Funding beyond their goal will allow Brumfitt to travel to interview more people for the documentary, so that she can present a truly global perspective.
Dani Girl, A New Musical: The Unexpected Stage theater company is planning a summer run of the musical Dani Girl by Michael Kooman and Christopher Diamond. The story follows 9-year-old Dani as she loses her hair to leukemia treatment and goes on a magical journey to get it back, along with her fellow patient Marty and her imaginary friend Ralph. It’s an inspiring and touching story about life, death, and the power of the imagination. Funds raised will help cover production costs.
Augie And The Green Knight: Zachary Weiner was inspired to write this book after realizing that his new daughter was still facing a world where relatively few adventure books featured female leads. This 20,000-word book is meant as a read-aloud and is based on a famous Medieval romance. Artist Boulet will be providing illustrations (both black and white and color) to accompany the text. So far, the success of the campaign has unlocked stretch goals like additional art for the book, sticker sheets, bookmarks, an audiobook, and copies to be donated to libraries; upcoming stretch goals include additional art and more donated copies.
Bring Reading Rainbow To Needy Classrooms: LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow inspired children to find joy and wonder in reading for decades on television. Now, they want to create a specialized version of their existing app suitable for classroom use, and provide it free of charge to classrooms in need. Their initial goal allowed them to provide the app free of charge to 1,500 classrooms; their new stretch goal will allow them to create apps for additional platforms, and to provide the app free of charge to 7,500 classrooms. Additional planned stretch goals if they exceed the $5,000,000 mark include providing the app to public libraries and incorporating foreign language books.
At A Mighty Girl, we’ve seen first-hand how our community’s support can make a huge difference for a great project. We hope that this round-up will help you find additional projects to support!
