Crowdsourcing

A GUIDE TO LANSING-AREA ONLINE FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGNS

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Crowdsourcing is a new City Pulse occasional feature that will highlight local crowdsourcing campaigns. To find the events, go to the designated website and search by title.

Decadence Dolls Studio Space (gofundme.com)

Autumn Rose Luciano is a photographer who specializes in pin-up style photo shoots. She started Decadence Dolls, a retro photography studio in 2009. She started her crowdsourcing campaign to obtain a studio space to do hair and makeup for the models, as well as a place for storage of clothes, props and sets she uses to bring nostalgia into her artwork.

Luciano also does free photo shoots for teenage girls in need of confidence boosts, and creates a pin-up calendar in which she donates all the proceeds to the Mid- Michigan Cat Rescue. Luciano wants to raise $7,000 to achieve this studio and has raised $145 so far. Luciano said that even if she does not reach her goal, all of the money raised will be put to use. She said a studio space outside of her home would help her free up time to tackle more creative ambitions she has planned.

‘The Recollection of Trees’ (kickstarter.com)

Sadie Francis Skyheart, a Lansing author, is looking for help to self-publish her book, “The Recollection of Trees.” It’s a young adult urban fantasy set in Michigan in the 1980s, stocked with witches and ghosts.

If Skyheart gets funded, it will help her through the final stages of editing, cover design, promotion and printing. She’s raised $1,220 of her $2,800 goal.

“Every dollar is like someone saying, ‘yeah we believe in you,’” said Skyheart. “It’s neat to see who shows up for you when you put yourself out there.”

DANCE Lansing (kickstarter.com)

The community artistic movement project DANCE Lansing is a collaboration between Happendance Inc. and Lansing Community College. It started in 2005 with five choreographers and eight dancers, and grown to 30 choreographers and 80 dancers. DANCE Lansing offers aspiring dancers 14 and up classes, rehearsal space and choreography opportunities. The organization wants to raise $2,500 to put on five local concerts that will be free to the public.

Crowdsourcing success

A recent success story came in the form of a proposed local short film called “The Cager,” which raised just over its goal of $24,855 on July 11. The film will be set in the 1940s and will tell the story of basketball players aspiring to go pro.

The campaign was started by Nicholas Stachurski, who is part of the Lansing marketing company Eightfold Marketing.

Eightfold teamed up with Rumor Productions, another Michigan company, as well as the film’s writer and director, Keenan McCune. The money raised will go to casting, equipment, art, editing and marketing.

Stachurski said Eightfold’s distribution plan for the film is to bring it to nonprofit organizations across the country to help educate and inspire people that may struggle with similar circumstances.

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