The University of Iowa Foundation and the Vice President for Research & Economic Development Office have teamed up with other UI departments to create GOLDrush, a crowdfunding website dedicated to promote projects.
By Addison Martin
Over the past few years, successful crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe.com have cropped up around the internet, allowing donors to easily contribute to projects and products and allowing entrepreneurs to easily raise funds for their products. The University of Iowa has jumped on that train with GOLDrush.com, a funding site specific to university projects that allows faculty, staff, students, and alumni the same opportunities.
Dana Larson, the UI Foundation executive director of communications and Marketing, said the idea of the new platform came from a need for a website that allows for direct funding to reach its target audiences.
“The crowdfunding site provides the tools for faculty to promote projects to a small, specific target audience,” she said. “Faculty and students have a need for this type of tool, and we have chosen the tool that has the best functionality for the UI’s needs.”
Currently, the website is supporting three separate projects, all based in UI offices or departments. These include “Health for All: Improve Health access for Congolese refugees” in the College of Public Health, and “Distraction in Action: Helping Kids in Pain” that will work with the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital to provide education to parents and professionals on how to become a distraction coach for their child. The third project, “Project Lio-Rama,” is in the UI Natural History Museum.
Project Lio-Rama hopes to fund a larger and more decorated diorama for the lions that have been in the museum since the 1930s. Trina Roberts, the director of the Pentacrest Museums, said it is unique and one of the most popular exhibits the museum has.
“The lions are in probably one of the most popular exhibits; everybody likes lions, everybody asks lots of questions, and they have never had a full-scale exhibit of their own, so this lets us catch up to the other exhibits,” Roberts said.
In addition to funding a new space for these lions, the funding would go toward an undergraduate research assistant who would help piece together the animals’ story, Roberts said. Most of the history they have now, Robert said, is anecdotal, and they suspect it might have been embellished through the years.
So far, the project has been going as expected, and like other crowdfunding sites, it relies on word of mouth to boost the project.
“We weren’t quite sure what to expect; we had a goal for the first two days, and we met that,” Roberts said. “That’s what helped us and that we’d done a good job of getting the word out, we’re trying to spread the word, and so far were happy with it.”
Stephen Pradarelli, strategic communications director of Office for Research & Economic Development, said the most important thing is the sense of personal investment that comes out of this almost two-year long development.
“This isn’t meant to be a replacement but sort of a complement to other funding streams, plus it’s kind of fun,” he said. “It’s great because then people feel personally invested in the projects they donate to … so if the lions get a new cool exhibit, how cool is that that they can bring their kids to the museum and say they helped that, so there’s a personal investment in it.”
