UCalgary launches crowdfunding platform

By Nikayla Goddard, December 8 2019 —

The University of Calgary has launched a crowdfunding platform, UCalgary Crowdfund, which will allow students, staff and researchers exclusively from the UCalgary community to gather support from the community for funding and promotion.

UCalgary Crowdfund encourages campaigns to promote the well-being and betterment of the UCalgary community. The application process outlines assigning a Project Lead and other team members, as well as asking for thorough details of the project or research and their campaign goals. If approved, the team is launched into a 30-day campaign period where they can accept donations through the site and spread the word of their campaign.

The UCalgary iGEM team tested the platform, raising funds so the team could go to the international competition in Boston in early November. The U of C team finished with the best-ever result by a Canadian team — first-runner up. 

“One of the reasons why the crowdfunding was so important to us was it enabled us to bring our entire team to Boston,” team member Sara Far said. “It was a really valuable and important experience for all of us because we get to watch the other teams, and not only just watch them, but to interact with them and learn about their projects — and that’s where a lot of the learning takes place.

“Without the support from crowdfunding, we would have only been able to send a couple of our members,” she continued, “but because we had that support we were able to bring everybody in. They all had a good experience and I think that contributes a lot to members coming back for another year, because of how inspired they were.”

For more information on UCalgary Crowdfund, check out their website.