Ioby: A Different Kind of Crowdfunding.

• Author: Mazur, Laurie

ERIN BARNES SAYS the idea for ioby came from seeing the success of crowdfunding for overseas development projects.

"We thought it was really interesting that people were so excited about investing in an entrepreneur in a foreign country that they've never been to," says Barnes, the co-founder and chief executive officer of ioby, a crowdfunding platform. "So we asked, 'Why wouldn't people make that same kind of investment in their own backyard?' That's where the name ioby came from--in our backyards. It was about positioning ourselves as the opposite of nimby--not in my backyard."

"Crowdfunding" is twenty-first-century jargon for any effort to raise money with donations from a large number of people, typically online, loby seeks to apply this to fundraising projects that benefit individual communities.

loby, launched in 2008 by Barnes, Brandon Whitney and Cassie Flynn, reports on its website that it has helped raise almost S6.7 million for more than 2,100 projects, 71 percent of which "have a social justice objective." Along the way it has trained more than 20,000 people in crowdfunding skills. The goal of ioby is to build the capacity of neighborhood residents to define and solve local problems.

"One of our founding principles is that people who live in a community know what's best for that community," Barnes says, adding that the focus is on the positive. "Rather than a community's default position being about stopping bad things from happening, we're interested in creating an inclusive, welcoming space, where people are working toward positive change together."

Of course, that is easier said than done. Barnes and her team found that a common set of structural barriers keeps people from participating in civic life. "So we figured out ways to try to knock down as many of them as possible, or at least reduce a lot of the friction."

loby shares some basics with other crowdfunding platforms, like GoFundMe or Kickstarter. Donors go online and click a few buttons to contribute to the cause. The platforms generally collect a small fee for their services; ioby's fees are at the low end of the spectrum, thanks to foundation support.

But ioby differs from other platforms in ways large and small.

AS A NONPROFIT (unlike, say, GoFundMe), all donations routed through ioby are tax-deductible, even if the receiving organization has not attained 501(c)(3) status, according to ioby spokesperson Noah Lumbantobing. And while some platforms allow fundraisers...