Fort Gratiot, Michigan. 5-19-2014
The US Renewable Energy Association, LLC, has announced the launch of a new Crowdfunding website called CrowdRE.org. This new site has a mission to focus on and support the renewable energy industry with funding options outside of traditional finance channels.
This new site has a mission to focus on and support the renewable energy industry with funding options outside of traditional finance channels. Unlike other crowd sites, CrowdRE has developed a new funding model that crowd-funds each campaign with a feature that provides more options to the campaign’s donors. The new funding model is called Flexible-All-or-Nothing (FAoN).
When a donor contributes to a campaign, they have the option of deciding if the campaign will receive the funds if the goal is or is not met. If the funds are not awarded when a campaign goal is not met, they will be distributed to another viable campaign or charity as indicated by the donor. This funding will help to ensure that funding requests are well conceived and have the best chance of success. Further, the top ten successful CrowdRE campaigns per year will qualify to receive additional business expertise to help the winning concept. This is over and above the funds received from contributors. The resources may include direct or indirect assistance from business experts, software resources like BizPlan Builder, Marketing Plan Builder, Venture Capital assistance or similar resources as appropriate to the individual campaign.
According to Gerald Zack, USREA President, “The challenge of Idea Finance is often compounded by lack of business resources and organization for new projects to get off the ground. With the affiliation of USREA, we are now the dedicated choice for renewable energy project crowd-funding.”
The stated mission and pledge are simply stated as:
- Bring renewable energy projects to market that change our world.
- Individually evaluate all campaign requests or projects.
- Review each campaign through an advisory board, and follow up on progress to help make each campaign a success.
- If a Campaign Goal is met, the campaign receives the funds.
- If the Campaign Goal is not met, we donate to select charities or renewable project in the contributor’s name at the end of the campaign, at their discretion.
- Either way, the donor’s efforts are going to a good cause.
CrowdRE.org is a crowd funding initiative of the United States Renewable Energy Association, LLC. (USREA.org) It’s a separate but affiliated web portal of usrea.org and is wholly owned by USREA. Any campaign funding goals reached are used for the specific campaign or as appropriate to the beneficiary listed on the crowdRE.org campaign description.
The USREA™ is widely known as an online Renewable Energy portal that facilitates the research and purchase processes for consumers, and as an access point for dealers and manufacturers. The web site encourages participation by educational institutions and renewable enthusiasts. Our goal is to be the very best online solution for buying, selling and researching new energy products and services. We want to provide the most positive experience possible for our consumers, dealers, and affiliated partners,” according to Zack.
For more information, visit the http://www.crowdre.org web site or contact USREA.
