Kickstarter: a helping hand for travel?

By Steve Keenan

There have been many names used to describe the methods used by people to get others to pay for their travels. Borrowing comes to mind, also blagging, begging, stealing, poncing, freelance travel writing…

Not many positives there, then. And while on The Times travel desk, I was never a fan of charitable fundraising, whereby a writer would offer to walk the Great Wall of China, run the New York marathon or cycle across a desert to raise money.

It always seemed to me that if you were so nobly minded, then just give to charity rather than benefit personally by a trip. OK, many were very motivated by a cause and that’s fair enough, but intertwining the two just appeared, well, messy.

Anyway, back to blagging. The internet has now given us crowdfunding, which is another way to ask for something, often for nothing. Most use it properly, of course, as good always triumphs. (It’s why I like sites with ‘donation’ buttons, which allows you to give money without being asked).

Such has been the growth in crowd funding sites that they now compete to raise money for you (and your travels) and top of most people’s list is Kickstarter - and the reason why I started this blog post.

Kickstarter has risen like the wind recently. I first properly came across the site when entrepreneur John O’Nolan raised an extraordinary £200,000 towards his new open-source publishing and blogging platform, Ghost. He only wanted £25k. It was the second highest figure ever raised by Kickstarter.

John is well-known in travel as one of the founders of the (sadly) now defunct Travelllll.com. Ghost will be different, in that it is not-for-profit. But others in travel have taken a different approach.

Budget blogger Matt Kepnes (@NomadicMatt) has also exceeded his $8,000 Kickstarter target considerably, raising more than $13k to date. His idea is an app that helps keep track of money when travelling - the extra money raised will enable an Android as well as iPhone version.

The project is on the cusp of altruism, as Matt will charge $1.99 for the app - so it would appear he’s getting people to pay for the development work in order that he can earn an income. Nice work, Matt.

But if people find the app is just what they need, then they are presumably happy to help make it a reality. So it’s a win-win.

What really is interesting tho, is using Kickstarter to fund your travelling. Such as an initiative by two young, British film makers who are hoping to fund their hitchhiking and filming trip through Japan.

Dean Wright and Emma Wilson are being financially helped by tour operator Inside Japan, which will get its own video and image bank. But the couple also hope to raise £4,350 to fund the trip and making of the film. They are already in Japan and teaching part-time to raise money, so clearly they have shown initiative and willing to get going on the project.

But with just 11 days to go to hit their target on Kickstarter, the couple have raised only one-third of their target…

I can’t think it’s the project, which has fine ambitions and will no doubt result in a high quality video. But it’s still getting people to pay for their travel and that’s probably why the appeal hasn’t taken off on Kickstarter to the level they’d like.

Projects for everyone’s benefit, such as Ghost and (to a lesser extent) Matt’s app, touch the crowdfunding nerve. Supporting a travel ‘dream’ hasn’t taken off yet. Damn, say bloggers, on to the next idea….