EWU launches crowdfunding platform

By AL STOVER

Staff Reporter

Eastern Washington University staff and alumni have created a new way for campus clubs and groups to raise funds for various endeavors.

EWU’s Alumni Association and Associated Students of Eastern Washington University (ASEWU) recently announced the launch of FundEWU, a crowdfunding platform similar to KickStarter and GoFundMe that raises money for a department- or student-led campaign.

Kelli Hills, assistant director of annual giving for EWU’s Alumni Advancement office, said the idea to create a crowdfunding platform for the university began five years ago. She said crowdfunding sites like KickStarter were more for businesses and did not have the specific platform Eastern was looking for. While some colleges like University of Vermont and University of Maryland had created their own funding platforms, Hills said EWU wanted something that was homegrown.

“I’ve always had a philosophy that it’s better to make money for the university,” Hills said. “Fortunately, the chair of the computer science department, Tom Capaul is also the alumni association president. We talked with Tom about it and later we went to classrooms and recruited three students to build this (FundEWU) for their capstone project.”

Hills said the process took two quarters to complete and the students, who are now alumni, collaborated with Eastern’s IT department, which had to fix some security issues before the site launched.

FundEWU currently has two campaigns, one being “Let’s Get EWU Students Abroad: Fund a Passport,” sponsored by EWU’s Office of Global Initiatives. The objective is to raise $5,000 to help fund 50 passports for students who want to study abroad.

“We were looking for something that can benefit all students,” Megan Abbey, Global Programs administrator, said. “Students came with different ideas, but there wasn’t really anything on the outside other than scholarships. So we partnered with EWU Alumni Advancement to see how FundEWU would work. It’s gone well so far.”

The campaign has raised $4,640 of its $5,000 goal as of press time. There are 17 days left in the campaign’s fundraising cycle. Abbey said no matter how much money is raised, it will go toward purchasing passports. She noted that many of the donors are faculty members, who in the past have stepped up and helped students with funds they need to study abroad.

“We’re glad to see faculty stepping up and donating,” Abbey said. “They have the opportunity to change lives of students.”

The other campaign on FundEWU is for the EWU Rocketry Club, which hopes to raise $3,000 to enter the 2016 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition in Green River, Utah.

FundEWU is its first build, though Hills said Eastern will recruit more students to perform an upgrade. The platform can hold up to six projects, something that won’t change after the upgrade.

“We want to give donors a chance to choose which causes they would like to contribute to and not overwhelm them,” Hills said. “FundEWU is not a new platform, but it’s a new tool. It’s student-built, which is something we are proud of.”

For more information on Fund EWU, visit https://apps.ewu.edu/fundewu/

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.