Pie it forward idea

Idea:  Crowd funding/gifting on permies.com.  It'd be really cool to have some kind of tiny Kickstarter-esque function for permies by permies to achieve specific, measurable, openly shared and financially-limited goals and projects.  

A way for a half dozen or a dozen strangers to chip in a gift of $1 to $50 each to support someone's personal permaculture growth, with nothing expected in return.  Like raising money to buy a specific book from the review grid, or tools / materials to build a cool project, and subsequently post about it online -- just not exclusive to rewarding the hard workers at Wheaton labs.   Somehow its open to any permie.

And maybe the empire takes a cut of the funds to be the middle man.  

Perhaps functionally, it is like an apple poll, but instead of apples, it is PIE-limited.  A PIE-poll.  People "vote" with purchased pie to help support someone's goal.

Example:  A permie would love to buy the PADM, but financially isn't willing to dig deep into savings.  She wants to raise $100 to buy the PADM, used.  Pie it forward empire rate for books is +20% (or whatever) to subsidize the time and process for cutting a check / doing the transaction via PayPal / buying a book on Amazon; so if a dozen people chip in $10 each of PIE, the empire pockets $20, and then either buys the book on Amazon and sends it to the permie, or cuts a check or PayPal or whatever.  The Pie it forward rate might vary depending on how much effort is required.  Or how much value is created in the permaculture world.  Maybe the posted Pie it forward rate for buying and planting trees is 5% to the empire, for instance.

A Pie poll could be a big ol' list of fundraising links for different people's projects.  And once a project gets to 100% funded, the transfer takes place.  That'd be a fun way to anonymously chip in small amounts to help folks grow and achieve goals.

Most Excellent!  I've sent some PIE your way.  If you don't need it or want it, please feel free to pass it along to another.

I do not want to annoy folks by being a "bumper".  I'll just say that I really like your idea, I'll give you all the support I can if you get this off the ground.  And I will pledge at this time to chip in the needed coin to get this started.

So how's that for a bump?

maybe a bit like this?

https://permies.com/t/52199/bounty-based-kickstarter

Yes, although instead of a "pledge" to provide funding upon some distant circumstance or achievement, the pledge is purchased pie, and trust based -- actual digital capital, not a promissory note.

Gracious folks pay up front to buy pie, then allocate how they wish for it to be used via placing it into a "pie poll", and then the pie is converted back into non-digital capital later on.  

The pie-poll (or perhaps the pie-pollster staff who builds the pie-poll) functions as a kind of escrow.  The pie poll's creation could be a privilege inherent to specific permies staff volunteers.  The poll could be set up for a single person, or multiple individuals.  It could be open, or secret to the PIE forum.  It could be a competitive poll, such as winner take all, or it could be equal distribution, or people's choice how it gets distributed among the recipients.  It could enable one individual with multiple projects to determine which project to undertake: e.g. should I use $100 to dig that pond, or build a solar collector?

Upon completion of the pie-poll (which mechanically looks like an apple poll), the volunteer staff is responsible for ensuring it is converted and distributed to the recipient individual(s) as a gift in the appropriate form of capital - e.g.  PayPal transfer / amazon book purchase sent to the recipient's address / gift card to LOWES to buy the thing / check in the mail to cover cost of the repaired whats-it-called / living capital or seeds shipped to the recipient.  

A portion of the collected pie within the pie poll may be given to the staff pollster as compensation for their time and energy spent creating the poll and distributing the gift, either as a flat amount, or a percentage.  A portion should also go to the empire, so the system has sustainability.