Crowdfunding total sustainability homestead and education center on Olympic Peninsula, WA

Hi I'm new on this forum, and I am promoting a project, but I think the people here (and everywhere) might really like it. I hope to develop a network here and everywhere I go promoting this thing, it's been my dream for a while and I'm very excited about sharing it. I want to encourage discussion around it and projects like it and develop crowdfunding as an incredible sustainable financial engine for this kind of development. At this point all the project is is a crowdfunding campaign and Facebook page, but I have a wealth of experience myself as I've been brought up gardening in a Earth conscious household by a naturalist mom. I have helped coordinate organic farms and taken care of countless gardens for myself and others, and have been itching for some time to get into some land. Of course that's the case for everybody who wants to do this and I understand others have their own projects they have painstakingly developed and promoted, and mine is not necessarily special - just mine.

I have 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl, who will be getting to school age soon, and this project is just as much for them as it is for me. I am not satisfied by the focus (or lack thereof) on natural education in the classroom, as many parents are familiar. This is one more step I'm taking to begin to assemble a life in which work and education and play can all mix harmoniously and abundance can flow through us and out into the rest of the world.

I'm not here asking for financial contributions directly, mostly to bring exposure and natural traffic (hey, it's the internet after all!) but my intention isn't to farm this place or any place but to develop correspondence and connections and yes even friendships!

This is a hopefully-above-100% sustainability lifestyle project on the Olympic Peninsula in WA State, where I am hoping to raise $180,000 (the purchase price of a 3-bedroom mortgaged house around here) through my IGG campaign to purchase at least 5 acres outright. The idea will not only be to minimize ecological impact but improve soil and water quality - working with biology to turn the property into a water treatment center.

Housing will be green-manufactured yurts at first, but soon after we set up base camp we will start a community work project on the main house which will be a cobb / earth house.

We will be on-grid with massive solar (that's a big chunk of the budget) to create power revenue. Since there is no mortgage and as few expenses as possible after set up costs, revenue will go into the organization to develop a grant system whereby other startups can get going in their areas.

Education, education, education in all ways for all ages will be offered, and a documentary of the project as well as mini-docs and pamphlets and over time a veritable encyclopedia of sustainability techniques will be developed.

Aquaculture/irrigation ponds and creeks will run throughout the property, with lots of riparian/marshland species and wild rice helping to clean grey water. There will be indoor plumbing but we will try to rely mostly on composting toilets for most of our physical body waste.

Part of the budget goes to also convert the vehicles to electric, and we hope to develop partial recharging solar and wind systems to increase daily battery longevity and reduce reliance on charging stations and the power grid. I have experience wiring up solar and batteries, I would also like to start 'solar networking', contacting landowners and putting to use tracts of land with powerpoles that have been left bare by the housing bubble, before the houses were built.

These are just a few of the features that we have lined out for the project! Please if you are interested check it out here, and share - Like I said, people's eyeballs on the project (and constructively helpful suggestions for how to improve it) are the best currency I can ask for. Yes I need the money too, but that's not the point right now.

http://igg.me/at/sustainablelifenow/x/4441808

PM or comment here if you would like any more information. I will also be looking for live-in volunteers to help construct and maintain it as time goes on. If you are in the area and want to visit or help out you're certainly welcome! For now I need anybody interested to share this concept like seeds to the wind!

Thanks,

Brendan McNamara
Founder, EarthStar Enterprises / Making Sustainability Real on Facebook


EDIT: SPECIFIC TO THIS THREAD, I would like to start a discussion about crowdfunding as a viable option for permaculture projects to get the capital they need in a hostile and barren traditional financial environment.

It would be nice if you had showed up a bit earlier, say with some contributions to the forum, before you started asking for funding.
I'm sure your project is great. Lots of us here have great projects as well. It just stinks of panhandling when your first interaction is a request for our money or expertise.
Good luck with your venture, it just sounds really not sustainable to join an online community with a request rather than a contribution.

Wow that zung but I'd better get used to it and avoid reacting emotionally. You are brutally correct and straight to the point. I'm well aware it's faux pas and even rude and everyone here has my apologies. I posted it in the 'financial' section because (and I don't reckon I was clear enough) I wanted also start a conversation about the viability of crowdfunding itself to finance sustainability. I think if sustainability nuts don't colonize IGG itself we should organize a crowdfunding site specifically for that cause.

I haven't developed enough of a network and though I'm working twitter and facebook and eventually Pinterest and G+ as well I would get value out of making connections where I end up on the web. I have the disposition of being in limbo right now between communities - experienced somewhat in IT and web design and promoting other campaigns for moneys, lately getting out there in the field and doing stuff physically, but haven't yet connected to online permaculture groups. Yes this is my first post. I made it unfortunately after I put the campaign together. I don't have much time to get lots of exposure but I do want to network. As part of creating that exposure I will have to yes google places where I can put it in the sight of the public eye and leave myself up to the discussion of the masses.

Anyway thanks for the constructive criticism.. PS I did contribute something.. isn't it a pretty picture I painted?

Brendan McNamara wrote:
Anyway thanks for the constructive criticism.. PS I did contribute something.. isn't it a pretty picture I painted?

Brendan - yes, you are a very talented artist. I love your artwork. And I think that sometimes - newbies - tend to want that networking connection with others quickly. And this enthusiasm might come across to others as being a bit too aggressive and too forward. Although it sounds as if you have good intentions. I think we have all been there... Best of Luck to you with your project!

i personally have no issue with someone posting their crowdfunding idea up in a forum like this — the permies movement makes money doing the same thing with their crowdfunding initiatives

if you're still here, brendan, i'm wondering if you ever embarked on this project? i saw the crowdfunding campaign you linked in this post didn't do so well :(