[July 06, 2011] Crowdtilt lets you invite people in your social circle to fund everything from charities to pizza parties Tweet Jul 06, 2011 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- A lot of businesses have found success with online tools like Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/) that let you solicit anyone for funds to get a product or project off the ground. inBOOK, for example, used Kickstarter to raise more than $10,000 to continue building out its lineup of handmade cases for e-readers like the Kindle. But what if you want to fund an initiative with a smaller scope, such as raising money to send students from your school on a class trip, or you just want to get your buddies to kick in five bucks each to rent a basketball court for a couple hours? Kickstarter isn't really geared to those needs. But Crowdtilt (http://www.crowdtilt.com/index.php) is filling exactly that niche. The site is still in beta, but there are already campaigns up and running on the site. Crowdtilt also has Facebook integration to send requests out to your friends as soon as your campaign is set up. But Crowdtilt, like Kickstarter, requires you to set goals. Say you want to raise $1000 for a cross-country road trip. You have to pick a date by which your campaign must end. If you haven't met your funding goal by then, no one's credit card is charged. Only when the goal is met (or the campaign "tilts," in the parlance of the site) do cards get charged. Sounds cool. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go set up a campaign to let readers contribute to my goal to get a $200,000 ticket on a Virgin Galactic flight. ___ (c) 2011, The Dallas Morning News. Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. _____ TO SUBSCRIBE TO PLUGGED IN Items in the Plugged In package are not included in your MCT News Service subscription. You can subscribe to the Plugged In package or purchase the items a la carte on MCT Direct at www.mctdirect.com. To subscribe, please call Rick DeChantal at Tribune Media Services at (800) 245-6536 or [email protected]. Outside the United States, call Tribune Media Services International at +1-312-222-4444 or e-mail [email protected]. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]