Petaluma parent starts crowdfunding site for schools

The school fundraiser - kids washing cars, holding bake sales, selling candy bars and magazines to their parents’ coworkers to raise money for various school programs and activities - is a time-honored tradition. While those are good ways to raise some cash for choir robes, Petaluma parent Eric Parsons felt that maybe it was time for school programs to take fundraising into the 21st century. That idea led him to create a video-based, crowdfunding service called FundTube.

“It’s fundraising without the calories,” said Parsons, who has a background in server-based technology. “I am a very mobile-centric person and most of my friends are, too. I was looking at having the ability to share either school or parent-created videos for fundraising and sharing with anyone in your personal network, and it was an idea that clicked with my trusted friends.

FundTube helps raise money for schools by allowing them to upload videos and share them with parents and their network of family and friends. A donation to support the school or program must be made in order to view the videos. Parents, teachers, school clubs and groups who are signed up with FundTube can also upload their own videos to the site, and once approved by the school it’s associated with, can be viewed and shared.

“A friend who is in the PTA said that they have some of the same people going to all their bake sales and car washes,” Parsons sad. “I wanted to create a type of fundraising system that extended that network beyond its usual base. With FundTube, you can raise money for your school through a brother in Portland or a relative in Southern California or an aunt in Utah.”

There’s no fee of any kind for schools or parents to sign up with FundTube and Parsons said they’ve tried to make using the site as easy as possible.

“The only fees are the ones for viewing videos,” Parsons said.

The possibilities for the type of video content are endless, and no special camera equipment is required - a simple video shot with a cell phone is acceptable as long as the quality is good.

“It could be a video of a school marching band or of a talent show or the kids themselves can create original, interesting content on what they’re working on in class,” said Kristine Weeks, chief marketing officer for FundTube. “The school reviews the video for appropriate content and then sends an email out to parents to invite them to come watch the video and share it with family and friends.”

FundTube has security features in place to ensure the online safety of the students in the videos. Parents who sign up on FundTube are required to fill out identifying information before being allowed to watch videos. Parents also have the ability to flag a person they don’t want watching videos. The flagged individual is put on a list at the school, which then blocks that person’s access to videos.

“Another little thing is that we don’t have the ability for people to leave comments on videos,” Weeks said. “We don’t want any bullying or any kind of discussion and pressure about what the kids are doing. We just want the video to be shared and be a nice memory.”

FundTube is compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which means that the site does not collect personal information from children and does not share information provided by parents with anyone other than those providing support for the internal operations or tech support of the website.

“Safety was a top priority,” Parsons said. “And being able to provide the maximum donations to the school was also a priority - 90 percent of each donation goes directly to the school.”

Launched just in time for the Petaluma school year, Parsons said they are seeking a round of funding for FundTube and are being contacted by investors. He hopes they will be able to get the site to go national.

“Our goal is not to replace the walk-a-thons and car washes, but to add opportunity where it didn’t exist,” Parsons said.

(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at yovanna.bieberich@arguscourier.com.)