INNOVATION: A Completely New Idea of Fundraising For Athletes

Arthur Ferguson is an aspiring Canadian 49er sailor who is on an Olympic campaign for Rio 2016 with his twin brother, John. They have been recently launched a unique micro-funding platform which connects fans and athletes directly online in order to help with funding. Here he explains…

We are two young, aspiring Olympians sailing in the 49er class and vying to qualify Canada for the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We train out of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto, Ontario and have been sailing the 49er for two years. We started in 420’s sailing together and never stopped, seven years later we’ve begun an Olympic campaign.

Any Olympic campaign is expensive, and sailing is no exception, particularly 49er sailing. Government funding is always too little and forces athletes to look for other alternatives, both private and corporate. We need to buy a new boat in Europe that will allow us to compete in Europe over the next three year and (hopefully) qualify Canada for the 2016 Olympic Games!

In order to raise part of those funds, we have been launched on a new micro-funding website, pursu.it, which is a unique funding platform for Canadian athletes. It is very similar to the kickstarter website except it’s only for athletes and so far has raised over $100,000 dollars. Pursu.it philosophy is to create a space online to connect athletes directly to their fans and enable everybody to help in any way they can (from $5 to $1000), and through a community athletes will be able to get the funds they need to achieve their goals.

This is a completely new idea of fundraising for athletes who traditionally rely on government and national organizations for the bulk of their funding even though their fans and supporters are eager and willing to help. Their pursu.it video is at: https://pursu.it/campaign/ferguson-brothers/

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