Crowdfunding: The Future Of Public-Interest Funding?

This lawyer has done crowdfunding right. Learn from her model.

Crowdfunding is all the rage these days. Everyone’s heard of the guy who got the internet to give him $55,492 for potato salad. Why not turn this awesome fundraising potential to some better and higher use than potato salad?

That’s what Kellie Ann Furr wants to do. Furr (whom I don’t know but who was nevertheless kind enough to answer some questions for me) is a former environmental-engineering consultant who went to law school to develop “another set of tools to help the environment.” But then she graduated into the terrible legal economy we all know and hate. Tired of doing contract work while hunting for elusive public-interest positions, she decided six months ago that she would establish her own private public-interest law firm.

Now she’s ready to launch. And she’s turning to crowdfunding to get her new firm off the ground.

The clients are there. Furr, who is based in Portland, Oregon, says she has “been approached by several people to do public interest environmental work.” This potential work includes asserting tribal water rights and mitigating lead contamination — pressing environmental issues that lack for advocates. She adds, “I also get contacted and referred to individuals who are having a hard time in life and just need help, whether it be debt relief, employment issues, or business advice.” As Furr sums it up, “While there may be a shortage of legal jobs in the Pacific Northwest, there is not a shortage of work to be done.”

But to do this work and take on these clients, Furr needs to purchase mandatory malpractice insurance and develop some basic law-firm infrastructure. She can’t afford these on her own, and due to her backbreaking law-school debt load (three years of law school plus an environmental masters), she’s “unwilling to take out any more debt.” “As I tell my friends regarding my student loans,” she says, “I have a mortgage without a house.” All of this hurts. “I can’t stand having to say no because I can’t independently represent them.”

The solution: crowdfunding. If potato salad can raise over $55,000, then surely a public-minded lawyer can raise $7,500 for worthy goals like protecting tribal water rights, lead abatement, and helping people who can’t afford help otherwise.

Furr has gone about this the right way. Indeed, she hopes her campaign can be a model: “Apart from my own desire to successfully raise funds, I want this crowdfunding campaign to be a successful example of an alternative form of ethical funding.” With that in mind, she’s taken several important steps:

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First, she sought and received an informal opinion from the Oregon State Bar on “the ethics of donation-based crowdfunding” to make sure she was on sound ethical footing. She was also careful to select “perks” for donors that would not affect her “professional independence” — in her case, the perks mostly involve volunteer time or pro bono assistance to environmental organizations. And she includes appropriate disclaimers on her campaign page.

Second, she laid the groundwork for donations by letting her personal connections know about her campaign before it launched. Then after the launch she asked people individually for donations and followed up with people who made verbal pledges. This somewhat daunting task was made easier given that her campaign does not simply, in Furr’s words, “Fund my Life” — as she says, “I have a public interest mission that is bigger than myself.” The mission is what she was really asking people to fund.

Third, she’s promoted her campaign across several social media platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and her own blog, Public Interest Northwest. Traffic statistics on her Indiegogo-hosted campaign website suggest this social-media exposure is doing its job — in particular, the “sheer volume” of hits mean the word is spreading. And she’s a third of the way to her $7500 goal with a little over two weeks to go.

She’ll get the money whether she hits her goal or not — under indiegogo’s “flexible funding” option, Furr says, “indiegogo takes a bigger fee if I don’t make my goal, but I keep the net.” But the closer she gets to her goal, the closer she is to a full launch of her new firm. And the closer she is to fulfilling her mission.

So head over to Furr’s campaign website and take a look. Maybe you’ll be inspired — either to give to Furr’s campaign or, perhaps, to start your own crowd-funded public-interest venture.

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Sam Wright is a dyed-in-the-wool, bleeding-heart public interest lawyer who has spent his career exclusively in nonprofits and government. If you have ideas, questions, kudos, or complaints about his column or public interest law in general, send him an email at PublicInterestATL@gmail.com.