Olympic participants Mike Kurt (canoe) and Fabian Kauter (fencing) launch the first crowdfunding platform to finance Swiss sports projects. The Internet platform “I believe in you” enables athletes, clubs and organizers to collect private microdonations. This addition to previous sports financing is intended to significantly improve the framework conditions for Swiss sport in the longer term.
I believe in you is the first crowdfunding platform that specializes entirely in financing Swiss sports projects. Athletes, clubs, organizers and other representatives of Swiss sports can present their projects and their financing requirements and collect funds on the platform. The projects are disseminated very quickly via social media and thus receive great attention.
A project can be supported via online banking, credit card or payment slip. You can choose between 50 or 100 days for each campaign. If the financing target is achieved within this period, the support contributions go to the project. In return, sponsors receive a special “thank you” from the initiators. If the collection target is missed, the money stays with the sponsors.
Addition to previous financing offers
“The name I believe in you is our program,” explains Fabian Kauter. “Every athlete has people in their private environment who believe in them and their goals. A crowdfunding platform brings these people together and gives them the opportunity to support his project and also get their own acquaintances and in turn their acquaintances excited about the project. Even smaller projects can thus be presented to a very large audience and recommended for support.”
Crowdfunding gives Swiss sport access to previously untapped private funding. ”I believe in you offers help to help themselves and promotes the personal initiative of athletes and the solidarity of the population with sport,” explains Mike Kurt. “We are creating an addition to the already successful sports promotion instruments such as the Swiss Sports Aid Foundation or the private sports promotion club 'Sport Heart'.”
Complex IT project
An Internet platform was developed to present the projects and process donations. For this purpose, Mike Kurt and Fabian Kauter teamed up with online specialist Philipp Furrer. The three of them founded the”I believe in you Ltd.” For eight months, the three founders of I believe in you now working on her project, parallel to jobs, studies, training and competitions.
“Between the brilliant idea and the generation of support contributions, there is a complex IT platform, which was designed and programmed specifically for the project,” explains Philipp Furrer. “Our website makes it very easy to record the sports projects to be presented, including images and videos, the simple and, above all, secure processing of payments and the viral dissemination of project ideas via social media sites on the Internet.”
London 2012 as a spark
Mike Kurt and Fabian Kauter are world-class athletes from so-called fringe sports. In order to be able to professionally prepare for the Olympic Games in London, they had to finance large sums privately. “In hardly any other highly developed country is sport as reliant on private funding as in Switzerland,” summarizes business economist Mike Kurt. “For many athletes, concerns about financing are just as much a part of preparing for the season as physical or mental training.”
“After the games in London, we asked ourselves why there wasn't an Internet platform to raise money for sports projects,” recalls Fabian Kauter. The solution was crowdfunding. “Swarm financing” via the Internet has existed in the USA for around ten years. In Switzerland, art and cultural projects in particular have achieved considerable financial success with crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding is ideal for sports projects. “Nowhere are there more fans, enthusiasm and passion than in sports, and good projects spread in no time at all via social networks, e-mail delivery or word of mouth,” says business student Fabian Kauter with conviction.
For the entire range of sports
- I believe in you is open to everyone: Individual athletes, teams, recreational, amateur or top athletes, associations or organizers can advertise and finance their projects via the new platform.
- The fourteen-year-old young canoeist Dimitri Marx needs 2,500 francs for a new canoe, for example: “My dream is to start at the Olympic Games. With my video on I believe in you I am now trying to inspire as many people as possible and hopefully collect enough money so that I can continue training with good equipment.”
- Beach volleyball Olympians too Sebastien Chevallier still needs funds to finance the upcoming European and World Championships: “I'm really excited about the start of I believe in you, because crowdfunding is a very good addition to traditional financing models. Here, someone can help us realize a project, even with very small contributions. This is money that would otherwise not end up in sports.”
- In addition to the initiators, well-known partner companies are also supporting the project: Coop, SwissBytes AG, Kellerhals Anwälte, Tres Partner and the SVC Foundation for Entrepreneurship have been involved as starting partners. Thanks to their support, the project was implemented within just eight months.
- The site www.ibelieveinyou.ch It's been online since Tuesday. From then on, further sports projects can be recorded and supported online. At the start, all texts are available in advance I believe in you exclusively in German. The launch in French for western Switzerland will follow in one month.
infos
Mike Kurt, Co-Founder
+41 78 736 67 78
medien@ibelieveinyou.ch
www.ibelieveinyou.ch
gartmann.biz supports “I believe in you” in communication.