McCabe Callahan, Co-founder and CEO of Community Funded

McCabe Callahan is a co-founder of Community Funded. Founded in 2011 in Fort Collins, Colorado, the company offers white labeled crowdfunding platforms that leverage and strengthen existing communities, including universities such as Colorado State and towns such as Goshen, Indiana.

GO TO COMMUNITY FUNDED

The company was born, in part, as a result of McCabe's personal frustration with his failed attempts to raise expansion capital from conventional sources for his coffee shop business during the Great Recession. Ultimately, McCabe was able to turn to his customers, who supported his vision and funded the expansion. Inspired by that experience – and further encouraged by the emergence of Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe – McCabe and his collaborators sought to create a compelling financing tool for other entrepreneurs.

Today, Community Funded pays its bills by providing fundraising solutions to large institutions, but its heart and soul remain focused on entrepreneurs. That's why Community Funded powers the efforts of nonprofits such as The Local Crowd to help bring internet-fueled crowdfunding power to rural communities. Community Funded also offers the use of its platform for free (except for a credit card processing charge).

Screenshot of Community Funded Platform

A Conversation About Community-powered Crowdfunding

I spoke with McCabe about what makes community-based funding different.

DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT

A Useful Five-dollar Word

Community Funded emphasizes propinquity to a greater extent than other crowdfunding platforms. Even though technology-enabled interactions can stimulate communities of interest that are a source of propinquity, physical proximity remains a powerful force. Recognizing that, Community Funded seeks to "provide online technology that causes real-world impact."

In social psychology, propinquity (/prəˈpɪŋkwᵻtiː/; from Latin propinquitas, "nearness") is one of the main factors leading to interpersonal attraction. It refers to the physical or psychological proximity between people. Propinquity can mean physical proximity, a kinship between people, or a similarity in nature between things.

Source: Wikipedia.org

As McCabe puts it, "Community Funded has always had a vision to connect, support, and empower. It's really about connecting good ideas with a community of people who care and who can share resources to make those ideas happen."

The Crowdfunding Fallacy

Although crowdfunding platforms have opened new opportunities for entrepreneurs, artists, and others, they aren't magic money machines. McCabe notes, "A lot of people are still just wrapping their heads around this idea of what we call the crowdfunding fallacy, which is, 'If you post it, they will fund.' There's not this community out there that's just waiting for you to post your idea so they can throw money your way. It really comes down to sharing a compelling story, being authentic as a human, and building that community before you even ask them for a dollar."

A lot of people are still just wrapping their heads around this idea of what we call the crowdfunding fallacy, which is, "If you post it, they will fund."

To state the obvious, we sometimes need to raise financial capital because we don't have enough money. However,