Funding Heaven . . . .

A platform designed specially to help you get funding for your bright ideas and projects that you may not otherwise be able to start. The concept is rather simple. With the help of Funding Heaven you can share your ideas and ambitions with the world and reach like minded people. Strike the right note with your audience and get them to believe in you and your aspirations to give you the valuable funding you need to fullfil your dreams:

Tell people your idea and what it is that you want to achieve.
How much you need to get started or to complete your project.
Date by which you must have the funding.
Define one or more benefits that they will receive in return for their funding.

If your project does not reach the required target by the listed date, the funds will be returned to donors. Why ?

Reduced risk for everyone. If a project needs £10,000 and only raises £6,000 it will be tough to complete with a fraction of the budget.
Uncertainty and disappointment. With poorly funded projects there is a high level of uncertainity with greater risks of disappointment and every chance of failure.
Motivation, when there is a strong demand to see a project come to life, people will be motivated to spread the word to meet the funding target.
Safeguard for you. If you don't raise the desired amount, you're not duty bound to start or complete the project.

For successful funding, read our simple guide, below.

Pricing

£10 charge for listing the project which is also used to verify your identity. For a limited period, till 1^st Sep 2010 this is reduced to just £1.
Five percent of raised funds for successful projects that reach or exceed their project target.

Refunds

If a project does not reach its target funding then the funds will be returned to donors minus any banking / credit card company charges and a small admin overhead fee of £1 per donation.

Successful Funding

Funding Heaven is ideal to publicise your ideas to raise the vital funding that you need. Because we want you to be successful, we have listed a few pointers that we hope you will find helpful:

Be Clear.
- Objective. State exactly what it is that you want to achieve.
- Funding. The amount that you need. Be realistic. Don't be greedy and ask for more. By the same token, don't ask for less than what you need either. You do want to be able to complete your project.
- Time. When you need the funds by. Give yourself a reasonable length of time but don't be tempted to give yourself unduly a longer period. The downside of this will be that there is no urgency and people may not be motivated to act.
- Returns. Have a clear vision of what returns people will get for their donations and tell them clearly.
Complacency. Don't be complacent. Just because your project is listed on the site does not mean that there will be people queuing to fund your idea. Listing the project is only the first step to success. Its your ambition and dream. This is your chance - go for it!
Tell, tell and tell. Tell anyone and everyone you know about your project - family, friends and anyone you know.
Target Audience. Identify the sectors of people you need to reach. People who will be interested in the rewards you are offering in return. Explore every avenue to get your message to them.
Passion. Who shares your passion? Who thinks the way you do and would like to share in your dreams and be part of your success? Identify these people and make them aware of your project.
Get them involved. Give people something worth while in return for their support. Get then fired up and involved and eager for the rewards you have to offer. Tell them, if they donate x amount, they will get A and if they donate y amount then they will get B etc.
Updates. Keep everyone updated. Update your project with the latest news or developments about your project.
Social Networks. Are you on facebook or some other social networking site? If so, then why not tell all your friends. If you are not, is it worth joining or joining another networking site? Is it worth creating a new facebook wall / page for your project and inviting friends? Think outside the box, if you have to. Just get your project the exposure it needs.
Don't Spam. We all want the maximum publicity that we can possibly get for our cause. But remember, everyone hates spam. Don't do it.

Guidelines for everyone:

If you don't like a project, refrain from harassing or abusing project owner. Be nice!
Don't post obscene, hateful, or distasteful content or comments. Keep it clean.
If you don't like a project, then don't back it by all means. It's someones dream and there is no need to be critical.
To refrain from promoting your projects on other projects' pages. These types of comments will be deleted.
Don't post copyrighted content without permission. Only post content that you have the rights to use.

Raising funds for following are specifically prohibited:

Loans, investment, and any kind of financial return are forbidden.
Lotteries, raffles, and sweepstakes are not allowed.

Actions that violate these community rules or Funding Heaven's Terms of Use may lead to an account or project being suspended or deleted. We'd prefer not to do that. Be good.

Example Project:

Community

Develop on-line transport booking system for the special needs sector. There are hundreds of community transport organisations in the UK and many tens of 1,000s across the world all in desperate need of a good booking system. Whilst the bigger operators somehow manage to afford the rather expensive systems on the market, costing easily upwards of Ł20,000+ with just as bigger running costs, the smaller operators are left wanting.

I want to design a low cost system that meets the needs of small to medium sized Community Transport Operators. The system will have some special features, designed to make the CT operators life easy, including:

Installation. No complicated software to install.
Hardware. No need for expensive new hardware. You will be able to run the new system on existing Internet enabled PCs.
Server. No need for a dedicated on-site System Server, which means no additional hardware costs and lower IT support overheads.
System Backup. There will be no need for expensive data backup systems.
Mobile booking office. If the booking office is short staffed for any reason, you will be able to transfer your booking operation, very quickly, to another office or a neighbouring / associated CT operator by simply forwarding your bookings telephone number.

Other features to be bundled will include:

Client management
Drivers and volunteer management
Driver Shifts
Vehicle management
Regular journey times
Journey planning
Dial – a – Ride
Group travel
Mapping support.
Billing
Reports
Label printing

Statistics. Operators receiving funding from local authorities have to provide statistical data, which can place a significant admin overhead. The system will make best use of IT to capture data and produce reports easily.

GPS. For medium to large size operators looking for that bit extra, the system will also be able to provide GPS tracking of vehicles, automatically capture journey start & end times, client arrival and departure times (hence time taken to load clients), punctuality, time spent on vehicles by clients, journey live / dead times etc..

I need a budget of £13,000 by Sep 1^st 2010 to get the system developed and ready by end Jan 2011.

Funding Level 1: £100 and you will get free use of the new system for 3 months including technical support.

Funding Level 2: £300 - as level 1 plus you will get free use of the new system for additional 9 months (i.e. full year) and technical support.

Funding Level 3: £500 - as level 2 plus an invitation to a special one day pre-design forum where you will be able to voice your ideas and influence the features to be included in the system.

Funding Level 4: £1,000 - as level 3 plus get a free GPS vehicle-tracking unit for 12 months.