ANKARA
A crowdfunding campaign for Greece started by a London shoe salesman has raised €1.26 million ($1.4 million), attracting more than 78,000 investors.
On June 29, Thom Feeney launched a crowdfunding program on www.indiegogo.com calling for donations to save the Greek economy – the goal is to raise the €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) needed to pay Greece’s in-arrears debt to the International Monetary Fund.
While many said the plan was foolish, Feeney’s ‘Greek Bailout Fund’ has seen a rush of charitable investors, enough to crash the entire crowdfunding platform on two occasions.
“I was fed up of the Greek crisis going round in circles, while politicians are dithering, this is affecting real people. While all the posturing going on, then it’s easy for the politicians to forget that. I just thought: ‘Sod it, I’ll have a crack’,” 29-year-old Feeney wrote on his crowdfunding page.
Feeney states that Greece would be better letting “the people” decide its fate rather than European ministers.
"The European Union is home to 503 million people, if we all just chip in a few euro then we can get Greece sorted and hopefully get them back on track soon. Easy," Feeney wrote.
“It might seem like a lot but it's only just over €3 from each European. That's about the same as half a pint in London. Or everyone in the EU just having a feta and olive salad for lunch."
Crowdfunding projects must achieve their goals in order to receive the funds that have been raised, otherwise they are returned to the senders. Feeney offers some bonus gifts to investors – a €3 euro investment for a postcard of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and €25 for a bottle of Greek wine.
But it is likely to take just a lot of good, old-fashioned generosity for the project to reach its goal.
