Over the course of just two and a half years, Kickstarter hit $100 million in online pledges for the budding creative projects it promotes.
Kickstarter, the world's largest funding platform for creative startups, relies on the crowdfunding model to get donors' support. Those looking to get their documentary, community garden or beautified bus stop off the ground create a profile, post a video and share their mission with complete strangers to encourage them to give.
While films got the most funding -- $32 million according the site’s 2011 stats -- a number of noble civic endeavors got the chance to help change the world too.
Uni, a portable open-air reading room that provides books and lectures in the streets of New York City, hit its $20,000 goal.
"If we're serious about having a well-educated society, then we think books and learning should be what is prominent, accessible, and all around us," the founders wrote on their fundraising page.
Uni plans to eventually bring such transient reading rooms to other cities too.
Broken down areas of Detroit were given a second chance thanks to Kickstarter too.
Old fencing and trees were cleared up to turn an abused spot into a lush community garden. The plight of Detroit firefighters, who work in the city with the highest arson rate per capita in the world, can be featured for the world to see now that the documentary, “Burn" surpassed its $80,000 goal.
People around the globe will also find disposable cameras hanging off trees for them to take extemporaneous shots since Katie O'Beirne’s has enough funding to cover her photo experiment.
"In a year that saw government funding on the decline, people took to Kickstarter to get things done," Kickstarter states. "However humble or ambitious their goals, these projects point to a new approach to civic engagement and a new way to express a community's will."