Dallas-based NachoBirthday announced the launch of its grassroots crowdfunding platform, which aims to bring friends and family together in support of good causes everyday, not just on birthdays.
Rather than receive unwanted gifts, NachoBirthday offers users the chance to raise funds from family and friends for something that they actually want or need, while at the same time donating a percentage to a charitable cause. For example, a teenager who wants help saving up for his or her first car can do so while also donating half to a local food pantry. In allowing users to split their funds, the app promotes benefiting both individuals and their communities at large.
While the platform leans toward using birthday celebrations as a means of fundraising for local charities, the fundraising opportunities are as varied as the imaginations of the users themselves. Students who want to raise money for a school social event can do so and contribute money to school facilities as well. Work colleagues can raise funds for a going away party for their boss, and also donate money to local veterans.
Ryan Ogbeide, founder of NachoBirthday, stated:
“People start to have a more negative focus on their birthdays the older they get. We want to empower people to maintain the celebration of life by letting them use the day they were born to create positive change. NachoBirthday reminds us that every day is a celebration, not just one day of the year,
“So, whether it’s your birthday, and you want to get your friends and family together for a fun event while raising money for a good cause, or it’s ‘nacho birthday’ and you just want to help out, our platform lets you take control and make your vision happen!”
It recently partnered with YouTube star, Mr. CreepyPasta (and its over 800,000 subscribers), to help raise funds for a local dog welfare charity. Previous collaborations include comedian Kurtis Conner, Lifestyle blogger Gabriella DeMartino and Vine star Jack Vertigo.
Ogbeide told Crowdfund Insider what inspired him to launch the site:
“I used to work in corporate America and had a manager named Jack, he inspired me to create NachoBirthday.com. Every Friday he would come in with balloons,cake and sometimes nacho’s, wishing us in the office happy birthday. However most of the time no one in the room had a birthday lol. He would then say, “well I guess it’s a NachoBirthday”.. I always thought this was just pure humor or it was his way of just being a cool manager.
“I later learned he was battling with cancer and at that point NachoBirthday’s became meaningful to me. It was his way of tell us everyday should be celebrated, especially the day you were born. This motivated me to start a blog called Nachobirthday.com which ran for about 2 years and gain a lot of followers. I felt compelled to take the blog to the next level and seeing it was around the same time Crowdfunding began to explode, it made perfect sense to create a platform that helps users to celebrate life by making a difference.”
Ogbeide believes there exists many opportunities for users to use the site in diverse ways;
“Well the cool thing about birthdays is that everyone on earth has one. We hope to attract social users who want to celebrate life different. We see adults as well as children taking advantages of the platform. Adults campaigns will be geared more towards charity or community projects and children campaigns will be more of a way to get birthday money from family who live far away.”
Ogbeide wants to accomplish big things with his platform;
“When you think of projects and startups online you think of Kickstarter, when you think of birthdays online we want you to think of Nachobirthday. Our mission, is to continue to facilitate a platform where people can come and partake in charitable and creative campaigns surrounding the idea and theme of the celebration of life, which will help make life more meaningful for all.
“We would like to eventually become a global bridge between the fortunate and less fortunate by providing a service that promotes a united global philanthropy around the concept of the celebration of life, with a large focus on birthday. Our promotion of philanthropy for all humanity will provide self-fulfillment to our users. Our service will help our users use their life to help make someone’s life more livable.”
