The holiday season might be over but SpreadKarma, a Black-founded crowdfunding platform, wants to stretch the giving season through the entire year.
SpreadKarma — founded by Baltimore school teachers Sherman Barksdale and Kellie Brown — enables “fundraisers for changemakers,” explains Brown.
Their website elaborates that SpreadKarma “provides exposure, support, and access to funding for campaigns that create positive social impact in underserved communities.”
“We also have a distinction, where we allow changemakers to set up funds instead of one time campaigns. We’ve had a fund called the Buy It Back Black fund, that is a recurring fund,” Brown said. “And then that fund, every month, distributes the money back out to the community to support Black-owned businesses.”
The platform launched in October of 2019 and, to-date they have helped change-makers raise over $60,000 for causes that include safe housing for trans people in need, rehabilitation for domestic abuse survivors, and financial literacy training for underserved Baltimore communities.
SpreadKarma also offers personalized consulting to help fundraisers run successful campaigns.
“We’ve had about 2500 donors come through our platform. And we’ve helped coach about 15 changemakers,” Brown said.
Buy It Back Black Fund, SpreadKarma’s most successful fund to-date has raised over $15,000 to support Black-owned businesses in the Baltimore area.
“Our message is to create the culture of giving and help power that culture of giving all around,” Brown said.
For more information on how you can fundraise on the platform, visit their website.
