☞ DONATE: Crowdsourcing Affective in Harlem

Crowdsourcing appears to be the new trend for small businesses in 2012 and uptown local establishments have been benefiting from the support of locals.  Sites such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo have raised $7.5K for public art in South Harlem,  $10K to help the East Harlem Cafe upgrade its kitchen, over $12K for the Harlem Arts Festival and $40K to Casa Azul bookstore to open in East Harlem.  It appears that many locals are willing to give small or sometimes large pledges to back a company uptown so that they will flourish in difficult financial times.  There is usually a 30 day time period to gather the donations and the projects will only be funded if the full goal amount has been achieved. Most business compensate the donations with items or services that are comparable to the amount of the pledge.  The latest endeavor now is for yet-to-open Maison Harlem to fund $20k of which only $4,771 has been raised and 15 days left to go: LINK