Whatever happened to the Greek Crowdfund?
One of the most viral crowdfunds ever has now helped over 50,000 people in Greece. And it hasn’t finished yet.
On a Sunday evening in June 2015, I sat at the table after dinner and set up a crowdfund to raise €1.6 billion and save the struggling Greek economy.
The campaign was the highest amount anyone had ever tried to raise in this way. Offering ‘perks’ such as postcards, Greek salads and bottles of the spirit, Ouzo in return for contributions, I thought that it might capture a few people’s imaginations. A grin on my face, I went to bed with no idea quite what I had started.
As you may already be aware, the crowdfunding campaign went viral - by the morning I was inundated with emails and what followed was the most surreal week of my life.
I was working my final shift at a shoe shop the day everything kicked off. I bought my colleagues a crate of beers from Tesco as an apology and left my job two hours early to be interviewed by a French TV channel. I wrote a comment piece for The Guardian that evening and was late for the first day of my new job the next morning as I appeared on the BBC 5 Live Breakfast show. Work gave me a bit of leeway in my first few days and by the end of the week, I’d completed nearly a hundred interviews, from Fox News to Russia Today and a wide spectrum in between. It was exhausting.
Every time I was interviewed though, the total amount raised marched ever higher, at one point the sheer volume of traffic crashed the Indiegogo platform for several hours. By the end of the week, 100,000 people from 200 countries had pledged to help the Greek people. In 8 days, contributors had pushed the total to an astonishing €2 million — some way short of the admittedly ambitious target, but massively raising the profile of the humanitarian side of Greece’s economic plight.
Alas, as the Greek Bailout campaign target was not met, under Indiegogo platform Ts&Cs, all contributions had to be refunded. Many people think the story ends there. However, it had only just begun.
As soon as the first campaign finished, I immediately started another, this time with the aim of combatting youth unemployment in Greece. I asked everyone who had been refunded to put their contributions towards this cause. While not quite as ground-breaking as the first, in two weeks the second campaign raised almost €300,000, still a considerable sum.
Working with Greek charity Desmos, the proceeds of the crowdfund were used to employ 15 young unemployed people on one year placements in Greek charities in a project now named Desmos for Youth. For many of the organisations that received funding for a position, this was their all important first employee: someone who could grow the organisation’s reach and who could learn so much from an experienced charity worker.
Desmos themselves were the first charity to employ a young person as part of the project. An impressive, bright and ceaselessly energetic young woman called Irini, who was to work on several of Desmos’ projects including much of the administration of sending out perks and ensuring Desmos for Youth continued to run smoothly.
Irini and the team invited me to visit Athens in July 2016 to meet the young people who had been employed as a result of the project. Creating a viral campaign was exciting, but it always felt somewhat intangible, just numbers on the screen. Meeting these young people in the flesh was altogether different, and one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Hearing of their progress and how lives were changed because of the campaign, I struggled to keep the tears from my eyes. Kostas told me how he had been employed by a centre for children with learning disabilities. He is a PE teacher and worked to get the children active and have fun, while also building the strength and confidence needed to make daily life that little bit easier. Before Kostas was employed in his role, because of a lack of resources, the children only received 1 hour a week of tuition, under his supervision they received 2 hours every day! Two of the children improved so much under Kostas that they competed in the Greek Special Olympics, where one of them won a bronze medal!
Two of the children improved so much under Kostas that they competed in the Greek Special Olympics, where one of them won a bronze medal!
One by one I met the extraordinary young employees, one working at a women’s refuge, another working with the homeless, another caring for abandoned animals, a researcher studying and helping those affected by Alzheimer’s disease — it really started to dawn on me just what we had achieved, ordinary people from around the world who just wanted to help a little, but had truly helped so many people so very much.
The young people had developed skills, grown confident, independent and able to help support their families financially. Their employment had not only had a huge impact on their lives but through their work they had improved the lives of 50,000 people across the country — an incredible achievement.
At the time of the campaign in 2015, youth unemployment in Greece was running at around 50%, two years on and that figure has barely shifted. While you may not have heard so much about Greece in recent months, (it’s kind of been a busy 12 months in terms of world news) the country is still in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.
Forced to undergo wave after wave of austerity measures, the country and many of its citizens are struggling to keep their head above the water. In May 2017 it was confirmed that once again Greece had slipped into recession, and job opportunities for young people remain incredibly scarce.
That’s why the team at Desmos are running another campaign, Greece Works, with the aim of getting more unemployed young people into work.
One of the most wonderful aspects of the Greece Works campaign is that this time, it’s Irini in charge!
One of the most wonderful aspects of the Greece Works campaign is that this time, it’s Irini in charge! Her one year placement came to an end, but Desmos found the money to keep her employed, now she’s the one working to secure job opportunities for the second crop of young Greeks.
To get Greece Works off the ground the project has already been kindly supported by Visa and The Hellenic initiative US, but as with our previous campaigns, we’re looking for heroes from all over the world to get involved and help us change people’s lives again. Including the grants, we’ve already secured enough funding for 10 job opportunities, and with your help we’d love to make it to 15 again.
Of course it wouldn’t be a Greek Crowdfund without some amazing Greek produce up for grabs. So please join the adventure, share the campaign, make a donation and grab yourself a jar of olives or maybe a pair of sandals too!
