While residents in Santa Clarita have become experts on raising awareness on social media sites like Facebook, the emergence of crowdfunding is becoming one of the latest ways for community members to invest in one another.  

Websites like Kickstarter, GoFundMe and Indiegogo are being used by community members to fund new inventions, support individuals and families dealing with health issues, and even provide donations for those who need extra help reaching life goals.  

“We’d be nowhere if it wasn’t for Indiegogo,” said co-founder of MVMT Watches Jake Kassan, a 25-year-old Valencia High School grad.

After MVMT Watches was declined to campaign on Kickstarter for “lack(ing) originality,” Kassan and his partner were able to raise over $200,000 in 2013 through Indiegogo.

In 2015, the watch company generated over $30 million and hopes to surpass $50 million this year, according to Business Insider.

“(Kickstarter has) since loosened up their approval process from what we’ve seen,” said Kassan. “Indiegogo, on the other hand, allowed us to get a huge influx of capital to fund the growth of the company without giving away equity. Most companies we’ve seen with our type of growth have been (venture capitalist) backed while MVMT is still independently owned.”

Crowdfunding begins when campaign organizers ask individuals to make donations to finance a project with a set monetary goal and expected date it will be reached.

Some crowdfunding campaigns that are said to have started in Santa Clarita have not had much success with the funding technique.

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Ideas like a sanitary cube placed next to toilets to clean smartphones while using the bathroom and a flexible kitchen mitt, are two examples of campaigns that Kickstarter says were based in Santa Clarita and deemed with “funding unsuccessful” on the campaign pages.

Kickstarter seekers have raised over $2.5 billion for creative projects since its sites initial launch in 2009, according to the company’s own projections on its website.

The most popular crowdfunding campaigns on GoFundMe deal with medical issues, followed by education and volunteerism, according to its website.

Many major crowdfunding websites claim to charge around a five percent fee on donations for operating expenses.

Over the past few years, KHTS AM-1220 has reported on Santa Clarita-based crowdfunding efforts involving accident victims, tournament opportunities for local athletes, and different products.

Crowdfunding has the potential to raise thousands of dollars and even more depending on the project or circumstances surrounding the campaign.

However, some crowdfunding websites admit the difficulty in verifying the authenticity of campaigns.

“With hundreds of thousands of campaigns, it’s not feasible for GoFundMe to investigate the claims stated by each Campaign Organizer,” says the company’s website. “Rather, we provide visitors with the tools to make an informed decision as to who they choose to support. While GoFundMe and its payment partners do provide a number of safeguards to deter fraud, we must insist that visitors follow the advice stated on each and every campaign—’Only donate to people you personally know and trust.’”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also makes note of the potential risk involved with investing in startups and the possibility of fraudulent crowdfunding activities.

“As with other investments, there is no guarantee that crowdfunding investments will be immune from fraud,” the SEC bulletin says.

More legal information from the SEC on crowdfunding investments can be found here.