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How to Use Crowdfunding, More to Help Green Work: Event at Ohio State

Nov. 30, 2015
This article originally appeared on the website for the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and was written by Kurt Knebusch.
 
Crowdfunding can benefit green work, and December’s breakfast program by the Environmental Professionals Network will show how.
 
Called “Tapping into Social Media, Green Investing and Other Tools to Fund Your Environmental Project or Enterprise,” the event is from 7:15-9:30 a.m. Dec. 8 in the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, at The Ohio State University in Columbus.
 
“Social media-based support-building efforts are quickly emerging and evolving, and the traditional lines between nonprofit and for-profit organizations are blurring,” said David Hanselmann, the network’s coordinator and a lecturer in Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources.
 
“At the same time, more people are willing to help out, but they want to be impactful and informed.”
 
 
The network is a service of the school.
 
Dan Sharpe, community researcher and grants management officer with The Columbus Foundation, and Christopher Brown, president of Trident Design, will be the event’s panelists.
 
Stephanie Boron, who works in financial services and is a graduate of the school, will moderate the discussion and give an overview. Her previous experience includes working as an animal keeper at zoos in Akron, Columbus and Philadelphia.
 
Attendees will learn “hands-on techniques and what to do and what to avoid, and also will gain big-picture perspectives on the rapidly changing landscape of raising capital and support for your organization’s work, private or public,” Hanselmann said.
 
Registration costs $10, includes a full breakfast, and is open to both members of the network and the public. The deadline to register is 6 p.m. Dec. 5.
 
Details and a link to online registration are at go.osu.edu/Dec2015EPN.
 
Contact Hanselmann at hanselmann.3@osu.edu or 614-247-1908 to learn more.
 
The event’s sponsor is the Columbus-based group Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed, which last month was honored for its collaborative environmental achievements at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s annual sustainability summit.
 
November 2015. 
 
Photo caption: Dec. 8’s breakfast program by the Environmental Professionals Network will look at using crowdfunding, social media and more to support environment- and sustainability-related efforts. (Image: iStock.)