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Quinnipiac University has unveiled a new fundraising platform called Crowdfunding. In an email sent to students, Crowdfunding is meant to give students a cost-effective way to raise money for university-related projects. Any student or faculty member who uses the program will not have to pay the usual fees that come with other fundraising platforms like Kickstarter.

“A lot of people are pretty familiar with the idea of crowdfunding,” Assistant Director of Annual Giving Sarah Pinto said. “It’s Quinnipiac University-related initiatives, and there’s no fees associated with it. Basically every dollar is going straight to the project.”

Pilot projects have already been tested on the Crowdfunding website, including creating new scholarships, giving a new home for student veterans and giving a radio show access to more songs.

Students were optimistic about the opportunities they could engage in with crowdfunding.

“I feel like research opportunities and things like that could be benefitted from crowdfunding,” Cristianz Bentoz Vaccine, a freshman,  said.

Others see it as a means to help with crucial funds to help them with their education. 

“It could really help, especially upperclassmen, help pay for things like their capstone project or if they have to do a senior thesis, it would really help them out,” Thomas Perry, a senior, said.

Applications for projects are already open on the website, with university officials encouraging the Quinnipiac community to make use of the new resource.

“There’s nothing that wouldn’t make an inventive crowdfunding project,” Pinto said.