Deep Ellum Urban Garden Needs Help, and Gets Some, In Effort to Raise Some Green

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Oct. 25 2011 at 3:02 PM

Categories: Development

A couple of weeks back we noted: The Deep Ellum Community Association is in desperate need of seed money to plant a long-in-the-works urban garden at Canton and Good-Latimer -- $25,000, to be precise, for such things as benches, fences, tools and, ya know, plants. Hence their fund-raising efforts via CrowdTilt, a Mockingbird Lane-based start-up a la Kickstarter that helps those in need (or merely in want) find the funds.

But here's the deal: While the Deep Ellum Urban Garden needs $25,000, it would like to raise at least $10,000. And right now, it's stuck at $4,718.49. And if it can't come up with the remaining $5,200 and change before midnight Halloween, it won't get a penny of the amount pledged. Which is why CrowdTilt's founders have pledged to match up to $1,000 in total donations -- but only for donations made today, meaning midnight tonight.

James Beshara, CEO and co-founder of CrowdTilt, says the garden's raised $550 just today, which means, so far, CrowdTilt will kick in another $550. "And that's good, but if they get up to $1,000, that means they'll get another $1,000," he says. "And I think they'll hit $1,000."

I asked the 25-year-old: Why is a new company that helps others ask for money actually kicking in some of its own for the Deep Ellum Urban Garden. To which he responds: "We just really love this camapgin. We want it to tilt. They've been working for a year to get permits, and they knew fund-raising was going to be their biggest issue, because they couldn't contitbute too much themselves. We have matched a few other campaigns we've really liked, but it was out of our pockets. And we're all really young. We don't have too much ourselves."

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