Part of the Project
Thundafund, South Africa’s crowdfunding equivalent to Kickstarter, kicks off a campaign today to drive support for social initiative #ANOTHERLIGHTUP. Design Indaba Trust launched the initiative in collaboration with renowned South African street artist Faith47 and designer consultancy Thingking in February 2014.
#ANOTHERLIGHTUP uses street art to entice the public to create measurable change in the community of Monwabisi Park, Cape Town. The initiative's members consulted with the organisation VPUU (Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrade) whose active groundwork in Khayelitsha has seen a marked decline in crime over the last few years. Together, they devised a plan to raise money for streetlights in a high-crime area in Monwabisi Park. These will light up a 500m pathway that joins public taps with community meeting places to make the area a safer space for community members and – in particular – children, who are most often the victims of violent crime.
Faith47 painted the mural, named “Harvest”, on one of the council buildings in District Six alongside the city's busy De Waal Drive. Thingking embedded LED lights into the mural, which are activated by Twitter. When someone Tweets #anotherlightup they light up momentarily, while when someone donates money to the cause the lights switch on for an entire night. This feedback indicates to the public that the community is working together to light up another, less privileged, part of their community – bridging the gap between the geographically disparate areas.
The Thundafund campaign features tiers adding value to those who pledge money or time to the project. Different sponsorship amounts will receive tokens of thanks – in the form of recognition, product or experience – once the campaign reaches completion. According to Thundafund's model of encouraging a mindset of collaboration and active involvement, contributors are perceived as “backing the project” rather than simply donating to it.
Backing tiers and their corresponding value are as follows:
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1. Basic tier (R100+) |
Lights switch on for one night; recognition on anotherlightup.com, Facebook and Twitter |
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2. R200 |
Set of three postcards of the artwork (“Harvest”) by Faith47 (10 cm x 15 cm) |
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3. R400 |
Editioned archival print of “Harvest” (35 cm x 23 cm) |
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4. R600 |
Invitation to community launch event in Monwabisi |
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5. R1 000 |
A guided, group tour of Cape Town street art |
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6. R1 000 |
Limited-edition signed print of “Harvest” – edition of 30 (50 cm x 30 cm) |
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7. R5 000 |
Large archival print of “Harvest” – edition of 7 (70 cm x 46 cm) |
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8. R10 000 |
Exclusive print of “Harvest” on Diasec – edition of 7 (85 cm x 50 cm) |
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9. R25 000 |
In-house dot matrix LED display with customizable animated graphics (10 cm x 10 cm) |
*Tiers exclude international shipping.
Donations of R50 000 or more will receive partner status and branding on all future marketing collateral.
The Thundafund campaign ends at midnight on 3 August 2014.
