We’ve got a roundup of some unique and worthy crowdfunded projects to check out.

It seems you can’t scroll an inch through Facebook or Twitter these days without seeing a call to support a crowdfund project (or ten) featured on platforms like Kickstarter, Rally and Indiegogo. Maybe you’ve even started one of your own.

What’s so enticing about these crowdfunded social financing models is it’s helping shape the projects, product, art and causes that individuals and communities actually want, as opposed to giant corporations just giving us their preferred options to choose from.

This self-empowerment in turn helps us to send strong messages back to the corporatocracy about what we will and will not support, hopefully leading them towards developing more socially and environmentally supportive policies and products. These are exciting times indeed.

If you’ve not yet lent your support to a crowdfunded project, we’ve rounded up a few you might find particularly worthy. What’s also fun about social financing is there are incentives, often for nominal donations as low as $5 or $10. The more you give, the more you get, and while that’s not necessarily a reason to support a worthy cause, you can use the perks as gifts or even as a donation, if you feel called to.

1. Our own Foodie Underground columnist, Anna Brones, is working on a project about inspirational visionaries in Afghanistan called Afghan Dreamers.

2. Exile Nation: The Plastic People: This documentary film-in-process is a project about the mass-deportation of millions of Mexican-American immigrants and what happens when they’re forced out of the country.

3. Help build an urban garden in Ojai, California at the Topa Topa Elementary school.

4. Technology got you a little frazzled? Grab a handmade notebook (or several) to jot down your thoughts instead from Mirth and Company.

5. Love trees? Support non-profit efforts dedicated to rescuing timberlands from logging.

6. A film with a non-profit component tracks six women touring India, experiencing the harsh economic differences.

7. Support community in a unique experiment: walking the East Coast while holding hands. Results will be documented in books.

8. Keep one of Santa Monica’s most loved healthy and delicious raw food restaurants from shutting its doors. Euphoria Loves Rawvolution’s landlord has gone a little wacky and it’s threatening this long-time establishment.

Got a worthy crowd-funding project we should know about? Let me know on Twitter @jillettinger

 Image courtesy of Afghan Dreamers

The post 8 Eco and Socially Conscious Crowdfunded Projects Worth Supporting appeared first on EcoSalon.

Dutch designer Daniel Schipper has fashioned a pendant lamp out of recyclable white or transparent plastic. We dig the lamp’s modernity and versatility (it could just as easily light up a living room, office, or bedroom), but we’re even more fascinated by Schipper’s business model. He’s calling it the 100×100 lamp because he only plans to make 100 lamps and sell them for 100 Euros each. Production starts once pre-orders reach 100, and customers aren’t charged until then.

It’s an interesting concept, but it means that customers will have to wait indefinitely to receive their 100×100 lamp. On the flip side, it also means that Schipper doesn’t have to worry about footing the bill for production costs before he knows if there’s enough demand for the product.

So, what do you get for your 100 Euros? A lampshade, frame, transparent electrical wire, and a stainless steel lamp socket – which customers assemble themselves. But we’re guessing that most customers aren’t concerned about the price tag or the possible wait time, because they’re thrilled to be supporting an indie artist and getting a limited edition (not to mention eco-friendly) lamp in the process. Samples are on display at several locations in Amsterdam.

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