Call it the "Little Bailout That Could(n't)." By Thursday, just three days after the now-infamous "Greek Bailout Fund" launched on Indiegogo, the campaign had raised an impressive 1.5 million euros (roughly $1.7 million). Of course, that's merely a fraction of the ambitious goal of 1.6 billion euros (about $1.8 billion) the unofficial fundraising proposal needs to raise by July 6, meaning the chances are pretty high that contributors will get their money back. A breakdown of the crowdfunding donors shows that people from the U.K., Germany, France and Spain, as well as the U.S., have pledged the most to the campaign, according to data provided by Indiegogo. The most generous states were California, New York, Texas and Massachusetts. "[I]f a man who works in a London shoe shop can get closer to solving the Greek financial crisis than David Cameron and Angela Merkel, maybe we all need to take a good hard look at the world," Thom Feeney, the 29-year-old Londoner who created the campaign, told The Huffington Post in an email. News coverage of the campaign likely led to a spike in donations. The Indegogo page saw an average rate of 1,200 contributions per hour this week. The largest pledge -- as of Wednesday evening -- was $5,586. As of Thursday morning, more than 84,000 people had contributed. (Even actress Emma Watson is on board.) The majority of donations were under 6 euros (around $6.65). For that, the contributors would receive a postcard of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. But as Slate points out, Feeney's campaign seems a little undercooked. Even if he raises enough funds, he has said he isn't familiar with Greek politics and doesn't have a clear plan on how he would distribute the perks earned by those who pledge money. Greece missed its $1.8 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. Tsipras has been pushing for Greeks to vote "no" in a referendum this Sunday on a proposed bailout, and European leaders have warned that a refusal to accept the bailout terms could result in the loss of Greece's eurozone membership. Many banks in Greece were closed this week, with a tight limit on cash withdrawals. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com |
