2012 was the year that crowdsourcing became mainstream.

Massive crowdsourcing ventures like Kickstarter, TaskRabbit, or My Gengo have emerged as viable businesses to facilitate the model of crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing is essentially the use of large numbers of people to support a common goal. On Kickstarter for example, people can begin a project such as releasing a new studio album. They would then raise the funds they need to complete their album through donations from hundreds or thousands) of people. Each person would only contribute a small amount, but the collective (crowdsourced) efforts would generate the needed capital to complete the project.

If you were a child of the eighties/nineties like I was you may remember “With out powers combined….I AM CAPTAIN PLANET!”

Maybe a lame reference, but you get my point!

Crowdsource Student Loan Payments

How would you feel about raising funds from a large number of people to payoff your student loans?

Do you think you could get friends, family, coworkers, or random strangers to donate to your cause?

What if you provided an incentive. For example, if you contribute $5 towards my “student loan payoff fund” I will bake you cookies, or I will give you a hand painted watercolor.

Do you think it’s viable to harness the power of crowdsourcing to raise enough money to payoff your student loans?

The website GoFundMe.Com is doing exactly that.

They are not specifically a student loan payoff crowdsource site, but education is the second most popular cause to support. It’s legitimate and people are really making this happen.

Corporate Crowdsource Student Loan Payment

If you are not on board with asking for donations from your loved ones and perfect strangers who are contributing out of the goodness of their heart, what if you sought out businesses to do the same thing?

Businesses spend a lot of money on advertising each year. Their goal is to get the word out about their company, product, brand, etc.

To build a brand, many companies spend a lot of money to paint themselves as humanitarians, loyal to their customers, servants of all mankind. What better way to put these words into true action than to spend their advertising dollars to pay off someone’s student loans?

What would you do if a company gave you $5,000 to payoff your student loans?

I imagine you would shout that from the rooftops, right?

You would tell all of your friends and family. You would most likely post something on Facebook, Twitter, other social media. You would spread the word as far as possible.

If done correctly, the business would likely get much more out of their $5,000 investment because of the positive publicity resulting from their donation.

What are your thoughts?

Would you consider this as a business owner?

Would you be happy to be a spokesperson for a business fi they paid off your student loans?