{"id":26861,"date":"2016-05-02T16:32:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T20:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=26861"},"modified":"2016-05-02T16:33:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T20:33:10","slug":"crowdfunding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/crowdfunding\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheese Talk: Curd Mentality"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2011, when Oliver Dameron and Sarah Dvorak were in the final stages of starting Mission Cheese<\/a>, their San Francisco–based shop and caf\u00e9, they were down to the wire and out of money. Their dream of opening a neighborhood spot to celebrate American artisan curds was suddenly on the line. \u201cWe were like, \u2018What are we going to do?\u2019\u201d Dameron says.<\/p>\n

So the couple turned to Indiegogo<\/a>, a website that funds independent businesses or projects through user donations. The concept was still fairly new, but they had nothing to lose. The pair launched the campaign, spread the word, and within a month received more than $12,000 from interested backers.<\/p>\n

Crowdfunding has been on the rise in recent years, with food-based projects in particular seeing a considerable jump. On sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe, CrowdRise, and others, many cheese-related enterprises are mobilizing their social networks to get the dough they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of activity in the world of food crowdfunding—the category has grown incredibly,\u201d says Terry Romero, an outreach lead at Kickstarter. In fact, at press time, food-based projects on the site had received more than $60.5 million from backers, which constitutes roughly four percent of the $1.5 billion the crowdfunding platform has brought in since its launch in 2009.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no shortage of cheese success stories these days. Elizabeth and Peter Mulholland, the folks behind Valley View Farmstead Cheeses<\/a> in Massachusetts, used the $25,000 they raised to build a 16-by-30-foot geothermal cave for aging semi-pressed goat cheeses. Austin Genke of North Carolina\u2013based Boxcarr Handmade Cheese<\/a> collected cash to pay for the dairy\u2019s pasteurizer and get its Italian-style, soft-ripened cheese on shelves. Nicole Lang turned to crowdfunding to film the documentary \u201cPimento Cheese, Please!\u201d<\/a>, about the beloved Southern spread. Cheese lovers are stepping up and putting their money where their mouths are—big time.<\/p>\n

\"MissionCheese_sidebar\"<\/a><\/div>\n

It\u2019s now been four years since Mission Cheese opened its doors, and Dameron says he enjoys watching supporters searching the restaurant\u2019s sheep mural for their names, all in hand-drawn script to resemble the flock\u2019s wool. Crowdfunding has created a lasting sense of belonging for their customers. It\u2019s a common refrain from entrepreneurs behind successful campaigns: They get a lot more than money in the process.<\/p>\n

Take Casey Schoch and her husband, Dave, who used Kickstarter (and some serious hustle) to amass an impressive $50,345 in 2014. Schoch Dairy & Creamery<\/a> backers have helped them maintain motivation while they work on opening their family-run creamery in Oregon. \u201cWe have people every day saying, \u2018We can\u2019t wait! I\u2019m telling all my neighbors and friends,\u2019\u201d Casey says. \u201cInnately, I think people want to help other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sasha Davies, everything changed the day she received an $800 order of Montgomery\u2019s Cheddar and realized it was far too much product for her Portland, Ore., restaurant, Cyril\u2019s<\/a>. To distribute the excess, she started a community-supported cheese club<\/a> in 2013: Members who donate on Kickstarter pick up their wedges at monthly parties that include pairings, lectures, and occasional cheesemaker visits. The club draws an average of 45 people each month, with many repeat customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become this amazing, really sweet, genuine community,\u201d Davies says. (On the two-year anniversary, three people even had perfect attendance.) It\u2019s an excuse for folks to get together, learn a little something, and above all, eat cheese. \u201cThis is not really a moneymaker for us,\u201d she says. \u201cBut that\u2019s not necessarily the point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Mission Cheese<\/a><\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheese businesses are turning to crowdfunding platforms for extra cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[589],"tags":[],"coauthors":[867],"class_list":["post-26861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-talk"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCheese Talk: Curd Mentality - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/crowdfunding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheese Talk: Curd Mentality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cheese businesses are turning to crowdfunding platforms for extra cash.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/crowdfunding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-02T20:32:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-02T20:33:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MissionCheese_featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Cammorata\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nicole Cammorata\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/crowdfunding\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/crowdfunding\/\",\"name\":\"Cheese Talk: Curd Mentality - 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