Crowdfunding gives city's worthy causes a chance

Feel like bankrolling an independent movie? What about an artist who makes treasures out of trash? Perhaps you'd rather support one young woman's dream of representing Hong Kong as an equestrian show jumper at the Asian Games.

Hong Kong's entrepreneurs and creative types have a new way of getting funding for their projects. The recently launched website FringeBacker has brought the growing trend of crowdfunding, where individuals decide to contribute money towards a project, to Hong Kong.

"In the US, indie movies funded through crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter have gone to Sundance and the Tribeca film festivals," said Vivien Chan Yee-wan, marketing director for the website.

"There is so much interesting, creative stuff going on in Hong Kong, but you never hear about it. This is a way for creative professionals to get the word out to regular people."

The website, which has been approved by the United Nations cultural arm Unesco, promotes projects in art, design, fashion, film, food, games, music, performance, publishing and technology. It was started by a group of investment professionals who realised there were projects with great potential that they could not support because the ideas weren't big or profitable enough, or didn't fall within the framework their companies required.

"Government funding can be restrictive - you don't know who's reviewing your application and if they really understand what it is you're trying to do," Chan said. "With institutions, you might not fit in with their aims, or you might be too small."

One of the latest projects on FringeBacker seeks funding for the care and training of horses for Jacqueline Lai Jing-man, a professional show jumper.