Following our proud campaign earlier this year to help Australia's Ros Lawrence finance her title-defending entry to the 2013 Extreme Kayak World Championships, Sportscene joins forces with Sportaroo, the crowd-funding platform that made it possible.

Sportaroo is an exciting sports-sponsorship medium that allows the general public and businesses to be directly involved in funding athletes to get them to where they want to be.

Successful canoeing campaigns include, as mentioned, Ros Lawrence raised $4863 dollars to get her to the 2013 Adidas Sickline (not far off now) exceeding her $4000 target, K1M slalomist Will Forsythe (AUS) achieved his $2000 goal getting $2745 to fund his spot in the forthcoming World Champions in Prague and the largest ever Australian Freestyle Team has earned $1,103 towards their flights and equipment to the 2013 ICF Freestyle Kayaking World Championship on the Nantahala River in North Carolina on 2nd September.

(Two of the most prominent Sportaroo movements were in Australian bobsleigh; the national women's pair boosted funding up to a staggering $21,925 while the 2-man national team earned $13,538 – both were for new sleds.)

So what does this Sportscene-Sportaroo partnership mean for the paddling community:

• Athletes will be able to directly widen their profile and promote their campaign globally
• Increase Sportscene's involvement with paddling charity projects
• Put athletes in touch with potential corporate sponsors

How does it work?

With a 90% success rate, it helps provide a critical revenue stream for grassroots clubs, professional teams and high-performance athletes using urgency created by the crowd-sourcing model; a set target has to be reached by a fixed date in this 'all-or-nothing' approach.

Sponsors and the public can register for free to browse exclusive merchandise and experiences offered by the campaigner, or, expecting nothing in return, they can contribute any small sum for the satisfaction of helping a worthy cause.

Campaigners pay 10% commission, plus payment processing, if their campaign is successful.

More about Sportaroo

Sportaroo, launched in Australia in March 2013, has already expanded to the UK with more forecasted growth into the US and European markets predicted.

Their 6 executives are all highly-experienced entrepreneurs, two are ex-elite athletes; Richard Briggs was a former English Premier League footballer for West Bromwich Albion and Ashley Howden a former world-ranked ITF tennis player.

Links:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXUl9QXrAPY

www.sportaroo.com/kayakers