The June 2015 round of online crowdfunding initiative Dreamstarter, presented by ING DIRECT, StartSomeGood and the School for Social Entrepreneurs, is its most successful to date after raising over $137,000 for social impact projects in just three weeks.

Dreamstarter projects included an ethical fashion store and an artisan bakery both training people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds; a mobile shower service for people sleeping rough, a business college helping to service accounting needs for non-profits and addressing youth unemployment on the Central Coast of NSW and a Fair Trade café in Brisbane.

One Voice’s Mobile Shower Service was the most successful individual Dreamstarter campaign to date, crowdfunding over $45,000. “We already have one mobile shower service running in Melbourne. The success of our Dreamstarter campaign will enable us to fit-out another bus with two shower cubicles in the rear and a health consulting space at the front. Once fitted out, we hope to launch the Mobile Shower Service in Sydney,” said Josh Wilkins – Founder of One Voice.

Dreamstarter Jackie Ruddock of The Social Outfit said: “Dreamstarter has been a great success for us; it means so much to us to exceed our target and raise over $11,500. The support of ING DIRECT has introduced a new audience to our work. We can’t wait to keep growing our impact, sharing more creative talent from Sydney’s refugee and new migrant communities.”

Launched in 2013,Dreamstarter is an online platform presented in partnership with StartSomeGood and the School for Social Entrepreneurs and uses crowdfunding to provide seed funding to candidates to get their ideas for social impact projects off the ground. ING DIRECT pledges up to 50% of a project’s ‘tipping point’ with the rest raised by the community.

David Breen, Head of Corporate Affairs, ING DIRECT said: “Dreamstarter gives ING DIRECT the opportunity to join with our customers and the wider community to help get some of Australia’s most inspired social impact projects off the ground.

“Our June round was our most successful yet. More money was raised than ever before and all live projects achieved their crowdfunding goal and are now one step closer to creating positive social impact in our community.”

Key Dreamstarter facts:

• June round: Seven projects raised $137,726 from over 363 people. ING DIRECT pledged $43,700 with the rest raised from customers and the wider community
• Since 2013, Dreamstarter has raised almost $1/2 million for 38 social impact projects in Australia tackling issues in our community ranging from health, education, social welfare and the environment.

Visit www.ingdirect.com.au/dreamstarter to find out more about the projects in Dreamstarter 2015.

Media contacts:

• Kristen Costandi, PR Manager, ING DIRECT, +61 2 9018 5160, +61 413 317 225
• Rhonda Yanitsas, Communications Manager, School for Social Entrepreneurs  +61 438691 097

Dreamstarter 2015

• www.campaigns.ingdirect.com.au/dreamstarter

The Social Outfit:

• Website: http://thesocialoutfit.org/pages/about
• Twitter: @TheSocialOutfit
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheSocialOutfit
• Instagram: @thesocialoutfit

One Voice:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneVoiceAU
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/OneVoiceAU
• You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOn8ZV8qX7llSIbKHNUU2vw

About ING DIRECT
ING DIRECT changed the way Australians bank 15 years ago by launching the country’s first high interest, fee free online savings account. Since then, we’ve brought this low fee value to home loans, transactional banking and superannuation. With over 1.5 million customers – and $32 billion in savings and $38 billion in mortgages – ING DIRECT has the highest Net Promoter Score of any bank. Australia’s most recommended bank according to Nielsen Consumer Media View, Sep ’14 –Feb ’15 (n=10,220).

About StartSomeGood
StartSomeGood is a crowdfunding platform for social innovation. They aim to create an “everyone a changemaker” world, where anyone with an idea for creating a better future is empowered to make it happen. They connect your dream with the people and resources you need to make an impact. www.startsomegood.com

About the School for Social Entrepreneurs
School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Australia inspires and equips changemakers and social entrepreneurs to establish, scale and sustain social ventures that foster social and economic participation, and create a lasting impact within disadvantaged communities. Their vision is a community powering positive changemakers for a more inclusive and sustainable world.
http://sse.org.au/