SAMOHI — Volunteers raising money for a documentary following the Santa Monica High School choir successfully hit their fundraising goal just hours before all of the donations slipped from their grasp.
Filmmaker Varda Hardy put the concept into motion, with the intent of showing the value of arts programming in public schools.
She formed a team of parents and interested volunteers, and began the arduous process of filming and fundraising.
The team used the website Kickstarter.com, a Web site where interested people can solicit donations for projects like the documentary. The goal was $40,000, and they had until midnight Tuesday to reach it.
Kickstarter.com comes with a catch. It costs less to use than other similar crowd-funding sites, but if the group doesn’t make their goal in the allotted time, it gets none of the money.
“Monday the 10th was insane,” wrote Deb Love, a producer of “Big Voice.” “At the end of the night Sunday, we were $6,000 away from our goal. But the donations started pouring in Monday.”
At 3:21 p.m. Monday, the team reached their goal of $40,000, and the money kept rolling in. By the end of the day, donations reached $44,670.
“It was incredibly humbling and moving to see the overwhelming show of support from friends, family, community and supporters who heard about us through the Internet,” Love wrote.
The $40,000 will be used as seed money to keep production going as they continue to raise funds.
Anyone interested in being a donor, sponsor or investor can e-mail bigvoicemovie@gmail.com
ashley@www.smdp.com