I feel like there’s probably no single way to do a good deed, nor a single cause that should take precedence over another. There are lots of needs in the world, and lots of people who are passionate about different areas of life and with different things to offer – maybe you have time, maybe you have skills, maybe you have money.
For people who feel time-poor but financially stable, crowdfunding schemes have been a great way to lend support to things you care about – be it the arts, charities, or a small local business or initiative. LinkedFinance are one such agency helping this process take place in Ireland. LinkedFinance lenders can lend directly to small businesses looking for funding. Crowd Funding provides transparency to both the lender and borrower and it brings lending back to basics – a lender simply deposits funds and when there are enough funds available, loans can be made to creditworthy borrowers.
“We offer trustworthy, small businesses a new viable alternative to borrowing from the banks.”
Vegan restaurant Corncuopia is one business hoping to make the system work for them and for you. In 2008, 300o people signed a petition that helped the restaurant to reverse a planning refusal to convert no. 20 Wicklow Street into an extended Cornucopia restaurant space, now they’re ready to work on building the new service counter, and they’re inviting you to get involved again.
How do you do it? You register as a lender on Linked Finance, then go to ‘The Marketplace’, find Cornucopia and place a bid to lend to us!
What do you get out of it? Lenders get good interest rates and are paid back over three years. You can bid to lend from €50 upwards. Some favourable bids come with additional bonuses to make sure you check those out in the Special Offers section too. There are only a few hours left to get involved, so enjoy making it happen if you decide to.
Why is it important? How many Vegan restaurants can you list off that you know of in Dublin? Our capital city…Not many? Meat production practices in the world are not the kindest part of our society at present and eating less meat can actually help that. If we demand less of it, maybe the meat we do it can be more sustainably and humanely produced. Think vegan-ing it up isn’t for you? It might not be, but having the option of great vegetarian or vegan food in more places, or getting it quicker in the places we do have thanks to a swish new counter, all helps, little by little. It’s hard to be vegan if there’s no where vegan to go.
