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Begging for cash on the subway might get you a few nickels, but on the Internet, the cash just rolls in.
When sixth-grade English teacher Elianna Lippold-Johnson was told she had only $110 to spend on school supplies for her classroom at South Bronx Preparatory — which has no library, and a shortage of pencils, notebooks and paper — she decided to appeal to the kindness of strangers.
“My students are aware that they go to a ‘ghetto’ school,” Lippold-Johnson, 24, wrote on IndieGoGo.com, where she launched a campaign to raise $800. Within weeks, she had raised $1,137.
“I was able to buy curtains, rugs, bookshelves and tons of books,” she told The Post. “I bought a couch, where kids can sit and read.”
Her first donors were her own friends and family, but soon strangers were pouring dough into her PayPal account — asking only that in return she post pictures of the renovated classroom.
Online sites have “completely democratized fund-raising, except for porn and anything illegal,” said IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin, whose site has funded 35,000 projects.
The site takes 4 percent of cash raised from users who meet their goal, and 9 percent from those who fall short, thus encouraging them to fund-raise with realistic objectives. “Crowd-funding” or “micro-funding” sites like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter are funneling cash to artists, entrepreneurs — and even plain old beggars.
Aspiring actor Jeffery Self, 24, panhandled electronically to pay off a $3,400 dental bill after chipping a front tooth. He posted a video of his mangled mouth on IndieGoGo and in two days had $3,650 wired to his PayPal account — the bulk from strangers.
“Most people just gave between $1 and $5, but it added up,” said Self. “We’re all obsessed with online bullying, but there’s also the power to do something just to help a stranger out.”
Another campaign, “Scooter Needs a Wheelchair,” raised $500 for a paralyzed cat.
“Her back legs move, but she really can’t propel herself around,” said Lori Ketcham, director of Long Island’s Save the Animals Rescue Foundation. “We’ve been talking about getting a wheelchair for her since last summer but we’re on a shoestring budget.”
Ketcham posted a sad video of Scooter dragging herself around with only her front legs and it took just one weekend to pay for the wheelchair, which Scooter is now using to walk.
And a Brooklyn couple, who lost their life savings in 2008 after their Bay Ridge bakery went under, recently raised a life-changing $8,755, which allowed them to open a new storefront at Dekalb Market.
“The Dekalb Market wanted us to be their anchor tenant, but I told them there was no way I’d ever have an extra $10,000 to pay for it,” said Allison Robicelli, who opened her new shop two weeks ago.
“People thought, for the price of a burger and fries, we’ll just give it to them instead,” she said. “It was amazing.”