By Luisa Stefania Leyva

A student team designed a plan with the aim of helping people with good ideas find support for their projects.

Their plan, the Tipping Bucket, won the team first place and $10,000 at the BYU Sixth Annual Social Venture Competition, according to a news release.

The competition motivates students to share their interests in local, national or global social issues and submit a business plan that meets the issue’s needs.

Team members are SaraJoy Pond, Josh McLane and Shawn Moore. Pond started the Tipping Bucket idea.

“I woke up in the morning with the Tipping Bucket idea in my head,” she said. “The first person I called was Shawn and I told him, ‘Is this completely crazy? Could it work?’”

Pond said her life experiences helped her come up with the idea. “The Tipping Bucket idea is a combination of the people that I know that have these amazing ideas but don’t have the money, and the power of social networking that I’ve learned from my studies and my little sister,” Pond said.

For the Tipping Bucket team, one dollar may not just be a drop in the bucket but it may also be a significant help to fund diverse social venture projects.

Pond said the team would be using the money it was awarded in the competition to start developing the Tipping Bucket system. They will develop a Web site and Facebook, Twitter and iPhone applications, where people will be able to make donations to fund innovative projects.
In this way, as a tipping bucket in rain, they will be able to find funding — each donation will eventually make a significant difference in the world.

“Each project will have a deadline and a funding goal — the tipping point that will enable that project to succeed,” said McLane, a law student from Mission Viejo, Calif., in a news release. “If the bucket tips before time runs out, all pledged donations are collected and the project moves forward. If not, then none of the donations go through and a new project gets its turn in the bucket.”

 “One of the most unique things from our organization is that it has allowed each of the other organizations to have a founding available to it,” Moore said. “Instead of just helping one cause, we help an endless amount of causes.”

The Tipping Bucket plan will also give a significant service opportunity to BYU students.
“BYU is unique and has many people that have experienced life in another culture and in another place and they understand the challenges that are facing individuals in these countries better than just anyone else,” Pond said. “At BYU, we have all these people that are more in touch with the real challenges of the developing world than anyone else and I know they have ideas.”

The Tipping Bucket project will be tested this fall semester and will be accessible to all BYU students.

People interested in helping with the project may contact Pond at sarajoypond@gmail.com.