It’s not surprising to note that today, people benefit from crowdfunding platforms to raise funds for materializing a business idea or to afford medical emergencies. Sometimes, people also ask relatives and friends to help them go on a dream vacation.

However, one of the most amazing benefits of crowdfunding is to use it for funding your children’s college education.

Thanks to advancements in technology and networking, 529 plans or the accounts that allow families to put away cash for college, have successfully added crowdfunding-like tools for making things easier.

You can ask your family members and friends to contribute for helping your child go to college.

Parents who already have a 529 plan are also likely to receive larger gifts. There is enough data to prove that 36% of parents who had a 529 plan revealed that they asked friends and family to fund their children’s college funds, compared to merely 30% of parents who didn’t have one. Moreover, parents who have a 529 plan, also revealed they received gifts of over $200 from friends and family.

Creating a 529 plan for your child is simple. There are plenty of plans available, and each of these has different investment options. Once you find the most suitable 529 to go well with your family's needs, you can enroll yourself online. You can also take help of a professional financial advisor. As soon as you enroll, you have a place to stack your gifts.

Since account holders also have the liberty to create web pages, they can easily share the links on Twitter and Facebook. This is why most parents ask for monetary contributions instead of other expensive gifts that have little value in their child’s life.

This way, people can also fund the college education of children who have lost their parents. Money is withdrawn from the giver's checking account is placed directly into the 529, without any service charges.

As student loans continue to wreak havoc on recent college graduates, it is natural for new parents to not want to pay this ‘family heirloom’ forward. 

Crowdfunded 529 plans can help you avoid borrowing loans that are difficult to pay later. Family and friends increase your savings funds by making valuable contributions on a consistent basis. Most parents fail to save enough to protect their children’s future since they are still paying their own student loans.

That’s why establishing a crowdfunded 529 plan is the best way to secure your child’s college expenses.

Crowd sourcing gifts go a long way to make sure your children get the best of education.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to the popularity of crowdfunding platforms, you can easily create a free account and link it to your 529 account. The Gift of Education has no set up fees and the entire process is easy to track your savings with a simple dashboard. Hence, you can make the most out of your 529 plans for collecting as many contributions as possible.

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