Top 5 Craziest Crowdfunding Projects

People Paid Money For This?

For those who aren’t in the know, Peter Strzok made headlines when he took on the wrath of a rather irate Republican hearing after it was revealed he had sent a text to his girlfriend that included some rather inflammatory language about President Trump. Strzok nonetheless held his ground and earned the admiration of the public in the process, to the point where even after he was fired he managed to launch a GoFundMe page that has already garnered $130,000. While that may be impressive, it still pales in comparison to some of these confusing escapades.

#5: +POOL [Floating Swimming Pool in New York]

On the surface, this may seem like a novel idea for a tourist attraction. But its benefits reach beyond that: it could also be crucial for cleaning the waters around the Big Apple. +POOL acts as a giant filtration system to sterilize the liquid around you to make a totally safe pool that is available to all sorts of different swimmers. Your little contribution can buy you a tile that will go towards building the pool, while your name will forever be part of incredibly important scientific research that will hopefully significantly improve the environment of the city.

#4: Solar Roadways

Over $2 million has been sourced for a plan that, if put into place, could light up and heat roads to create a far safer experience for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Even though there have been a number of claims from backers that the whole idea is a scam, these solar panel roadways have gained interest from councils and road authorities convinced by the legitimacy of the project. If the engineering kinks can be worked out, this could be the beginning of a whole new era of eco-friendly energy that has the potential to power the world.

#3: Realise Minas Tirith

You can already walk around the Hobbiton village movie set, but how’d you like to live and work in the capital of the Kingdom of Gondor? That’s what a group of architects were proposing to build for a small fee of £1.85 billion or approximately $2.9 billion. Perhaps understandably, the campaign came nowhere close to its goal – though it did raise over £85,000 – which means your dream of becoming a Lord or Lady of Minas Tirith will likely never be realized. Though the people behind the project fully admitted that it had “virtually no chance of succeeding,” had “Realise Minas Tirith” reached its gargantuan target, it surely could’ve been a fully functioning tourist attraction and home to hundreds of Middle-earth enthusiasts everywhere.

#2: Pornhub Space Program – SEXPLORATION

One of the biggest porn sites on the web, PornHub has been surprisingly active in diversifying their business: they’ve run a breast cancer awareness campaign and even initiated a program that will see over 15,000 trees planted. This particular project, however, would not only have been the first ever sex tape shot in space, but also claimed to be valuable to science to assess how certain appendages operate in zero gravity. It sadly fell well short of its $3.4 million target, but we still expect to see much more from the adult site in the future.

#1: Potato Salad

A mere 10 bucks was the asking price to create a modest potato salad through Kickstarter. But it snowballed into a viral sensation that included a potato salad party, recipe book and, of course, the aforementioned salad. A similar project involving a chicken burrito saw one man make enough cash to graph how delicious it is to eat the Mexican treat while skydiving. The potato salad still eclipsed that in terms of money made though – earning over $55,000 – so it stands as the ultimate joke-turned-crowdfunding success story!

Be sure to check out the video below to see our picks for the Top 10 Video Game Kickstarter Fails.