BIDDEFORD — A fledgling filmmaker in Seattle, who once lived in Biddeford, is trying to raise funds to finish her film on the children of immigrants who are working for social change.

A husband and wife who own a dye company at the Pepperell Mill Campus in Biddeford are trying to get financing to purchase equipment that would allow their company to grow.

A Sanford company is trying to secure funds to create a product that is good for the environment.

While these three projects are very different from one another, they all have one thing in common: They are all trying to raise funds through social media, using the Internet crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

Crowdfunding, which is making an appeal to a large number of individuals to help fund a project, isn’t new. According to the National Park Service website, in 1884, when a committee formed to raise money for the Statue of Liberty ran out of funds for the statute’s pedestal, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer took up the cause. By appealing to readers in his newspaper “New York News,” 125,000 people, most donating $1 or less, raised $100,000 within six months to pay for the pedestal.

Crowdfunding using the Internet, however, is a relatively new phenomenon.

Kickstarter was founded in 2009, and is the most well-known Internet crowdfunding platform, though there are many more.

According to the Kickstarter.com website, since it was founded, more than 4.4 million people have pledged more than $685 million to fund more than 44,000 creative projects.

Kickstarter can be use to raise funds for many types of creative projects. Anyone who meets the guidelines can launch a project. Project creators set a funding goal and deadline and only receive money if they reach their goal. This can be a benefit for contributors who know that their pledge will only be collected if there is enough money to complete the project.

Forty-four percent of Kickstarter projects reach their goal, according to the website.

Saco River Dyehouse in Biddeford, owned by Claudia and Ken Raessler, has already surpassed its goal of raising $25,000 to purchase “package dyeing” also know as “cone dyeing” equipment.

With this equipment, the dyehouse, which began operating at the beginning of the year, will be able to grow. The equipment will enable the company to dye different types of yarn, said Claudia Raessler on Tuesday.

Currently, the dyehouse, which is the only organically certified facility in the country, she said, mostly dyes wool. The new equipment will allow the company to dye finer cotton thread.

“Cone dyeing opens up a new set of customers,” said Raessler.

In addition, she said the equipment will allow the company to be more cost and energy efficient. With the purchase, Raessler said she believes the company will be able to reach its target of dyeing 12,000 to 13,000 pounds of yarn per month.

The company has already grown in the six months it’s been in operation, from dying 2,000 pounds of yarn per month to 6,000 pounds.

Raessler said she sought funding through a Kickstarter campaign because “it’s certainly a great way to fund start-up projects.”

Unlike a loan, the money doesn’t have to be paid back, but conducting the campaign is lot of work, said Raessler. Even before the campaign began, she said, she devoted a significant amount of time writing a detailed description of the project and providing other information.

Once the campaign began, a large part of Raessler’s work day was devoted to using social media like Facebook and Twitter to reach a wider audience of people who may be interested in contributing. There are also updates to write and thank-you’s to those who have contributed.

It’s like a full-time job, she said.

Raessler said she has been fortunate that the knitting community has embraced her cause and most of the contributions have come from people she doesn’t know. She said she believes they are people who support the project and are also interested in what they receive for their money. For instance, with a $48 pledge or more, contributors receive skeins of yarn from the dyehouse.

While many who conduct Kickstarter campaigns reach their goal, not all are successful, as more than half of the projects ”“ 56 percent ”“ fail to meet the mark.

The Casco Bay Molding Company in Sanford, which has a month left to reach its $47,000, faces an uphill battle. According to the description on Kickstarter, Casco Bay Molding is seeking funding for molds and parts to enable it to produce silicone wrappers to be used in conjunction with glass Ball jars to create toxin-free and environmentally friendly water bottles. So far, the company has raised only about $3,500.

Then, there are those project that won’t know until the very end whether they are successful.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” said filmmaker Christina Antonakos-Wallace, whose family hails from Biddeford.

With only eight days to go, she has raised a little more than half of her $23,000 goal.

Antonakos-Wallace is hoping to raise money to hire an editor so she can complete her film “with WINGS and ROOTS.”

The independent, documentary, feature-length film follows the lives of the five children of immigrants in New York and Berlin for five years.

The film focuses on how each of these people search for a sense of belonging.

“Grappling with the pressure to assimilate on one hand, and the pressure to ”˜preserve’ their cultures on the other, they forge new paths as they take the next major steps in their lives: Career, marriage, children and pursuing the right to citizenship,” said Antonakos-Wallace in a statement describing the film.

The filmmaker, who has directed, produced and videotaped the film, said she was attracted to starting a Kickstarter campaign because as a first-time filmmaker, “It’s difficult to access traditional funding streams.”

Philosophically, she likes the idea of crowdfunding, said Antonakos-Wallace.

“It’s exciting,” she said.

It provides a new source of funding for “younger and newer filmmakers with different experiences and backgrounds.”

Both for films and other projects, said Antonakos-Wallace, crowdfunding allows individuals to have more input in the creation of projects and products.

Visit kickstarter.com to find out more information or contribute to these projects.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.