Franklin Templeton 529 Tool Leverages Crowd Funding

Franklin Templeton Investments announced the launch of its new crowdfunding tool “Spryng,” designed for use by NJBEST and Franklin Templeton 529 College Savings Plan account holders.

Pronounced “spring,” the new tool was developed to “harness the power of crowdfunding and social media, by creating a secure and convenient method to engage family and friends in saving for future higher education expenses.”

“When saving for college, it’s important to start early, invest regularly and ask family and friends for help,” explains Roger Michaud, director of college savings for Franklin Templeton Investments. “Spryng helps put those tenets to work by creating a seamless and secure environment where family and friends can contribute to a child’s or family member’s college education.”

Within the Spryng system, the account creates a customizable profile, featuring a personal message and information on savings goals. Once the profile is established, Spryng generates a secure URL that can be emailed or shared with potential gift givers via various social media platforms. When gift givers access the gifting profile, they can choose an amount to contribute, with a minimum of $10 and a maximum  of $2,500.

Payments are validated in real time, the firm says, and the system automatically emails a transaction confirmation to the gift giver with a thank you message from the account owner.

More information is available here.