Funded: Making Room for Education Through Generosity

This is a submission for Weekend Challenge: Generosity Edition) What I Built I built Funded, a student-focused crowdfunding platform designed around generosity in education. Students can create fundraisers for tuition, books, housing, technology, course access, and other learning costs. Donors can discover real student stories, listen to an AI-generated audio introduction, and preview donation options. My goal was to make asking for educational support feel more human, transparent, and accessible. Funded helps students turn a few honest notes into a respectful campaign story, while giving donors clearer ways to understand who they are helping and why. Demo The demo shows the complete Funded experience: Discovering live student fundraisers Creating a campaign with the Gemini Story Coach Publishing the fundraiser instantly to the live feed Listening to an ElevenLabs-generated campaign narration Previewing a Dodo Payments checkout flow without making a real payment Donating through Phantom using Solana Devnet, with an on-chain transaction receipt Code https://github.com/kris70lesgo/funded How I Built It Funded is a React and TypeScript web application with a custom frontend focused on a calm, editorial crowdfunding experience. The interface uses a clean layout, warm student imagery, clear campaign cards, and simple donation flows so the product feels trustworthy rather than overwhelming. Campaign creation and publishing The fundraiser creation flow collects the information a donor actually needs to understand a request: Fundraiser title Education category Funding goal Student name Cover image Personal story Fundraiser updates Once a campaign is submitted, it is stored in Supabase and receives a unique slug-based URL. The application then redirects the student to their live fundraiser page. The campaign is also available in the Discover feed so other users can find it immediately. Campaign owners can delete their own fundraiser through an in-app confirmation interface. This was important because students should remain in control of the campaigns and stories they publish. Supabase Supabase is used for authentication and campaign data storage. The application supports normal email and password sign-up and sign-in. After a user signs in, the interface updates to show their account state instead of showing the Sign in action. Fundraiser records are stored in Supabase, including the title, category, story, funding goal, creator details, campaign progress, image, and publication date. The Discover page retrieves these campaigns so the public feed reflects newly published fundraisers instead of only showing static content. I also added sample fundraiser data to Supabase so the demo has realistic student campaigns available immediately. This helps demonstrate the complete donor experience from the first visit. Google Gemini: Story Coach One of the biggest barriers for students is knowing how to write a fundraiser story. Students may have a real need and a strong goal, but still struggle to explain it in a way that is clear, respectful, and comfortable to share. The Gemini Story Coach solves this by taking a few student-provided notes, such as: What they are studying What they need funding for Their achievements or current situation Their future goals Why this support matters now Gemini then helps create a well-structured campaign story. The output is designed to be supportive and concise, not exaggerated or manipulative. The student can always edit the story before publishing, keeping their own voice and control over the final fundraiser. ElevenLabs: Audio campaign stories Every fundraiser has the option to include an AI-generated audio narration powered by ElevenLabs. The narration turns the campaign story into a spoken introduction that donors can play directly on the fundraiser page. This adds an emotional and accessible layer to the platform. Instead of only reading a block of text, a donor can listen to the student’s goals and reason for fundraising. This feature is useful for accessibility, mobile users, and donors who connect more strongly with a spoken story. It also makes each fundraiser page feel more personal without requiring students to record their own audio. Solana and Phantom Funded supports a Solana donation flow through Phantom. For the hackathon demo, the integration uses Solana Devnet. When a donor chooses to contribute with SOL, the application prepares the transaction and asks the donor to approve it in their Phantom wallet. Funded never receives or stores wallet private keys. After approval, the transaction can be referenced as an on-chain receipt. This creates a transparent record of the contribution and demonstrates how blockchain can support trust in crowdfunding. Using Solana also helps show a future direction for Funded: transparent, low-friction support that can be verified publicly while still keeping the donor in control of their wallet. Dodo Payments Funded also includes a Dodo Payments checkout flow for donors who prefer a familiar checkout experience. For this hackathon demo, the Dodo checkout is shown as a preview only. No real payment is intentionally completed. This lets the project demonstrate how a traditional payment flow would fit into the platform while keeping the demo safe and focused on the user journey. Why these technologies matter together Funded combines these technologies to address different parts of the generosity experience: Supabase makes fundraisers persistent, live, and manageable. Google Gemini helps students communicate their needs with confidence. ElevenLabs gives fundraiser stories a more personal and accessible voice. Solana provides transparent, wallet-controlled contributions with on-chain proof. Dodo Payments provides a familiar checkout path for future real-world contributions. Together, these tools help turn generosity into something that is easier to ask for, easier to understand, and easier to trust. Prize Categories Best Use of Solana — Funded integrates Phantom wallet donations on Solana Devnet. Donors approve transactions in their own wallet, and the resulting transaction can act as transparent, public proof of support. Best Use of ElevenLabs — Funded generates playable audio narrations for fundraiser stories using ElevenLabs. This makes campaigns more personal and accessible for donors. Best Use of Google AI — Funded uses Gemini as a Story Coach that helps students transform a few honest notes into a clear, respectful, and shareable fundraiser story while keeping the student in control of the final content.