“We are extremely excited about this new opportunity for students interested in joining our College,” says Jade Burke, President of OMNI College, a school specialized in training internationally-educated nurses for the Canadian workforce. “It will help open doors for some individuals that were once closed”.

Historically, students within Canada who already have citizenship or permanent residency have a multitude of options to finance their education costs – through student loans, bursaries, low-interest bank loans, and the like. However, international students have not had the same opportunities. They had to either come up with the money on their own, or borrow from banks within their country, some facing exorbitant interest rates.

Through this new partnership, student applicants can raise the money for their study plans. They can set up campaigns online that will be shared across their social media platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube) reaching out to their worldwide network of friends and family asking each one to help contribute funds towards his/her study goals. A few hundred dollars from one uncle, twenty dollars from a friend, fifty dollars from a cousin in another country, it all adds up. Friends who manage to share their campaigns will help spread the word out to even greater ‘crowds’ of people and soon students may potentially see strangers who were inspired by their story want to contribute and help them reach their goals. And all the transactions are managed by PayPal, the world’s largest online payment processing company, which is trusted worldwide.

Nurses around the world are not all regarded as they are in Canada. In fact, nurses from some countries experience a lower socio-economic status as they earn very little compared with other professions. Many of these nurses have dreams of coming to Canada, some with tremendous experience and know-how, but very few have the financial means to do so. The College is hoping that this new platform will help change that.

Some may even use this new platform as a way to borrow the funds, with the promise to repay once the student is gainfully employed in Canada. And based on the College’s post graduate employment rates, the chances of repayment are extremely high. In 2011, 100% of the College’s graduates were employed within 1 month following graduation. Often times, these nurses earn back their entire tuition costs within 3 months of working full-time as Registered Nurses in Canada.

“FundRazr is thrilled to help address the chronic nursing shortage by enabling OMNI College to graduate more internationally-educated nurses for work in Canada. Crowd funding education is a powerful way of reducing student debt and bringing dreams to life for talented students,” stated FundRazr CEO Daryl Hatton. He added “We applaud OMNI for leading the way in innovative financing.”

The idea of crowdfunding emerged online back in 1997 when a group of British rock fans raised $60,000 in donations, with no involvement by the band itself, in order to support the band’s concert tour through the U.S. Today, it is being used throughout the world by high-profile organizations for various philanthropy projects including the Tiger Woods Foundation and the $1 million dollar Sharcraft2012 campaign in support of children in the Horn of Africa. Even US President Barack Obama has signed the JOBS Act (JumpStart our Business StartUps) legalizing crowd funding for entrepreneurs seeking investors.

OMNI College is now one of the first in the field of education using this as a solution for student financing.

For more information visit www.omnicollege.com/fundrazr