• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Techkickstarter

5 Incredibly Cool Crowdfunding Campaigns that Might Redeem Your Father’s Day Procrastination

By
David Z. Morris
David Z. Morris
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
David Z. Morris
David Z. Morris
Down Arrow Button Icon
June 19, 2016, 12:17 PM ET
Mars Research Facility Design
Design of Research Station on MarsMars City Design/Matthew Jennings

You’ve done it again—it’s Father’s Day, and you’ve got nothing to offer the man who gave you life than an affectionate phone call. But what if you could tell him his gift was on its way . . . sometime? A crowdfunding pledge is the perfect last-minute (or last-second) present—thoughtful, unexpected, and fun, with a side-order of delayed gratification.

Don’t delude yourself. Dad’s no dummy, so he may suspect that you dawdled. But the rewards from these active campaigns are cool enough to still net you more Good Kid points than you probably deserve.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

For Spacey Dads: Design a City on Mars

Mars City Design is an L.A.-based organization aimed at designing sustainable cities for Mars colonization. Each year, they run a design competition to gather innovative ideas about colonizing the red planet, and in September, a coterie of adventurous minds from NASA, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT will gather at USC to recognize and collaborate with this year’s winners.

Guests at the workshop will also include Andy Weir, author of The Martian, and Buzz Aldrin, the second human to walk on the moon.

And you can send your dad! A $150 pledge gets a one-day admission to the workshop, and the chance to meet the design teams. For $500, he can hang out for a full week (travel and lodging not included).

For Future Dads: Break the Electric Land Speed Record

Venture Automobiles has been working for years to build a fully-electric car capable of hitting 400 mph. It’s a noble leap into the electric age, and they’re reaching out for public support. For around $100, dad gets a Venturi t-shirt, and the warm feeling that your love for him has been transformed into pure, zero-carbon velocity.

For Fit Dads: A Personal Trainer That Might Take Over the World

The Vi is billed as the first Artificial Intelligence Personal Trainer. It incorporates bio-sensing ear buds with automatic workout planning and monitoring, adjusts Dad’s workout to his goals, and responds to voice commands to play music or even send text messages. Macworld has called it “a fitbit, Amazon Echo, and a pair of Beats rolled into one product,” and you can get Dad one for $199.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1050572498/vi-the-first-true-artificial-intelligence-personal?ref=category_popular

For Foodie Dads: A Chef’s Knife that’s A Work of Art

The Bulat is a truly lustworthy knife for anyone who’s ever so much as sliced an onion—but it’s also an embodiment of what’s best about crowdfunding. It has a hardwood handle with a subtle palm-hugging curve and a high-carbon folded steel blade. But its creators are vocal about subverting the high-markup knife retail market, and at $100, the Bulat costs around half as much as anything comparably eye-catching from Shun or Wusthof.

For more on crowdfunding, watch our video:

For Geek Dads: An Excuse to Pretend He’s a Wizard

Crowdfunding has been the key component to a huge resurgence in the market for tabletop board games, and Massive Darkness epitomizes the trend. It’s a so-called “dungeon crawler,” a box full of map tiles and dice that will let up to 6 players take on the roles of barbarians, elves, and dwarves, out to smash down doors and collect sweet, sweet loot.

The game’s publisher is CoolMiniOrNot, which has a sterling track record for quality and reliability, has run some of the most successful Kickstarters of all time, and will throw in a bunch of stretch-goal freebies with your $120 pledge.

About the Author
By David Z. Morris
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

LawInternet
A Supreme Court decision could put your internet access at risk. Here’s who could be affected
By Dave Lozo and Morning BrewDecember 2, 2025
1 hour ago
AITikTok
China’s ByteDance could be forced to sell TikTok U.S., but its quiet lead in AI will help it survive—and maybe even thrive
By Nicholas GordonDecember 2, 2025
2 hours ago
United Nations
AIUnited Nations
UN warns about AI becoming another ‘Great Divergence’ between rich and poor countries like the Industrial Revolution
By Elaine Kurtenbach and The Associated PressDecember 2, 2025
4 hours ago
Anthropic cofounder and CEO Dario Amodei
AIEye on AI
How Anthropic’s safety first approach won over big business—and how its own engineers are using its Claude AI
By Jeremy KahnDecember 2, 2025
4 hours ago
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang reacts during a press conference at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Gyeongju on October 31, 2025.
AINvidia
Nvidia CFO admits the $100 billion OpenAI megadeal ‘still’ isn’t signed—two months after it helped fuel an AI rally
By Eva RoytburgDecember 2, 2025
6 hours ago
Big TechInstagram
Instagram CEO calls staff back to the office 5 days a week to build a ‘winning culture’—while canceling every recurring meeting
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezDecember 2, 2025
6 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
Ford workers told their CEO 'none of the young people want to work here.' So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder's playbook
By Sasha RogelbergNovember 28, 2025
4 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Warren Buffett used to give his family $10,000 each at Christmas—but when he saw how fast they were spending it, he started buying them shares instead
By Eleanor PringleDecember 2, 2025
12 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Forget the four-day workweek, Elon Musk predicts you won't have to work at all in ‘less than 20 years'
By Jessica CoacciDecember 1, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Elon Musk says he warned Trump against tariffs, which U.S. manufacturers blame for a turn to more offshoring and diminishing American factory jobs
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 2, 2025
6 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Innovation
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says we’re just a decade away from a new normal of extraterrestrial data centers
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 1, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of December 1, 2025
By Danny BakstDecember 1, 2025
1 day ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.