You can crowdfund you honeymoon, and if your marriage doesn’t last, you can crowdfund your divorce — all on the same website, Plumfund.com.
The site, which bills itself as “free online crowdfunding for the people we love,” has more than 15 categories to create a registry for your life-cycle needs, from baby to funeral. Now this part of the of the crowdfunding is more practical.
One of them is Honeyfund, which Plumfund CEO and founder Sara Margulis said now channels about $115 million to newlyweds a year.
“The honeymoon gift list is much like a traditional wedding registry, but you’re valuing experiences instead of things, and millennial wedding couples are valuing experiences over things much more than previous generations,” Margulis told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday. Again this is unfortunate because some experiences such as a party is a one and done proposal that will not provide any long term benefit to the marriage.
Margulis said about 90 percent of the money raised can go toward honeymoon costs. What do you get out of a honeymoon? a week vacation that will cost you thousands of dollars for a one week excursion that you will have nothing but photos.
“The way our site works, the couple really ends up with the cash,” Margulis said. “What they’re doing is buying experiences that will last a lifetime.”
The site, which has no platform fees to users, has created revenue streams via partnerships with travel companies.
“The honeymoon industry is a $12 billion a year industry, and a lot of the couples who sign up for Honeyfund come to us looking for travel advice,” Margulis said.
“We’ve been able to partner with a lot of the nation’s top travel providers like Delta Air Lines, Princess Cruises, Hotels.com, and Booking.com to bring the best deals we can, and we’re doing exclusive deals as well.”
For those seeking divorce, Plumfund offers a site to handle expenses, not only to help cover the legal bills, but also to buy furniture, because one household is being split into two.
Margulis said she doesn’t know of anyone who crowdfunded their honeymoon and divorce on the site. “It could happen,” she said.