Greek Crowdfund: Failed bailout organiser Thom Feeney starts new fundraiser for Greece

Following a crowdfunding campaign to bail out Greece that received overwhelming support but failed to reach its ambitious target, its organiser has started a humbler effort to help out jobless Greeks.

Thom Feeney, a 29-year-old Briton who initially launched a fundraiser on the Indiegogo website to save Greece from bankruptcy, is now looking to collect up to €1m (£700,000, $1.1m) for a Greek NGO supporting local charities.

"The Greek Bailout Fund campaign may have not reached the target, but it is definitively a heart-warmingly huge success," Feeney wrote in an email to contributors. "Awareness was raised of the plight of ordinary people being affected by dithering politicians."

More than 100,000 people from all over the world responded to the first appeal, chipping in a few euros in return for some perks and the hope to make history, sidestepping EU and international monetary politics to ease a sovereign country's debt.

The Greek Bailout Fund collected almost €2m in just over a week, a staggering amount that, however, fell well short of the €1.6bn target. The campaign was closed and each donor refunded.

Feeney has created a new online campaign named Greek Crowdfund, which adopts the so-called flexible funding system, meaning that, even if the set target is not reached, the amount raised will be devolved to the selected organisation, Desmos.

"I realise now I should have done this on the first one – I can only apologise," Feeney wrote.

Greek Crowdfund, which has "Crowdfunding for Greece. By the people, for the people" as a slogan, seems to be as popular as its previous version, collecting more than €20,000 in six hours.

"The people of Greece still face uncertainty," Feeney wrote. "This is a humanitarian crisis, not just an economic crisis and it's about bloody time someone did something."