Finding funding for school is tough for anyone, but can be especially hard when you're not necessarily a star athlete or top of your class.

Academic Invest, a website where students can post their profiles, receive grants and have private investors contact them in regards to loans, focuses on the student outside of those categories.

“We're focusing on life circumstances,” said Tim Hordo, president of Academic Invest, adding that they look for students from all walks of life, such as a single parent or someone very involved in their church.

Students looking for help with funding can go online to AcademicInvest.com and sign up for free. They create a profile, which involves a simple questionnaire asking for your region, area of study, and more. The more a student fills out, the more information a potential investor has to go on — “kind of a pre-interview,” said Hordo. “It gives a good idea of what the student's about.”

In addition to the profile, students can check out internships and, of course, grants being offered.

The idea for the site was “born out of personal struggles,” said Hordo. When he graduated in 2004, he had hopes of doing postgraduate work but couldn't round up the funds for it. He had heard of private fundraising and, thus, came up with the idea for a site to make it readily available to all students.

It was launched this past March and currently has three-dozen students. The site has given away one $1000 grant, sponsored by the site, to engineering student Nabeel Premji of Edmonton, who was nominated.

The feedback has been positive and constructive so far as the site gets off the ground, said Hordo. Academic Invest is currently in talks with government agencies to offer internship opportunities and already has three investors signed up.

Students interested in exploring private fundraising should take note of the loan advice offered on the site. Working with investors is not the same as working with a bank on a loan. “If you're working with a bank, there's an amount of trust. It's the bank's best interest not to mess around with you,” said Hordo. “But with private investors ... there could be things attached to the loan you don't know about ... so when push comes to shove, there's nothing to protect you.”

He advises students to seek legal counsel in regards to drawing up contracts, and to have the student's half of the legal fees covered by the investor in the contract as part of any deal. Academic Invest is also counting on investors to understand the situation and possibly provide a lawyer for the student as well. They are also working on a more effective way of getting this information to users, like listing regions and names of lawyers who can handle these issues.

As the site is still growing, students can look for even more internships and grant donors in the future, said Hordo.

Those interested in signing up for Academic Invest or learning more can check out http://academicinvest.com.