Kanye West said in February 2016 that he was $53 million in personal debt, attributing the debt to his artistic ambitions. He asked Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Larry Page to invest in his ideas, including his proposed venture Donda. The reports could not independently verify the state of West’s finances.

West had established connections in Silicon Valley over several years. He presented his vision for Donda to investors in 2012 and 2013 and maintained relationships with figures including venture capitalist Ben Horowitz and Dropbox chief executive Drew Houston. He also had ties to Apple and had dined with Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom.

In response to West’s claim, Minnesota graphic designer Jeremy Piatt created a GoFundMe campaign to help pay the debt and draw attention to arts funding. Piatt compared potential donors to the Medici family, the wealthy Italian patrons who supported Renaissance artists. The campaign’s appeal echoed West’s own grand claims about his artistic influence and urged supporters to share the page. Reports cited modest contributions, ranging from $35 to $50 at different points. Piatt said he was trying to reach West or his team and had arranged for the money to remain in place until they could claim it. A separate campaign organized by Robert Kulik in Washington, D.C., was canceled after raising nothing.

The appeals came as West released *The Life of Pablo* on Tidal and debuted a clothing collection at New York Fashion Week. The album reportedly was downloaded illegally more than 500,000 times after some fans said they had paid for downloads they did not receive. West also drew attention for claiming credit for Taylor Swift’s fame. Accepting a Grammy for best album, Swift told young women to stay focused on their work despite people who might try to take credit for their accomplishments.

Another passage surveyed unusual crowdfunding campaigns, including a request for $10,000 to fund a woman’s worldwide spiritual journey and a successful drive to pay for removal of a “420” forehead tattoo. The supplied material also described Twitter’s optional location settings and Alexa Internet’s donations of web-crawl data to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.