While Kansas lawmakers and Gov. Sam Brownback try to figure out how to trim $715 million out of the state budget over the next year and a half, one Lawrence resident is offering a novel idea: crowdfunding.

In a tongue-in-cheek appeal, Lawrence resident Will Averill launched a campaign Wednesday on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com to raise money to bail out the state of Kansas.

“Whoops! We didn’t plan very well,” Averill wrote. “But hey, when you run out of money, ask people who have it!”

Indiegogo is a San Francisco-based web company that offers a platform for crowdfunding – the practice of raising money for a project or venture in small donations from large numbers of people.

The campaign, which Averill admits is “mostly a joke,” is a response to new budget figures announced Monday that show the state facing a $278.7 million revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and a $435.7 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Cautioning “don’t actually donate money to this campaign,” Averill also satirizes the typical crowdfunding incentives, offering “a hearty Thanks from the State of Kansas” for a $1 gift; “a monkey from the Wichita Zoo” for $100; and “a state senator” for $10,000.

State officials say the shortfall is mainly the result of sweeping tax cuts the Legislature approved in 2012 and 2013, which Brownback and the Republican leadership in the Legislature said would stimulate the Kansas economy.

“This is mostly a joke to highlight the precariousness of the situation we’ve put ourselves in,” Averill wrote on the website. “Everyone has made our state a laughingstock for a long time, and we’re not doing much right now to help that.”

Averill did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.