Jun

7

Part 2: Crowdfunding, Investing and Donation 2.0

Filed Under Crowdfunding 

Definition: a group of people invest or donate a small portion of a larger investment over the internet. That money is pooled together to bring off a project that otherwise would need traditional sources of funding.

Extremely cool and definitely effective, Crowdfunding is a viable application of these principles. Of course it is: it’s been going on for centuries via investing in companies and projects — but now it’s so much easier and transparent of a process. No longer focused on commercial enterprises, any enterprise in need of funds can connect the long tail of people interested in a particular topic, play, artist, film, event, political candidate, even a niche knitting and crocheting site to bring together small amounts of money to raise what is needed. Raising money from fans to record an album, for example, would have been prohibitively difficult in the past, but now a band can easily offer free downloads, take payment, show progress, and keep fans abreast of developments.

And this extends beyond simply an alternative for funding but can also be applied in untold new ways. Case in point: what about crowdfunded investigative journalism?

Verdict: Viable and ripe for experimentation.

Examples of crowdfunding:
Album recordings and band support: Sellaband, ArtistShare, SliceThePie, VIP Band Manager.
Soccer club takeover: MyFootballClub
Fashion: Catwalk Genius, nvohk,
Community funding: Liverpool Culture Cafe.
Creating a film: A Swarm of Angels, Its Our Movie, FilmRiot, IndieGoGo,
Content creation: Countless blogs seeking donations, Ze Frank, Fund A VLog, Democracy in America.
Loans: Prosper, Kiva, Zopa, Lending Club.
Brewery Funding: BeerBankRoll
Journalism: Guerrilla Journalism Fund, Assignment Zero
Software: MicroPledge
Political fund raising: ActBlue
Music festival: Tennents Mutual
Tools for crowdfunding: Crowdfunder, FirstGiving, BountyUp, Fundable, Global Giving
VC decisions: VenCorps

Resources:
Crowdfunding Wiki
P2P Foundation
Know The Music Biz

Read previous parts:
Part 1: Figuring out crowdsourcing: What does it mean? What’s working? What isn’t?

Comments

3 Responses to “Part 2: Crowdfunding, Investing and Donation 2.0”

  1. Crowdsourcing: For the Next Two Weeks of Crowdsourcing on July 7th, 2008 10:02 pm

    [...] I’d be interested in reading more about your views around Crowdfunding of creative endeavors. I recently wrote a round-up post on crowdfunding: http://coinnovative.com/part-2-crowdfunding-investing-and-donation-20/ [...]

  2. crowdfunding - Stewart McTavish on Diigo on November 15th, 2008 6:50 pm

    [...] Part 2: Crowdfunding, Investing and Donation 2.0 [...]

  3. Need money for your project? Crowdfunding comes of age with Kickstarter : co>innovative on October 8th, 2009 10:41 am

    [...] Series Part 1: Figuring out crowdsourcing: What does it mean? What’s working? What isn’t? Part 2: Crowdfunding, Investing and Donation 2.0 Part 3: Digital Suggestion Box: how big corporations are asking for help Part 4: The Competition [...]

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