Crowdfunding


Welcome to The Crowdfunding Wiki!

 

Please request to get permission to edit this page.  I approve people who appear legitimate so it helps to add a message with your request. 

Due to overwhelming amount of requests and spam, I am not activating any editors so instead please just send a brief description and URL of the crowdfunding project that you would like listed here. That is the main reason why people want edit access (as opposed to enhancing the article). Thanks.

 

Contact Michael Sullivan - sulleleven on gmail or @sull on Twitter. 

 

This content was written in 2006 and originally added to Wikipedia by Michael Sullivan. It was copied here after Wikipedia editors deleted the article and remains here for posterity and archival. Wikipedia has since re-instated the crowdfunding article due to mainstream adoption of the term. 


 

Crowdfunding, inspired by crowdsourcing, describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money together, usually via the Internet, in order to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowdfunding occurs for any variety of purposes, from disaster relief to citizen journalism to artists seeking support from fans, to political campaigns.

 

Overview

Crowdfunding can replace the need for specialized grant applications or other more formal and traditional fundraising techniques with that of a more casual, yet powerful, approach based on crowd participation. Examples of the basis of Crowdfunding can be seen in Cooperatives (co-ops) around the world. However, the Internet can provide new streamlined approaches to quickly imitating the co-op model for low-level and/or sudden needs (ie. disaster relief, travel expenses, legal fees and so on.). It is this reason that a term be used to encompass the act of informally generating and distributing funds, usually online, by groups of people for specific social, personal, entertainment or other purposes.

Crowdfunding, like Crowdsourcing, is very much related to online communities and social networks. The crowd can already exist as a community but they can also suddenly form from disparate groups around the world who all happen to share an interest in funding a person, project, event, campaign etcetera. The Internet allows for information to flow around the world, increasing awareness. A Crowdfunded network can assemble and disassemble at any time. This is the primary difference to traditional co-ops.

Influence of the crowd is another factor. Crowd psychology sometimes can play a part in the success or failure of crowdfunding efforts. Likewise, forms of Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) is related to the mindset of people who participate in crowdfunding efforts.

The fundamental priciples of crowdfunding are embodied by the Kapipalist Manifesto, written by the Kapipal founder Alberto Falossi.

Kevin Lawton and Dan Marom published the 1st book about the CrowdFunding Phenomena (October 2010) – “The CrowdFunding Revolution | Social Networking meets Venture Funding” (Available at Amazon and B&N).

 

Crowdfunding Platform Web Traffic Rankings (as of August 28th, 2012 Alexa Data)

Name (Global Alexa Rank)

  1. Kickstarter (695) 
  2. IndieGoGo (1,959)
  3. GoFundMe (9,896)
  4. ChipIn (29,918)
  5. RocketHub (49,490)
  6. GiveForward (55,883)
  7. Fundable (96,830)
  8. Crowdtilt (166,285)
  9. Crowdfunder (188,628)
  10. AppBackr (148,297)

 

Historical Crowdfunding Examples

 

See Also

 

External Links

 

Articles

 

 

 

 

Automotive forum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Startnext provides a perfect concept within the very special German environment of public subsidies and associations. Furthermore features like no transaction fees, additional financing services, integrated donation and special services for companies will set startnext apart from similar international platforms.