Crowd funding, also known as crowd financing, is where a collective group of people come together for the purpose of supplying funds for causes and projects. Maybe you are in a dire situation or need funds for a project, this could be an effective way to raise money.
You may have heard of the 68-year-old bus monitor, Karen Klein, who was bullied by students on a school bus on the way home from school. It was captured on video and went viral. Max Sidorov was moved by what had happened to her and put a campaign on indiegogo to raise money for a vacation for her.
Well, it touched so many people’s hearts and raised an astounding $700,000 which was gathered from 30,000 people in over 80 countries. Not bad for someone who was only making $15,000 a year and now can retire due to this unfortunate incident that happened to her. Everyone who donated to her cause were clearly sending a message that bullying is never acceptable, especially to a vulnerable senior citizen.
So rather than looking for one source to solicit funds from, the idea is to network a group of people to pool their money so that it accumulates according to how many people are adding to your fund. If they believe your cause is worthwhile then you can get money this way.
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Many have successfully crowdfunded for startups, where it is difficult to get funding through banks and investment companies. Also, any disaster or medical emergency have easily raised funds from compassionate people. Even something silly like one guy who was raising $10 to make a potato salad, ended up raising $55,000 instead.
Crowdfunding especially made the news with the Klein incident and more of these types of online crowd sourcing sites are popping up. If you plan to go this route keep in mind that they charge fees so make sure it only costs you out of the money you receive and not anything upfront.
Indiegogo is a well-known one that only takes a percentage of the funds you receive and otherwise is free to join in starting a campaign for your cause or project. Same goes for ones like kickstarter and gofundme, which both are very popular. There are some more as well and to select which one to pick would be according to what you were crowdfunding for. Best though to stick with the well-known ones that have successfully raised a lot of money.
Just about anything (legal) goes in what can be crowdfunded, as long as the crowd is willing to fund it!
If you’ve had an experience with crowdfunding, please share it in the comments section.
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