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Crowdfunding Sources The sites listed below enable entrepreneurs, non-profits, and their supporters to solicit funds from individuals ("the crowd") via the internet.

General crowdfunding platorms AppBackr – Crowdfunding for mobile applications. Chip-in - a widget that can be posted on blogs, websites, and many social media profiles and that allows individuals, private groups, non-profits, and others to raise money online. Indiegogo - An online platform used for funding a range of campaigns. KickStarter - A crowdfunding platform for a broad spectrum of projects. Peerbackers - Enables entrepreneurs and non-profits to raise funding for their idea from friends, family, and peers. Rockethub - A funding platform and community for independent artists and entrepreneurs.

Green/social entrepreneur/non-profit platorms 33needs – A crowdfunding organization that connects micro-investors with social entrepreneurs who have ideas in categories such as sustainable food, health, education, and the environment. Ashoka Invest in Innovation - Funding platform to support Ashoka's network of social entrepreneurs. Causes - Provides an online fundraising platform (including leveraging Facebook) for nonprofits and other causes. CauseVox – Enables nonprofits and other causes to create online fundraising campaigns. FirstGiving - Enables non-profit supporters to create their own fundraising page to raise money for the cause of their choice. Give.fm (beta) – a micro-funding organization that helps nonprofits and individuals to set up a campaign to raise money for causes. Green Unite - A crowdfunding platform for sustainable products and clean technology. Greenfunder – A crowd funding platform for green, sustainable, and related projects. Razoo – A crowdfunding platform for non-profits and charities that allows individuals, organizations, corporations, and foundations to set up a fundraising page to raise money for their own cause or their other cause of choice.  Start Some Good – Connects social entrepreneurs with crowd funded venture capital.

[1] The platform focuses on a specific vertical; film and music are the most common at this time --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:24:36 AM[2] There is a focus is on for-profit ventures. Note that a platform can support for-profit ventures without them being the primary focus. --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:21:58 AM[3] There is a focus on creative projects; art, music, film etc. Note that a platform can support creative projects without them being the primary focus --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:22:37 AM[4] There is a focus on projects designed to bring about social change. Note that a platform can support social change projects without them being their primary focus --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:22:53 AM[5] The funder/fundee relationship is structured so that compensation for funders might be in the form of future revenue, equity or profits --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:23:07 AM[6] The full amount of the funds being sought needs to be pledged in order for funds to be released to the fundee. --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:23:22 AM[7] Whatever amount of money is pledged at the end of the campaign is released to the fundee regardless of whether they accomplished their funding target --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:23:37 AM[8] A threshold amount somewhere below the target for the campaign is determined. Once this threshold is reached, funds are released. --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:24:09 AM[9] The platform has community and/or collaboration features built in --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:24:51 AM[10] The funding process is not one time. It is set up so that the fundee receives money on a regular basis --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:25:16 AM[11] Provides infrastructure and/or processes to coordinate investors so that they invest in projects together --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:25:30 AM[12] Provides infrastructure or resources to coordinate the funding of projects so that they can seek funding together. Currently no one is doing this. This is what is proposed in the Ecosystem Pooled Fund Model: http://www.slideshare.net/sureshf/ecosystem-social-ventures --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:25:42 AM[13] The model is structured with a view to cultivating a relationship between funder and fundee. This is to be contrasted with one time project financing --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:26:03 AM[14] Support very small donations (under $1, fo example) --suresh2323 July-15-11 9:26:19 AM

The values transformation is the result of a number of different forces including climate change, rampant distrust of and disillusion in the political process, the collapse of the financial markets, the introduction of species extinction risk into the discourse, alienation and fragmentation within western culture, global economic inequity, terrorism and war, the erosion of the importance of spirituality and a sense of higher purpose in western culture etc...the list goes on. The conjunction of all of the above is leading a massive sense of discontent that is permeating our collective consciousness.

The values transformation is the result of a number of different forces including climate change, rampant distrust of and disillusion in the political process, the collapse of the financial markets, the introduction of species extinction risk into the discourse, alienation and fragmentation within western culture, global economic inequity, terrorism and war, the erosion of the importance of spirituality and a sense of higher purpose in western culture etc.

This transformation in values that is taking place is simultaneous with, and in part the result of, the rapid evolution of the technological infrastructure that is substantially increasing connectivity and communication across the world.

Here is a collaborative matrix of existing crowdfunding platforms dedicated to small business, startups...

40Billon

VenCorps

Kickstarter notes that it took 16 months to reach the first 200,000backers, while the last 200,000 signed on in only three months. Funding projects ishabitual, according to Kickstarter’s figures. Out of 1,013,725 total backers,166,823 have funded two or more projects, 66,676 have backed three or more, and23,601 have backed five or more.

Kickstarter revealed some usefulinsights on what types of projects get the most traction on their creative-orientedplatform. Music, film and video are the clear frontrunners

With such growth, critiques are inevitable. Perhaps most common is the fearthat we’re in a crowdfunding “bubble”.

Slicethepie, the web-based artist financing engine that lets musicians and bands raise money to make a professional record, has partnered with Fontana Distribution, the “indie” arm of Universal Music Group Distribution. The arrangement will see Fontana act as a sort of A&R middle-person by recommending the best Slicethepie artists to their network of over 80 labels across the U.S. each month, thus offering the potential for an actual record deal or at least formal, albeit, independent label distribution.

Though comparable to other crowdfunding platforms, such as Sellaband, Slicethepie mixes social features in which fans help discover new talent and offer funding through a stock exchange system where they can also trade their artist investments. Fans can get a return on their money based on a percentage of sales of the final record, with Slicethepie taking a commission on the re-sell of artist investments (called ‘contracts’) and a royalty of any record sales generated. However, as of today, the royalty is being dropped, so that financed artists now keep 100% of proceeds from their completed EP or album.

IndieGoGo, a crowdfunding platform that was founded in 2008, has raised a $1.5 million funding round led by Metamorphic Ventures and Zynga cofounder Steve Schoettler

The site also uses an algorithm, dubbed the ‘GoGoFactor’, that determines which campaigns are featured on the homepage and the site’s outreach (the more engaged your users are, the higher you rank).

IndieGogo makes money by taking a percentage of the money that’s contributed: if you create a campaign and meet your stated goal, then IndieGoGo charges 4%; if you don’t meet that goal, IndieGoGo charges a higher 9% fee, but you get to keep the remainder of the money

collaborative thinking can provide solutions faster

by involving people in the early stages, they will feel more connected to the project

1. Crowdrise

We're moving beyond the funding platform and taking a longer view.

Their products need exposure, so we're developing a site marketplace.

there is a danger of funder burnout. One way we're handling that is by bringing in partners with larger pockets. If you're successful on our site and your idea is exciting, we'll say, "Hey, you should come to our pitch event." It's very rare you'll get big dollars through crowdfunding, but we're leaving that door open through partnerships with people who can extend the reach.

"In Silicon Valley the venture capitalists are telling me they're moving investment away from consumer and into enterprise because they're seeing that the consumer markets are too risky. "They're investing less in consumer kinds of things - they're trying to get the kids to focus on the enterprise market."

Kickstarter is a place of big ideas by small teams.

What’s particularly notable is that these Crowdtilt donations are tax-deductible, and the company takes a relatively small fee.

Long-term, sustainable impact is what matters to Lesley and the Angaza team, and for them, raising $10,000 on a crowdfunding platform is a means to that end. From their pitch on 33needs, one of the crowdfunding platforms enabling thousands of people to pool their money together for good:

"You make an investment and enable us to manufacture these life-changing products. We sell our lights and chargers to NGOs, solar distributors, and directly to the customers. Families and businesses in the developing world are able to eliminate dim and dirty kerosene from their lives and lift themselves out of poverty. You get repaid and get to move on with life knowing you've directly enabled a family to have clean, bright light in their lives."

With credit still tight and venture capital out of reach for many small firms, "crowdfunding" sites such as Crowdcube offer an attractive alternative.

By raising small sums from many individuals, businesses can access the capital they need to grow and thrive, often more quickly and on better terms than with conventional sources.

Crowdcube, founded in 2010 in Exeter, calls its crowdfunding model "the next generation of business investment."

Sponsume is a new online platform to help individuals and organisations promote and crowd source the funding of their projects.

At Sponsume’s heart is the ability to let entrepreneurs, artists, charities, inventors, or just about anybody, raise funds for their idea through the sale of project vouchers, which can – should the project go ahead – be redeemed for various rewards. These can be almost anything, except equity and intellectual property rights, with the contract existing between the user and project owner, not Sponsume itself

Right now Sponsume is free for project owners to use but at a later stage the company plans on charging commission of around five percent of the total raised. Other revenue streams include interest earned on accounts, sponsored placements and partnering with video production companies.

The power of the crowd has proven to be particularly useful when it comes to fundraising online. Founder Institute startup CauseVox is launching a SaaS platform that allows non-profits to crowdsource fundraising.

While non-profits have a 30 day free trial to use the software, CauseVox will charge a small subscription fee and will take 7.5 percent of all donations. We have an exclusive offer for TC readers to use Causevox for free for six months.

In its beta period, CauseVox already helped non-profits, including Change For Kids and RestoreNYC, raise over $400,000 in donations.

Described as a fan-funded record label, My Major Company has launched in the UK with a mix of traditional A&R and crowdfunding.

It differs slightly from similar sites, such as Sellaband or the UK’s Slicethepie, in that the acts featured on the site are sourced by the startup’s own talent spotting department first. In addition, fans who choose to invest are essentially buying shares in any future profits made from the artist’s launch campaign as a whole (physical and digital music sales,

The model has been imported from France where My Major Company has been running since 2008,

What makes Kiva “social” are some of the typical features you would have in a social network, like pictures, profile, updates; but more than that, it’s that sense of personalisation that originates from knowing what you’re doing with the money you’re giving.

One of the first peer-to-peer lending site to launch was Zopa, a London-based company providing an online money exchange service. Zopa operates within the UK, Italy and a service is being developed for Japan.

 In 2006, Prosper was launched in the US, following the same model.  In 2007, LendingClub launched the second peer-to-peer lending site

crowdfunding is different to many funding models in that it is based on the widest possible participation and tapping into “The Long Tail.” To do this, it has to reduce the barriers to participation, so it must reduce the friction and cost in the process and leverage the power of the networked engaged world where individuals are less constrained and able to re-imagine themselves into new roles, in this case as investors.

For the entrepreneurs looking for investment, you need to register also and submit a proposal, which then undergoes a checking process on the part of Crowdcube, who will decide to accept or reject it into the portfolio on offer.

So, the real innovation in crowdfunding beyond tapping into your tribe or casting the net a bit wider comes with the advent of turnkey platforms that open the field up to much wider groups of investors beyond the “certified high net worth” individuals- in other words, you and me.

Finding funding can be one of the biggest challenges for social entrepreneurs.

Family and friends have been one of the most common sources of venture funding capital for centuries. Crowdfunding takes this age-old source of venture funding and brings it into the digital age.

33 Needs: Connecting microinvestors & social enterpreneurs 133needs

Kickstarter

The site has seen more than 13,000 successful campaigns since its launch in 2009.

Artists, designers, and inventors

Perhaps the most striking feature of "crowdfunding" is the broad geographic dispersion of investors in small, early-stage projects. This contrasts with existing theories that predict entrepreneurs and investors will be co-located due to distance-sensitive costs. We examine a crowdfunding setting that connects artist-entrepreneurs with investors over the internet for financing musical projects. The average distance between artists and investors is about 3,000 miles, suggesting a reduced role for spatial proximity. Still, distance does play a role. Within a single round of financing, local investors invest relatively early, and they appear less responsive to decisions by other investors. We show this geography effect is driven by investors who likely have a personal connection with the artist-entrepreneur ("family and friends"). Although the online platform seems to eliminate most distance-related economic frictions such as monitoring progress, providing input, and gathering information, it does not eliminate social-related frictions.