Shedding Light On Crowdfunding For Charity – 4 New Findings
Raising money online from a group of donors, known as crowdfunding, is relatively new. The term was coined in 2006 by entrepreneur Michael Sullivan.
But having lots of people chip in to support a cause or help out their friends and loved ones is a long-established practice. The pooling of contributions has occurred throughout human history.
It’s hard to know exactly how much money changes hands today through GoFundMe, Indiegogo, Kickstarter and the thousands of other crowdfunding platforms out there. Without any U.S. oversight or coordination, gathering accurate and complete data is next to impossible. But there’s no doubt that crowdfunding is on the rise.
Still, estimates exist. Online crowdfunding campaigns are raising more than US$34 billion a year around the world, according to one,...