So – what is crowdfunding? Whenever I try to explain what Camilo, Reuben and I are doing, I get the blank stare. ‘Crowdsourcing? Crowdfunding? What’s that?‘
First off, here’s the ‘all knowing’ wiki definition:
Crowd funding (sometimes called crowd financing, crowd sourced capital, or street performer protocol) describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowd funding occurs for any variety of purposes, from disaster relief to citizen journalism to artists seeking support from fans, to political campaigns, to funding a startup company or small business[1] or creating free software – Wikipedia
My own personal definition is that we’re legitimising the age old funding mechanism of the 3 F’s – friends, family and fools. We’re allowing anyone to tap into their social networks, and providing the platform and engine to organise and microfinance their project, with an incentivised reward scheme to connect with their funders.
But for us, it isn’t as small as that. Crowdfunding is a way to change the world. It’s a new economic model, a new way to presell and fund any project. We’re currently only working in the creative space, but there are platforms around the world doing angel investments and banking activities. Isn’t that awesome?
I’ve got two favourite statistics that drive my passion for the project (ha – bet you never thought you’d see statistics and passion in the same sentence!). The first is an american example – One of the original crowdfunding platforms, kickstarter.com, raises over $2million dollars for creative projects. Each week. So, globally there is a market for what we’re doing. The second stat is more homegrown, and that is that three quarters of New Zealanders believe that art defines who we are as a nation. So not only is the model proven internationally, but locally we have the belief that art is important to our core identity.
So – be a part of something bigger – get your project up on PledgeMe today!
