![]() The team at ieCrowd, which transforms innovations into high-growth ventures with global impact potential, wants to make you invisible to mosquitos. They are following up on work initially developed by researchers at the University of California Riverside and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to do just that. The patch, a little bigger than a postage stamp and shaped like a Kite, releases FDA approved chemicals that confuse mosquitoes and make them unable to sense humans. Yet just months ago, very few people had ever heard of the concept of mosquito invisibility and even fewer had access to the patches needed to make that concept a reality. Awareness and capital access gaps are familiar demons to social entrepreneurs — they form an infinite loop. A lack of awareness makes it hard to raise funds, and without funds, it’s hard to raise awareness. Crowdfunding is changing this problem. At Indiegogo, we address the awareness and access gaps by enabling anyone, anywhere to raise support for anything. Social entrepreneurs are using crowdfunding in ways that make their work more efficient and effective than ever before.crowdfunding marketing Learn rapidly
Support programs Unrestricted grants may be the ideal form of contribution for social sector organizations, but the power of the “retail model” of philanthropy, in which donors can select to support specific units of social impact, is increasingly clear. In this model, organizations clearly identify how much impact each unit of contribution supports. Donors appreciate the added transparency. Crowdfunding makes this model easier and more fun than ever before, often enabling contributors to directly connect with the beneficiaries of their impact. Kimberley Bryant founded Black Girls Code to engage more women of color in the digital economy. She launched the 2012 campaign to cover the costs of teaching computer programming to more than 300 boys and girls from underrepresented communities, in 90 days, in more than 7 cities across the United States. She raised more than $20,000 from over 434 people. This year, Kimberley and Black Girls Code took their work to the next level, running the 2013 campaign and raising over $100,000 from more than 1,000 contributors, and bringing programming to more than 2,000 girls in 10 cities and South Africa. The most claimed contribution was $50 to cover the cost of bringing Black Girls Code programming to one girl that year. The highest visible contribution was $5,000 to sponsor one of the workshops during the summer and provide 20 students with scholarships.crowdfunding advertising
Maria Springer had launched and run the LivelyHoods program in Kenya to support youth economic opportunities. Her first location was highly successful, and she was ready to expand the program to a second location in Kenya. She created the LivelyHoods campaign Indiegogo to raise the $25,000 needed to do that. Maria used the theme of going “beyond bandaids” as her campaign theme, in much the same vein that her program is more than a bandaid solution for urban poverty. At the start of her campaign, she put 25 bandaids on her face and peeled one off every time she raised another thousand dollars. It took her 25 days to do it, but she successfully raised $27,074 from 251 people during her campaign. Her second shop is now up and running.kickstarter marketing Build a movement Crowdfunding is valuable not only for supporting programming, but also can move forward a new approach or perspective in the world. When done right, it can be a fantastic form of advocacy. Simon Griffiths founded the company Who Gives a Crap to make the world aware of the global sanitation crisis we face today, where 2.4 billion people do not have access to toilets. To this end, Simon created a toilet paper line that contributes 50% of profits to sanitation efforts in the developing world. To get his first bulk order, he needed to raise at least $50,000, so he created aThe Who Gives a Crap campaign to share the challenges in global sanitation and the value his company would bring to the space. He also live-streamed himself sitting on a toilet until he raised the funds he needed. His creative approach to incenting urgency in his campaign, quite literally sitting on a toilet, not only helped him to ultimately raise $66,000 but also spread his important message of awareness to 9,000+ campaign viewers worldwide. The value of crowdfunding is not limited to those looking for funds. Philanthropists and investors are taking note as well. Increasingly, venture capital firms look to a company’s crowdfunding efforts as proof of demand for their product or service, as well as proof of the team’s capacity to perform. Accelerator networks are using partner pages, where campaigns coming out of their portfolio are grouped together, to showcase the innovation in their community and boost the credibility of campaigns by their social entrepreneurs. They are also using crowdfunding to boost the sustainability of their investments. The Community Capital Fund, for example, contributes the first few thousand dollars in every portfolio company’s crowdfunding campaign in order to help it mobilize the interest of the crowd in reaching its goals.kickstarter project
Posted from:http://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2013/10/31/how-crowdfunding-is-putting-the-social-back-into-social-entrepreneurship/ |