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Crowdsourcing

Creative Fundraising Ideas with Crowdsourcing Websites

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Fundraising off lately involving crowdsourcing websites is the latest trend to garner funds to support a cause. Crowdsourcing websites, simply owing to their extravagant reachability and popularity amongst donors and investors from the world over, are a favourite amongst fund seekers. Creative ideas are always relished by donors over crowdsourcing websites. Thus, choosing the right ideas to showcase upon crowdsourcing websites to attract the attention of investors can be a tricky one indeed. We present some creative ideas below to help overcome this tricky situation.

Creative fundraising ideas over crowdsourcing websites

Creative ideas are always sought after by investors and this is no different over crowdsourcing websites. Some creative ideas which can be pursed upon to fundraise over crowdsourcing websites are described below.

  1. Bracelet Sell-a-thon: Volunteers looking to collect funds for a cause can arrange the selling off silicon bracelets and arrange for the funds sought for. This idea can be well advertised over crowdsourcing websites to look for prospective buyers intending to buy them for a price which can serve as funds for the cause.
  2. Collection of Items: Collecting items from interested people intending to help by donating them can be advertised over crowd sourcing platforms. These items can serve directly as charity items or can be sold off for a price to help gather funds for a known cause.
  3. Flag Making: Volunteers can make arrangements to make flags and sell them off to local residents for a small price to garner the requisite amount of funds for supporting a cause. These flags prepared can also be sold online over crowd sourcing websites to extend the prospective buyer’s list. This idea can be a good crowd eye catcher and a good way to garner funds or a cause.
  4. Spellathon Challenge: Volunteers can arrange to organize a spellathon challenge event and spread the word over crowdsourcing websites. Spellings and spellathons can attract a large number of people together and help raise funds required. Online advertisements can further contribute to heightened participation and boost the chances of gathering a larger amount of funds to support a cause.
  5. Smoothied Way: Volunteers can prepare smoothies and sell them off for a price to gather funds. Smoothies on a warm day can attract a lot of interested buyers and generate a large sum of money to support a cause. Advertisements for the smoothie sell off can be made over crowd sourcing websites to involve more participants both on the buying as well as selling fronts. Interested volunteers can flock together and contribute to larger smoothie making and selling ideas.

These were some off the league, creative ideas which could be implemented to raise funds over crowdsourcing websites. Which ideas will you try? Comment below and let us know!

What is Crowdfunding

What is Crowdfunding

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What is Crowdfunding

A simple concept which has turned the financial world upside down is crowdfunding. The basic idea is that a number of individuals together, using the internet and put together finances to support a particular cause, project or a business organization. Although the idea seems ordinary, the end result is nothing short of a revolution. But if you are someone who is setting up a new crowdfunding campaign, the common question is what comes next in the process. You need to draw up a strategy to make your campaign well known. Here are a few tips regarding that.

  • Give them a story:

It’s not enough to let your donors know for what you need the funding. Give them a detailed story of everything behind the cause. You can consider having the story told in a blog so it can reach out to people who don’t visit your site. Pictures and videos posted along with them prove to be very effective.

  • Extend your social media outreach:

Create accounts in various social networks in the name of your campaign. Ask your organization members and its supporters to share your fundraising campaign through their pages. Create online events through your page (for example, help baby Mary raise fund for her operation).

  • Giving incentives:

If you are running a crowdfunding campaign as a college student raising money for college expenses, showing your gratitude for their generous donation is a must. It does not have to be an expensive gift. Even a gift basket, self-made card, or a thank you email would suffice. The donors will find it motivating. Also, posting a picture of your latest grades or transcripts to show that people’s hard earned money is going to the right place and not just being blown away.

  • Engage with donors in real life:

You can pour in all your efforts on the internet trying to raise funds. But nothing works better than interacting with the donors personally. Don’t forget that your family, friends and neighbors are the very first potential donors to your cause or project. Family gatherings, small backyard parties, inviting your colleagues over for a get together are very good ideas.

  • Press coverage is a must:

Although social networks are a huge deal, getting press coverage is necessary. You can get articles published in university and local newspapers. This will have a major impact drawing crowds from the student community.

  • Quantitative deadline strategy:

This involves setting up a deadline for the goal (example: $100 away from our $3000 goal and only 5 days to go)

http://myefunder.com is the #1 crowdfunding site and has huge community support and gives crystal and clear idea on crowd funding. Please follow, like and share us and our content on all social media.

MyEFunder.com

Choosing the Right Crowdfunding Site

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Choosing the Right Crowdfunding Site

Are you planning to start a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for your cause, upcoming project or convert your concept into a real product? It can be a difficult and sometimes very frustrating to chose the right crowdfunding website because not all crowdfunding websites are created equally. Some of these websites are categorized as “general” where you can raise money for any type of project including asking for donations like you can do on MyEFunder, Indiegog, RocketHub and StartsSomeGood etc. Where there are many websites which are limited to specific types of projects like Appbackr which is designed to raise money for software application design projects etc. So how do you decide which crowdfunding website would be best for you and help you raise the maximum funds.

The following are different ways to choose the right crowdfunding website. This will not just increase your chances to make your campaign successful it will also give the most effective results, for example fan following, product promotion and less fee, to name a few.

Know your project or cause:

The first thing before you start searching a crowdfunding website, you need to know about your project or cause. Is it a local based project or you want to raise money from all part of the world? What type of people would get benefits from it? What is your target market? This will help you to decide the type of crowdfunding website would be best for you.

Know crowdfunding websites

Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo will list of many crowdfunding websites. Visiting all of these sites and learning their terms and condition, their process to pay out funds and how to start campaign can take lot of time but this step is necessary and important. If not, you may end up choosing the wrong crowdfunding platform for your project or cause, which might be the most popular site but not the best place for your crowdfunding campaign. It is a very time consuming process to evaluate each and every crowdfunding website but well worth it. To make it easy for you, we have listed the following basic information about some of the top crowdfunding websites:

  • MyEFunder.com: Personal causes and any project including both creative and non-creative, equity crowdfunding, micro peer-to-peer lending, and real estate crowdsourcing. Both US and International Crowdfunding. MyEFunder is free to sign up, free to start a campaign and does not charge a fee for it’s services. In addition to being very user friendly and easy to promote and maintain.
  • Kickstarter: Only for creative projects and you must be based in Unites States.
  • Indiegogo: You can start any type of project here including charity and donation.
  • RocketHub: Open to all projects but new ideas are most appreciated.
  • StartSomeGood: Website for international users which is opened for any kind of project.
  • Lucky Ant: Open to all hyper-local projects; must be locally based.
  • Appbackr: Only software and application related projects accepted.
  • Wefunder: If you are looking for equity funds, then Wefunder is ideal for you.
  • NewJelly: A special crowdfunding website to promote artists around the world
  • Cofolio: Looking funds for small business? Cofolio help to raise money for small business.
  • Peerbackers: A crowdfunding site for entrepreneurs “and their dreams”.

Explore crowdfunding website:

Once you know about the different websites, the next step is to rank them on the bases of their features, options, fee and business model structure etc. Explore similar projects and what types of projects got the most funding on these websites. You may have your own criteria to rank each of these website. You will also find blogs and commentary about the sites out there that can provide you with some guidance and insight.

What Are Angel Investors?

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How to get the best out of your angel investors

When someone has a fresh new idea, and they want to set up a company based on the concept, the first and the foremost thing they need is investment. It really is a tough job trying to find those angel investors who are willing to put down money because of their faith and trust in you. So, if you are one of these entrepreneurs, scheduled for a meeting with a potential investor, there are many things to bear in mind despite the best presentation you have prepared.

Things to bear in mind before the meeting

Know this for a fact. Your angel investors already know most things about you. It becomes your responsibility to change that most into everything. It could take up a positive or a negative path. It all depends on you. It is necessary to have a plan drafted as to where you want to be in the next five years. This shows how firm you are about the success rate of your business. In case the investor was introduced through family or friends, make sure to have a casual meeting at gatherings or parties before the business meeting in order to make a good first impression.

Things to bear in mind during the meeting

You should give him or her clear understanding of what kind of a person you are and about your goal and visions of the company. It is all about presenting the concept effectively. Practice at home in front of your family or friends and ask for an honest feedback. Be prepared for any questions from the investor. If he/she agrees to invest in your company, prepare a letter of intent. But, if it is someone introduced through family/friend, a verbal agreement should suffice.

Other funding sources

So, the investor does not have to be a single individual. One of the best ways in the recent times to find investments is through crowd sourcing. Crowd funding is not only effective to find investors, but it is how generous people pool out their resources for relief during disasters and other such noble causes. It offers a platform for start up business that seeks to learn from the experiences of others and also avail funds by networking through the community. There are many crowdfunding Netherlands sites on the internet that help you gauge customer reactions about various products or services your company is providing, http://myefunder.com is one of the best and reliable sites to find investors.

Successful Crowdfunding Fundraisers

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How to set up successful fundraisers through internet.

In today’s world, you never really know what kind obstacle you might go through every morning. And just like that, there are millions of people out in the world today who are in need of desperate help. This is where crowdsourcing comes into the picture. Are you one of those people racking their brains for unique fundraising ideas? Did it ever happen to you that fund raising could be done through internet? Yes, you heard it right. Internet fund raising is a growing culture in many countries now, and much easier to deal with, compared to all the mess that can happen in a fund raising event.

Online fundraising has benefits, which are simple and straightforward. You can reach out to more number of people easily. Below are a few benefits you never knew existed due to online funding.

  • It will help you source out more amount of money in a very short duration. This happens because people are always looking on the internet as to what the company has to offer. You can reach out to people from even different parts of the world.

  • Decide how to set up the fundraiser. The important aspect is to determine how you want to receive donations. It has to be very secure so people can trust you and continue funding your projects even in the future.

  • You need a unique fund raising website on the internet. A professional web programmer can do this job for you. You will be saving all the money that had to be spent on ads books or promotional items.

  • You can quickly spread the news about your company through online marketing. Share a link to the website with all the people you know, request them to share the link around. This is an easy and faster way to gain attention. And more the attention, better the business thrives.

So, after you have set up your online fundraising website, there are a few things to be vigilant about. How do you get someone to trust your company for the long run? Once people start funded a particular project you promoted, make sure to update them throughout the process, when the funds are being utilized. Make videos of the completed project and share on various networking sites and also you can find best option in http://myefunder.com. This will help you to get the focus of many other potential donors.

Crowdfunding for Medical Research

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3 Ways Crowdfunding Helps in Medical Research

The new century has seen a lot of advances in the field of science and medicine. Technological advancement has made medical practice better, more economical and quicker. The best thing about this advancement has been the type of benefits that patients are now able to get. The innovations and scientific advancements in the domain of medicine has helped also doctors and medical researchers to devise newer and easier methods of treatment, and experiment more as far as treating patients is concerned. But the lack of funds can kill the progress, and it is a fact that only grants are insufficient where medical innovation is concerned. Added to these, there are continuous budget cuts in these programs which make it quite tough to initiate and carry on meticulous research. Crowd source funding, one of the best ideas for fundraising, proves to be assistive in at least 3 ways.

It can help raise money more easily

With medical research, it can be quite tough to get government grants and even private organizations seem disinterested at times to loosen their purse strings without enough scope of profitability. However, there can be a major benefit in the field of medical research with the help of crowdfunding. It can help research organizations to publicly advertise their requirements and make use of online ways to raise money. It is able to create awareness even among investors who have been hitherto unaware of the scope of this type of investment. Investors can be wooed into backing these types of research projects for various reasons – any personal interest in the research, an interest to earn decent returns on investments or an inherent interest in the domain of medicine and medical science.

There are many platforms available

There is a wide range of crowdfunding platforms available, which are reward based in nature. These have assisted researchers to gather enough money from many investors, even total strangers, to finance their medical experiments which would not have been finished otherwise. With the availability of many crowd source funding platforms, there is the scope to get more and more backers interested. However, it is tougher to set up a biotech firm or a life science organization only from donations. With reward based crowdfunding, funds can be raised for the starting research. Once enough information is obtained and experiments are carried out for the medical trials, researchers can catch the interest of many VCs, economical strategic partners and dynamic partners more easily.

It helps broaden the investor population

Online fundraising is also one of the best ways to raise money for clinical research, considering the fact that it helps democratize investments as it lets any individual earn through investments in private organizations that solely aim to improve life science There is enough chance for patient communities to lend their own support to researches and innovations in medical and life science. Crowdfunding platforms are helping even people interested in bringing about a change in the healthcare system to make their monetary contributions, in however small way possible. This is undoubtedly one of the best ideas for fundraising.

Keyword: crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, online fundraising, ideas for fundraising, ways to raise money, crowd source funding, grants

How to Open Up a Fundraising Website Easily

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How to Open Up a Fundraising Website Easily?

Crowdfunding is a method of crowdsourcing, and is used to gather funds in the form of donations for particular projects. If you are thinking of thinking of establishing a new project or business, but lack the capital to invest in the same, you can use a fundraising website and get likeminded people to donate funds for your venture. You may also consider setting up your own site, and the following tips will assist you in establishing one for your requirements.

Think about your objectives

First of all, you have to consider your crowdfunding goals. You will have to write, design and program your fundraising website around the objectives that you have set. You will need to keep various factors in mind, such as the target audience, the objective of online fundraising, how to raise the money, the amount of money that you need and also how you will reward the supporters.

Consider how you wish to do fundraising

Determine the way you plan to do online fundraising. Funds can be raised by accepting donations from online backers or through the sale of merchandise. You should set up a payment system in any case in order to ensure easy and quick transactions. Many online payment firms design widgets, and you can integrate any of them into your own fundraising website.

New or Prepackaged Site

You will also have to consider whether or not you should build a crowdsourcing site from scratch or use a prepackaged site. If you are adept at HTML coding, you can build a new website for crowd funding. However, if web development is not something you are conversant with, it will be better to opt for a prepackaged solution.

Select a proper website layout

You need to choose a decent layout for your website which can help you meet your crowd source funding goals effectively. It is important to choose a layout which is simple as well as functional. The donation widget needs to be able to facilitate smooth and fast contributions and welcome the visitors through proper video or audio communication features.

Choose proper elements

You need to choose proper elements, such as a proper title for the home page, welcome message, descriptions, instructions for backers and more. It should look professional enough for your crowd source funding purposes.

Promote your site

Once you build the site, promote it all the way with the help of social media sites, email, events, personal meetings, phone calls etc and try to convince investors as much as possible.

Keywords: crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, fundraising website, crowd funding, crowd source funding

How to Ensure Success of Your Crowdfunding Videos

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How to Ensure Success of Your Crowdfunding Videos?

If you are considering starting a crowdfunding campaign, it is important to create a nice video. It is widely known that campaigns with videos make a better impact among potential investors than those which do not come with videos. As per Indiegogo, campaigns consisting of videos have a 122% greater success rate than those that do not use any videos. With a good video, you can enhance the success rate of your campaign by a large measure. The following tips will ensure the success of your crowdsourcing videos.

Create a good storyline

You need to create a proper storyline which is sensible and has a definite beginning, middle and end. It is important to do efficient preproduction and plan every scene. It is a good idea to check quite a few crowdfunding videos before you begin to shoot your own video. Check those videos which are on the similar lines as your own crowdsourcing project campaign video.

Make it simple

It is a sensible idea to make a simple video for crowdfunding sites, without too much of technical complexities. This will keep your expenses down, and also make your work understandable for potential investors. Explain the business plan you have, the problem that you are facing in gathering funds and how you intend to reward your backers.

Demonstrate your prototype

If you are creating a product campaign, it is a better idea to showcase a working prototype of your item. Demonstrate it from various angles, to give your backers a proper idea of the item that you wish to launch in the market.

Get feedbacks from friends and close ones

Show the first cut of your video to a group of friends or even people who do not have much knowledge about your venture. Find out whether they understand the video clearly, and make out all that you have to say. Based on the feedbacks, you have to add some scenes or even delete a few before launching it on the crowdfunding sites.

Use an interesting thumbnail

The thumbnail for your crowdsourcing video should be an attractive one, so that visitors feel inclined to click on it and see the entire video. Use an interesting image that makes visitors feel the interest to take some minutes from their time and see the video. You need to follow the photography rules while choosing the image. The thumbnail needs to be from a right angle, and fully clear. Check a few video thumbnail images on sites like Indiegogo to get an idea.

Keywords: crowdfunding, Indiegogo, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding sites

Top 3 Ways Crowdfunding Helps Entrepreneurs

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3 Main Ways Crowdfunding Helps Entrepreneurs

Crowdfunding is an alternative method of financing that many entrepreneurs of small businesses are opting for. It has helped many small business owners to get funds for their ventures. It is a type of crowdsourcing which is assisting entrepreneurs in bypassing traditional ways of funding and getting investment capital more easily from people known to them and even outright strangers. Know about 3 main ways in which this type of funding proves to be assistive to new entrepreneurs.

It helps use crowd resources

The major benefit of crowdfunding is that it can help you to build wealth from your venture without using your own resources. No one can run a business all alone. In the initial stages, you are likely to lack the skills and experience that is needed in order to set up a business and make it grow. With the help of crowdsourcing, you can tap into the resources of others who believe in your venture. You can get funds in the form of tiny equity investments from lots of backers. You can even get established entrepreneurs to help you with professional advice and probably also turn into your customers.

You can get proper market feedback

There is also the scope for you to get proper feedback from potential backers and customers on crowdfunding sites as well as get the amount capital that is needed for starting your venture. You can also get feedbacks and suggestions from backers about any adjustments that you need to do prior to spending bucks on manufacturing, operations and promotions. You can receive proper feedback from the market by doing a test launch, and avoid unnecessary wastage of resources. There is the scope to get assistive suggestions and feedbacks on improving your product or service from crowdfunding platforms and make it more suitable for your customers. You can indulge in bulk production once you get completely satisfactory responses.

You can get valuable contacts

There is also the chance for you to gain valuable contacts through socializing on the crowdfunding platforms. You can get a first-hand experience of how to market your service or products. With the help of good business contacts, you can find great teams to support you, more investors and better marketing skills. With crowdfunding sites, you can also get an idea of how many people are interested in your business. Even before the launch of your product, you can generate awareness about your offerings without spending on glitzy ad campaigns.

Keywords: crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding sites, crowdfunding platforms

Best Platforms to Fund Musical Bands

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Online Fundraising Sites – Two Platforms to Fund Musical Bands

When it comes to fundraising ideas, it is a good idea to go for online fundraising sites. It is important to keep in mind that crowdsourcing has become one of the very important ways to raise money for expensive projects to take off. Whether you are trying to gather money for a business venture, a music album or just for charity, you can get the necessary funding from these sources. If you are a musician who is trying to finance your band or music album or even get a degree in music to further your career, you can try music crowdfunding – which is also referred to as fan-funded music. These are two sites that you can try.

Sellaband

This is one of the best online fundraising sites that you can try for funding your musical aspirations. A lot of artists begin on this website by gathering funds for the expenses needed for recording a new album. Money can also be raised from this site for supporting musical tours as well as for covering promotional expenses. Fundraising campaigns can also be organized in order to fix a broken down vehicle for journeying many miles on an open road.

There is also a search page that can be used by users to browse through the genres of music that they love and discover new artists. There are special musicians discounts offered to specific vendors who offer important services like digital marketing, promotion or mastering. A fee of 15% is charged on the platform for all successful campaigns. It is undoubtedly one of the best online fundraising sites where you can use creative fundraising ideas to raise money for your musical career.

PledgeMusic

Like Sellaband, PledgeMusic charges a fee of 15% on every campaign that is successful. Fans can make pledges for free. In case a campaign is unable to meet its target of fundraising, the pledges are forfeited by the artists and given back to pledgers. Music-based crowdfunding benefits everyone – from fans to artists and even the platform itself. Crowdsourcing, apart from being one of the best ways to raise money, also helps artists to engage better with their fans. Musicians can make pages on the websites where they can pitch for money. Artists can also incorporate some of their tracks for potential pledgers to listen to, and get to listen to new music and discover new bands in the process.

The artist page of PledgeMusic appears similar to that of a blog page, where most of the sections and the content can be found on the landing page itself.

Keywords: online fundraising sites, fundraising ideas, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, ways to raise money