#and I could set up others so I could donate those dividends to different charities

[scrawlingwithstyle]

no billionaire "worked hard" for every dollar they have.

either they got lucky and started out with a lot of it from their parents, or they exploited others to get it.

[psychologyofinternet21-blog]

Unit 5: What is Crowdfunding & How does it work?

Although there were other questions I could have chosen to learn about including;  Why Are Online News Websites Turning Off Anonymous Comments on their News Stories?  What Is Revenge Porn (and What Laws Pertain to It)? Is Our Getting Our News Online What’s Making Our Country More Politically Polarized?

I decided to choose learning about crowdfunding over all of these other choices because it was something I had heard of, but never knew the specifics about it or how it worked. 

In Barry Adams’ (2017) Wisconsin State Journal article “B-Side Records to Continue after Heartwarming Response,” it explains that one way crowdfunding is used is to help save a life or someones’ store. This article explains that the owner of a record store on state street, who works 75 hours at the store a week, had a serious bike injury one day on his way to work. While he did not have the money to pay for his injury or to keep his store running without him, his wife created a GoFundMe which raised enough money to keep the store alive.  This is my favorite example of crowdfunding because it shows how a whole community can come together to help someone out who has been injured. This was also the only source of crowdfunding that I knew about at the time, because I had a friend who was hit by a drunk driver use GoFundMe to raise enough money for his surgeries.

  In a Ted Talk by Victoria Wescott (2012), “Crowdfunding 101,” she explains that crowdfunding is when you get a large amount of people to give small donations or pledges to finance a project that you have. She illustrates five lessons or rules to apply to crowdfunding, these include; 1. make a product that is awesome (so that people will actually want to spend money on your product), 2. sell directly to the audience instead of trying to get a business to help you sell the product (which first includes knowing the audience you are trying to sell to), 3. don’t ask for charity (it makes people feel bad), 4. follow through (don’t say you will give them a product and then never send it or say you will load a video of you doing something and then never do it), and 5. you might get tips (you tend to get more tips the more you follow through). Also, in the video, she mentions that crowdfunding can be anything from making a product and selling it to an audience or having people in a community put ten dollars in a PayPal account and then having them come in at the end of the month to pick up a product, or even raising money for a movie you want to make. Finally, she emphasizes that crowdfunding can be done for different reasons and is not hard if you follow those five rules.

A video on YouTube by David Khorram (2012), called “What is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding planning? What, How, Why and When,” talks about how hard it can be for an entrepreneur to start up a new business. Instead of taking out a loan, which can be hard in this economy, he explains some crowdfunding models to help one get started. The first model is called a donation model, which allows people to donate money to a project they think has moral and ethical value or is good for the community. But, there is no return of money given to those who donate. One example of this is called GoFundMe, where people can go online and donate money to you for a certain cause or reason. Another model is the pre-order model, where people make pledges to pre-buy the product for later delivery which can be set up via Kickstarter. This is just like it sounds, people buy the product in advance, before it comes out or is finished, and are able to be the first people to get the product. Also, there is a reward-based model for crowdfunding where investors receive a pre-determined reward or item of value. Finally, there is an equity model, where a large amount of people donate small amounts to help fund early startups with the expectation to receive dividends or investment appreciation once that company becomes big. This is similar to putting your money in stocks. I was actually surprised at how many different forms of crowdfunding there are based off of this video. 

Finally, the last video a Ted Talk done by Anna Guenther (2012), called “How Crowdfunding Is Going to Change the World,”  talks about how she thinks crowdfunding will change the world. In this video she states that people are able to raise money by getting people to buy a product early or record someone’s favorite song for one-hundred dollars to put onto YouTube. Furthermore, she explains some crazy pledges that people have done to reach out to their audience and create revenue,which is the best way to create revenue. For example, one of the crazier pledges including basing a religion around someone. Additionally, she talks about how this is a growing industry, and it has enabled changes worldwide. Finally, in this video she touches on the five rules the previous video did including; knowing your audience to be able to tap into them, engage and make it personal, update them everyday or every week, be different which includes having outrageous ideas, and say thank you to the people who donate. When you appreciate people and are able to let them know how much of a difference they are making in someone’s life, it makes them feel good and be more willing to help others down the line. While her five rules were not the exact same as the previous video she still touches on a lot of the same ideas, the biggest idea being to really know your audience and know how to reach out to them.

These videos show that there is more than one way to crowdfund and the way you crowdfund will be different based on what you are trying to get the money for. If you have a product, then it is easy to be able to crowdfund by giving people the opportunity to buy the product before it comes out or allowing people a piece of investment in your product, and if you make enough money they will also reap the benefits. But, it also explains ways to crowdfund even if you do not have a product. I guess my favorite form of crowdfunding is GoFundMe because that is used for people that seriously need the money for life saving or life changing reasons. I have donated multiple times to GoFundMe’s because I felt like those people had a good reason for needing that money, and it was the fact that without the money they would be worse off in life. I have donated to help people get the surgeries they need or their dog needs. Yes that is right, if your dog is injured or needs surgery, you can create a GoFundMe to save your dogs life. I just think it is a cool way to reach out to people when you are really actually in need and can make a big impact in the lives of the people you donate too.