Crowdfunding or Fundraising is a process of gathering voluntary contributions of money, by requesting donations from individuals, Corporate's, NGO’s or governmental agencies. In majority of the cases crowdfunding refers to the efforts of gather money for non-profit organizations for social causes, but it is also include identification of investors or social Investors as a sources of capital for for-profit enterprises (Microventures).
Fundraising can be done for variety of causes like donating money for some individual to get their treatment done or to make them educate. Through fundraising anyone can support future entrepreneurs by donating or investing in their business (microlending).
Donations:
There are lot of fundraising platforms in India where any individual can donate for their interested cause. Websites like Ketto.org, Bitgiving.org, Giveindia.org and many others have well established infrastructure for helping people who are in need.
There are majorly four type of crowdfunding:
- Equity Based
- Debt Based
- Reward Based
- Donation Based
Lending
Social Investment:
Websites like Milaap.org, Rangde.org have strong network of field partners where they help them to lending for individuals who are in need. Social investment will play a vital role in rural India where people are still struggling to get there basis necessities. In this category people will lend money to people to accommodate their basic necessities such as building toilets, paying school or medical expenses.
Microlending (Microventure’s):
This is the interesting aspect, using crowdfunding one can actually fund for someone’s dream project. Growing economies like India has lot of potential to do microvetures. But the major challenge is covering the expenses that are required for their venture. Websites like Milaap.org, Rangde.org, Ketto.org and many others are running campaigns to fund new entrepreneurs.
Blockchain Based Crowdfunding:
By developing all crowdfunding websites in single blockchain we can even create unique platform for Borrowers, Lenders and NGO’s. In my upcoming posts I will explain how blockchain based crowdfunding websites will make the difference. We are interacting with few organizations to build their applications on top of the blockchain.