Guest Blogger: Meghan Somers
What: Viral Philanthropy, also known as Crowdfunding, is the collective cooperation of people to pool their resources via the internet to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations
Who: Anyone can start a crowdfunding campaign, and anyone can donate to a crowdfunding campaign.
Where: Crowdfunding gives an international platform to local issues. Popular websites for crowdfunding include Indiegogo and Kickstarter.
When: Most often crowdfunding for a particular cause pops up when a certain issue is ‘hot’ or trendy. A recent example is when bus monitor Karen Klein became famous when a video of her being bullied went viral on YouTube, an Indiegogo campaign was started to send her on vacation. The campaign was extremely successful beating its goal of $5000 within five hours and eventually surpassing $700,000 by the time it was finished.
Why: Crowdfunding appeals to the growing need for immediacy in today’s society. By giving people a platform to instantaneously support causes that they are close too people are more likely to ‘impulse’ donate. Both Kickstarter and Indiegogo espouse the idea that anyone should have the opportunity to raise money. They maintain that an online community can support your campaign into success.