Crowdfunding is one of the newest ways in which charities and groups are raising substantial amounts of money. Essentially, it is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising contributions from multiple individual donors, usually via the internet. As well as raising money, Crowdfunding has additional benefits, too. It can be used to generate interest, media coverage and awareness about your cause and project. It enables you to form a relationship with your supporters, and on some Crowdfunding platforms, you can create reward tiers to incentivise donors to give with customisable gifts. Similarly, Crowdfunding can help you grow your network, and get noticed amongst the many other worthy causes. It’s a quick and easy way for people to support.

There are many websites designed to set up crowdfunding projects, some of these are:

• Mightycause – A non profit crowdfunding sites, used by the likes of Doctors Without Borders. https://www.mightycause.com/
• IndieGoGo – Indiegogo covers just about every industry on its site, making it less niche than some of the other sites. Indiegogo has both fixed and flexible funding that lets you keep the funds you’ve raised, even when you haven’t been able to reach your goal. https://www.indiegogo.com/
• SpaceHive – Spacehive is dedicated to funding ideas for communities and that bring local places to life. If you create a page for your project idea it will be matched to funds from councils, foundations and companies that might want to help. https://www.spacehive.com/
• Crowdfunder- The UK’s biggest crowdfunding platform. Their coaches offer comprehensive guides and interactive sessions. They look after extra funding from their partners, made up of a mix of public and private sector organisations, charities and funding bodies. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/
• Causes – Causes is the worlds largest online campaigning platform focuses on social, political and cultural issues. The site is good for nonprofits as it runs ads and is free of charge for all users. In addition to fundraising it is a social networking platform that allows you to find people with common interests, you can also use it to create petitions. It’s not exclusive to registered non profits either. https://www.causes.com/
• Chuffed- Chuffed is a nonprofit crowdfunding site that is only for nonprofits and social issues. Pitches are limited to 50 words and can promote the cause to your social media networks. Unlike most other sites, chuffed will transfer the money to you as it comes in. https://chuffed.org/uk
• Donate Kindly- This is a good platform for smaller nonprofits as it is free and forms can be easily embedded into websites. https://www.donatekindly.org/features/