By Tasnim Anwar
Crowdfunding is a financing scheme through which groups of individual investors can contribute money towards projects that interest them. Some examples of mass popular crowdfunding platforms are Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
When the crowdfunding concept is applied in the social enterprise arena, a distinctive form of impact investing is created. This form of capital attraction for social entrepreneurs can be now commonly found in the diversifying field of crowdfunding.
Since the dawn of New Year, some social enterprise crowdfunding platforms have achieved new feats. Here's a roundup of the latest on them.
From its inception in January 2011, UK based crowdfunding platform Buzzbnk has raised over £525,000 for more than 34 projects with social and/or environmental focus. Recently, Buzzbnk has been working on a deal to license its system for use by ThundAFund project. ThundAFund is an African mobile-online crowdfunding platform that provides micro-level seed capital and angel investing to social entrepreneurs in South Africa.
Crowdfunder has released a special segment called Social Enterprise Hub for social entrepreneurs' capital needs. For starters, the Social Enterprise Hub will assist in funding of companies related to renowned communities such as PRIZE Foundation and Singularity University. This won't be the first large, upscale, collaborative project for Crowdfunder, which was established in 2011. The company has been involved with high-profile institutions, such as the US Congress and SEC, for crowdfunding legislative matters in the past.
Spacehive is a crowdfunding initiative that has been awarded by organizations such as Deloitte and UnLtd. Launched in 2011, Spacehive is the world's first neighbourhood development crowdfunding platform. To support Spacehive's development efforts, global information services company Experian will be providing funds worth £100,000 over a period of one year. This matching fund from Experian will be used for boosting the appeal of UK's high streets to revitalize the local economy.
Tasnim Anwar
Tasnim is a contributing writer for Social Enterprise Buzz. She graduated with High Distinction from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management & Finance. In the past, Tasnim has worked with multinational organizations such as Ernst & Young, Rotaract, and Scotiabank. Her interests include strategy, economics, and community development.
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