CROWDFUNDING IN NIGERIA
Crowdfunding is a form of fundraiser and alternative finance. It is used by anyone who needs help especially financial help that is beyond one’s capacity now. For instance, by the non-profitable organization, entrepreneurial ventures, community orientation, academic purposes, medical expenses, book launching, production of music, social projects, promotions, vocational training, professional training, and grant opportunities.
It is also one of the easiest ways to procure funds to start a business. A group of persons online contribute a particular amount of money each for an individual to start up a venture.
This can be done by using social media to spread awareness, people can reach more potential donors instead of going through the process of borrowing loans and paying them back with high-interest rates – one will prefer this choice.
BENEFITS OF CROWDFUNDING
Crowdfunding is more like an option B for the project (s) and emergencies, take for instance someone is at the point of death and needs a huge sum of money to get the treatment done immediately or when you do not have insurance that could cover medical procedures you cannot handle all alone.
Crowdfunding has made it possible for people in need and those available to help them meet the bridge, unlike traditional fundraising. And the good thing is that it is an online fundraiser. It does not have any particular way of application and process.
Sometimes, when government and any other financial agencies or nonprofits organization fail to respond and you cannot meet the requirement to get help from them, crowdfunding comes to the rescue. There is no time frame or period you must wait to receive your funds.
Crowdfunding is simple to share your fundraiser with a network of friends and loved ones. Thereby, taking away low self-esteem and helping to reach thousands of people aside from your friends and family.
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SOME OF THE CROWDFUNDING PLATFORMS
It is very important to make a little research on the preferable platforms available, putting their fees, features, and support into consideration before starting crowdfunding.
This is one of the easy crowdfunding platforms that has a 0% platform fee, a payment fee of about 2.9%+$0.30, 50 million supporters, and a total raised of $9 billion. Withdraws and deposits take an average of 2-5 business days. It is an American For-profit crowdfunding platform that is used all over the world. Reach had it that, from 2010 to the first quarter of 2020, over $90 billion has been raised on the platform with contributions from over 120 million donors.
It can be used to raise money for celebrations such as wedding ceremonies, birthday parties, housewarmings, and graduations just to name a few. It can also be used to raise money for unforeseen circumstances such as accidents and illness.
You can start with just a few simple steps; first, set a goal amount, name your fundraiser, pick a photo or video and describe why you are fundraising and how the donation will make a difference then, publish it.
You will be guarded on how you share the information on social media platforms, emails, texts, and with your local community. You can even fundraise as a group; add friends, family, or colleagues to help you manage the fundraiser, and share it to a wider audience.
In 2000, Zarine Kharasand Anne-Marie Huby founded JustGiving. It is another beautiful platform that provides online tools and processing services to enable the collection of charitable donations. Its platform fee is about 4.9%, payment fee is 2.9% +$0.30. It also has a total raised of $330 million and takes 14 days to withdraw and 6 to 10 business days to deposit.
JustGiving provides a maximum support system and reliable service that made a real difference to crowdfunding platforms. It is easy, flexible, and secure. You can withdraw what you need when you did it and keep your page open if you need it. You can start by setting a target, adding a cover photo, writing a storyline of the circumstances involved, and sharing your page with the world.
This crowdfunding platform was founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. This platform is highly recommended for an individual in technology. The Indiegogo backers are early adaptors, and they are very technology focus and are willing to co-innovate with individuals. It offers a more global audience, is very valuable to give early feedback, it helps you form some aspects or features of the product that you might not have realized existed.
I will say that Indiegogo is a great marketing partner. The total raised is about $1.5B, supporters are about 10m, platform fee is 5% and 3.0% +$0.30 payment fee. Indiegogo offers flexible funding, specializes in technology and launches hardware products, and has an immense marketing and campaign strategy support system.
This platform is different from other platforms. It is a scheme that makes up part of Government plans such as employment programmes and job skills which also includes Vocational training and Traineeships. That is, it focuses on creating projects with the massive result. So, the kickstart platform provides funding to create these opportunities for the masses. Kickstart also helps meet the gap between foundations, startups, universities and cities, and established organizations.
This platform helps you align your individual innovation opportunities, and you get to collaborate with cutting-edge startups and scaleups that assist with solutions to your business needs. You can enjoy this opportunity by applying online to the spread of the news via social media platforms and other sources of news dissemination.
It takes about 14 days to withdraw, and deposits take 5-7 business days. Note that you must get approval to launch a fundraiser. The total raised by Kickstart is $3 billion, has a supporter of about 15 million, a platform fee of about 5%, and a payment fee of 3.0% + $0.20.
In conclusion, I will say, crowdfunding is a one-stop-shop for financial assistance. The whole idea of crowdfunding is to utilize social networks and the internet to give people the means to raise funds.
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