The Key to Non-Profit Crowdfunding Through Internet Social Media

Abstract

Non-profit crowdfunding is quite different from profit-based crowdfunding in a plethora of ways. Despite the growth of profit-based crowdfunding within multiple industries, the non-profit crowdfunding initiative has also won popularity among ordinary people’s social lives. This chapter seeks to define the concept of non-profit crowdfunding by exploring its categories, characteristics, and practices. Regardless of its common characteristics with profit-based crowdfunding, the non-profit crowdfunding functions with several unique features, which deserve more attention from the initiators in order to carry out a successful non-profit crowdfunding project. By interviewing several successful and unsuccessful non-profit crowdfunding initiators, and multiple donators, the chapter will endeavour to identify and explicate the elements that are closely involved in the process of non-profit crowdfunding projects. These involve elements that can be divided into the subjective elements, that is, the elements that have direct association with people, such as the purpose of the initiator/project, the specific description of the project, and the promotion method; and the objective elements, that is, the environmental elements, such as the legal system, the moral issues, and the information asymmetry/financial fraud issues. By analysing the effects of involving such elements, we intend to propose constructive suggestions for the successful practice of non-profit crowdfunding projects.