Crowdsourcing and its Benefits to Social Causes/Niche Markets

By: Forrest Herlick

Photo Source: Unsplash “Toky, Japan” by: Jason Ortego

The Problem | Clicktivism

“Social media platforms are starting to be used by citizens for promoting social causes, creating community engagement to answer

societal needs. ” (4)

However“Most critics believe that clicking a button to “share” something is

worthless, and people should get out from behind their screens and DO something”(15)

Photo Source: Flickr by Geralt

“Clicktivism has also been called “Slacktivism”

where low cost effort substitutes for action. By

clicking, reposting or “liking”, we feel we’ve done

our bit for the cause.” (5)

“of the 70% who said they used digital media

to learn about changes they can make in their

lives to create positive social or environmental

change, only 25% made changes.” (11)

Photo source: Unsplash by Thomas Lefebvre

“There must be a plan to engage supporters once they’ve clicked and keep them engaged

after the hashtag stops trending.”(11)

Crowdsourcing using social media

has been the answer

Photo source: Unsplash by: Dai Ke

What is Crowdsourcing?

“Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd of people. The idea is to take work and outsource it to a crowd of workers.”(3)

Photo Source: Shutterstock by: Archimedes

The backstory

“Crowdfunding first became known as a way for independent artists, filmmakers and others to raise money for their projects by persuading a large number of people to make small donations through the Web.

Then it caught on as a way to help launch small businesses.”(1)

Photo source: Unsplash by: Gonzalo Poblete

Benefits Drawbacks

“Saves Time and Money

Access to Capital

Establish a Customer

Base

Control Over Rewards to

Investors”(12)

“Does Not Deliver for

Business-to-Business

Offerings

Does Not Work for Complex

Projects

Might Not Fund Large Capital

Requirements

Makes Your Project Inflexible”(12)

Photo by: Unsplash.com

Some of the Many Crowdfunding Websites

KickStarter

Photo Source: Unsplash by: Fabian Irsara

(7)

PlumeFund

“Social Media is a critical factor in crowdfunding

success: for every order of magnitude increase in

Facebook friends (10, 100, 1000), the probability of

success increases drastically (from 9%-,20%, to

40%).”(8)

Photo source: Pixabay by: OpenClipArtVectors

$534.49 Average funds raised for individual charitable crowdfunding

pages

$9,237.55 Average funds raised on campaign crowdfunding pages

(fundraising by teams of people working to raise money for the same issue)

(10)

The Results

In 2014, nearly 19% of the $16.2 billion crowdfunded throughout the year went to social causes(6)

Photo source: Flickr “Crowdfunding” by: Rocio Lara

4.8M 1.4M 1M 660KFor Invisible

Children’s

Kony2012

campaign on StayClassy.

For the

Convent and

Academy of

the Visitation on Razoo.

For the Aflac

Cancer Center on Causes.

For the

Operation

Baby Rescue on Causevox

Photo Source: pixabay, by: Keoni Cabral

$

(10)

Which Charities Raised the most Money Crowdfunding?

Furthermore…

Crowdsourcing is a useful tool for niche markets and small businesses to grow

Photo Source Unsplash by: Abigail Keenan

Because crowdsourcing is so easily accessible and able to reach large groups of people, more niche businesses are able to form and take off to help markets that otherwise wouldn’t have been served. (2)

Photo source: Flickr “Market Niche” by: godzgurlz100

“80% of crowdsourcing is

done by small businesses

and startups.”

(12)

Photo by: unsplash.com

Some of the Markets They Serve

Research Labs Students Astronauts

Photo Source: Pixabay by: FotoshopTofs Photo by: snapswiresnaps.tumblr.com Photo by: pixabay.com

Research Labs

“Faced with the threat of budget cuts and intense competition for the money that remains, scientists around the world are instead turning directly to the public for the help they need. In the process, they are unlocking millions of pounds via crowdfunding websites

SciFund Challenge, for example, has allowed nearly 200 researchers to raise an average of $2,000 (£1,272) for 159 different projects. Hundreds of projects on RocketHub have raised up to half a million dollars each.”(9)

Photo Source Flickr by: Wesley Wilson

Students

“Students short on tuition use crowdfunding sites to post information about their situation and blast out an appeal through social media, sometimes using tools on the site.”(1)

Photo Source: Flickr by: Jane Hodson

Astronauts

Lunar Mission One aims to transform how space exploration is done by covering the costs of expeditions with millions of small payments from the public instead a major investment from national space agencies. (14)

Its leaders have turned to Kickstarter, the crowdfunding

platform, to raise the £600,000 ($1m) needed to get the

project off the ground. Enough support over the next

month will see planning and fundraising ramp up in

2015.(14)

Photo Source: Unsplash by: NASA

Conclusion

Crowdsourcing leverages the strength of social media to solve the issue of Clicktivism and generate impact to social causes. Using its wide range of networks, crowdsourcing is able to serve markets that have been neglected in the public

and allow small businesses to grow and thrive.(3)

Photo Source: Unsplash by: Davide Ragusa

Works Cited

1. Blackman, Andrew. Tuition Due? Time to Hit Up Everyone You Know. WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.

2. Bonnie, Emily. 26 Best Crowdfunding Sites by Niche. Блог Wrike. N.p., 2014. Web. 05 June 2016.

3. Bratvold, David. What Is Crowdsourcing - Daily Crowdsource. Daily Crowdsource. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.

4. Bresciani, Sabrina, and Andreas Schmeil. Social Media Platforms for Social Good. 2012 6th IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (DEST) (2012): n. pag. Web.

5. Brooks, Karen. SOCIAL Media Has Cluttered Our Lives with Online Petitions, Announcements and Invitations to Sign Up, Share or Join Yet Another Cause. Www.couriermail.com. CourierMail, n.d.Web. 05 June 2016z.

6. Dupere, Katie. How to Start a Social Good Crowdfunding Campaign. Mashable. N.p., 2015. Web. 05 June 2016.

7. Beyond Kickstarter: Best Kickstarter Alternatives to Crowdfund Anything. Floship. N.p., 2016. Web. 05 June 2016.

8. Crowdfunding Statistics. Fundable. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.

Works Cited Cont’d

9. Gray, Richard. Crowdfunded Science: Harnessing the Wisdom of the Crowd, or Selling Out? The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 02 Jan. 2015. Web. 05 June 2016.

10. Josephson, Brady. Summary Crowdfunding Infographic - Re: Charity. Re Charity. N.p., 2014. Web. 05 June 2016.

11. Kielburger, Craig, and Marc Kielburger. A Click Is Not Enough to Have Impact on World. Canoe.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.

12. The Pros and Cons of Crowdfunding Your New Business. Learn Finance Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.

13. Meek, Teresa. Crowdsourcing: Great For Your Business (A Handy Primer). Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.

14. Sample, Ian. Crowdfunded Lunar Mission Will Put Donors' Hair on the Moon. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2014. Web. 05 June 2016.

15. Sharma, Ritu. Stop Pouring Ice on Clicktivism. The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.