CROWDFUNDING DAY

HISTORY OF CROWDFUNDING DAY

Crowdfunding began in the 1300s when wealthy individuals pooled their money to fund risky enterprises. Authors also applied subscription crowdfunding, in which they would publish books after they had garnered enough interest to support their works. Alexander Pope used this model in 1713 to fund his translation of the ancient Greek poem the ‘Iliad’ and got paid in advance for the work with a promise that he would release a volume every year, and he acknowledged the donors in the first editions of the book. Mozart was also crowdfunded when he performed his three new piano concertos, and he, in return, gave the 176 donors a manuscript of the concert with their names and his appreciation.

When the US government did not have the financial resources to put together the Statue of Liberty in 1885 and build a base for it, they used a tier-based crowdfunding model and raised the required funds. Crowdfunding was launched by Joseph Pulitzer in his newspaper “The New York World” in exchange for $1 and $5 donations, and the newspaper offered the statue in 6-inch and 12-inch versions, respectively.

When the US government did not have the financial resources to put together the Statue of Liberty in 1885 and build a base for it, they used a tier-based crowdfunding model and raised the required funds. Crowdfunding was launched by Joseph Pulitzer in his newspaper “The New York World” in exchange for $1 and $5 donations, and the newspaper offered the statue in 6-inch and 12-inch versions, respectively.

Out of the campaign, over USD 100,000 was raised from 160,000 donors. The initial use of online crowdfunding occurred in the arts and entertainment industry. The Vegan Society 1994 ran a successful campaign that produced the “Truth or Dairy” documentary. The British rock band, Marillion, on the back of the success of this campaign, managed to raise USD 60,000 in 1997 through internet-based crowdfunding from fans to fund their US tour entirely.

The first online crowdfunding platform was ArtistShare, launched by American producer Brian Camelio in 2001. Through this platform, jazz artist Maria Schneider received sponsorship for her record, which later won a Grammy Award. Later on, crowdfunding websites such as Kiva in 2005, The Point in 2008, which later became Groupon, ‘Indiegogo’ in 2008, Kickstarter in 2009, MicroVentures in 2009, GoFundMe in 2010, and YouCaring in 2011, began to pop up as the popularity of crowdfunding grew, and the model matured. Crowdfunding today has become a huge industry in the US, raising over USD 17 billion annually.