If you have been anywhere near the Internet in the past several years, you have noticed that crowdfunding is a rapidly growing source of funding for charities, businesses, films and organizations. Your potential for fundraising is boundless. By reaching millions of people, you can raise money and awareness simultaneously. If your campaign page goes viral, it will essentially grow overnight. There are several ways of raising capital besides Crowdfunding, it all depend upon your business sector, what the funds will be spent on, and which province you are located in and your type of organization.

What Is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is the collection of startup funds through very small donations from a large number of investors. These investors can be anyone: friends, family members, and fans anticipating the launch of your product. In return for a donation between $10 and $500, contributors generally receive a product when the business launches, a special note of thanks, or even involvement in the design of the product. Unlike other outside sources of funding, crowdfunding does not usually involve selling shares of your company.

How the JOBS Act Can Help Your Business

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), passed in April 2012, allows businesses to petition for funding online from the general public in return for equity, instead of rewards such as free products. At the moment, you can raise funds on sites like Crowdfunder.com, but only accredited investors (those with a net worth over $1 million or a yearly income of $200,000) may contribute. So, instead of tiny contributions from many people, you are able to collect larger contributions from just a few investors.

Creating Your Online Pitch

One of the benefits of crowdfunding is the fact that you will not need to worry about giving a slideshow presentation to a room full of investors. Instead, you will make your pitch to thousands of people online. While there are more people you will need to impress, you will have the benefit of pitching in the casual online atmosphere. Your main goal will be to get people excited about your cause so they will donate and share your crowdfunding page on their social networks.

  • Keep it simple. If your contributors will be ordinary individuals donating for rewards, you’ll be hard-pressed to captivate them in seconds, before they click away to the next cat video. The first few sentences or seconds of your campaign should make your objective very clear.
  • Use video and images along with text to engage your viewers and turn them into contributors. You should record yourself (or a friend) speaking about your business. Putting a face to your cause will help you establish trust and increase the likelihood that your viewers will donate.
  • Get viral. The most successful crowdfunding campaigns create a strong emotional pull that drives users to donate and share. This could mean emphasizing your product’s benefit to the environment, its ability to improve mankind, or even diminish an everyday inconvenience. Position your campaign in a way that makes viewers think, “I have to be the first to share this!”
  • Make it worth their while. If you offer rewards to your contributors, make sure they are irresistible and highly valued. If your contributors will be making a return on their investment with you, make sure to emphasize your company’s potential for creating wealth.

Crowdfunding is a unique way to find investors in that most contributors donate to campaigns they are passionate about. If you have a million reasons to be passionate about your business, share them with the world – you never know what could happen.