Crowdfunding Now!

In this short video, I discuss crowdfunding alongside Advisory Board Member Tony Cord. http://levick.com/blog/2014/07/24/william-cunningham-and-tony-cord-equity-crowdfunding

Equity Crowdfunding in the District of Columbia According to recent news reports, "D.C. regulators are drawing up a proposed framework that would allow District startups to take advantage of equity crowdfunding from District investors, following a growing number of states which have passed similar measures in recent months. D.C.'s Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) is preparing to publish a proposed rule that would give companies within the city “an alternative to existing methods of raising capital,” the agency said in a statement to the Washington Business Journal. That proposal, according to DISB, “is similar to those that are being developed in other states and the SEC’s proposed crowdfunding regulations.” We will describe state-level equity based crowdfunding, discuss specific crowdfunding campaigns and announce a new initiative. https://equitycrowdfundingdc.eventbrite.com

We have been researching this issue for some time now, and I thought I would outline what we have learned so far. This is ever changing, so stay tuned. A. EAS (Early Adapter Syndrome). There is a guy in my office building who is a crowdfunding junkie. Daily, he tells me about the latest gadget he just bought on Indiegogo or Kickstarter. He MUST be the first to own the latest toy. Here's the thing: he has grown quite knowledgeable about both technology and about selecting tech products. His success ratio has grown to near 100% now. He can spot a troubled product or crowdfunding campaign a mile away. Not a bad skill to have, actually. B. Love. People donate to products, causes and events they feel excited about. They LOVE what you, the crowdfunder, is doing. Now, part of the issue is making sure that love comes through. If there is a disconnect, people will not know that they love what you are doing. C. Community. It speaks to the community, whatever community that is. It can ...

In the crowdfunding world, there has been much talk about potato salad, but not the delectable summertime dish. We're talking about a Kickstarter campaign that, so far, has raised over $46,000 with a $10 goal. Upon first hearing of this, one would assume there is some catch, that maybe the goal had something to do with a great social concern that potato salad could help fix, maybe hunger among six year olds.... Nope. Zack Danger Brown simply wants to make potato salad. I'm sure not even he thought that his campaign would garner so much support and notoriety. The campaign has spawned several copy-cats and off-shoots: "Potato Salad" by Philip "Call me Fredo" Morganelli and "Macaroni Salad - Yum!". The overwhelming success of this campaign should serve as a wake up for several reasons. Firstly, the goal was overly simplistic. There was no elaborate reasoning or even a video. Secondly, there was no product to promote or great social benefit. S...

Starting a nonprofit crowdfunding campaign is neither easy nor simple despite the positive social motivation of the typical campaigner. The reason for this is that the process of creating a nonprofit is complicated, due to the benefits they receive from the government. One of the most useful assistance the U.S. government provides is support to social benefit organizations via an exemption or tax deduction for contributions. Since normal successful crowdfunding campaigns usually spend around 30% of their revenue paying taxes (or they should anyway), this tax advantage will generate huge financial benefit for those who are not subject to taxes. However receiving this huge benefit requires official approval from the US government. Crowdunding is a new method of raising money and IRS has not yet announced guidelines regarding tax procedures for campaigns. Campaigns created through crowdfunding platforms are usually subject to taxes, except for those organizations who have tax exempt ...

In the period between May 13 - May 18 of this year, a low-pressure storm system called Cyclone Tamara dumped 3 months worth of rainwater on communities in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. The water broke through the dams and levees, washing away everything in it's path. 2,000 mudslides completely destroyed entire villages and the towns of Maglaj, Krupanj, Obrenovac, Doboj, and Gunja virtually disappeared under the flood waters. The human suffering has been staggering: over 70 people lost their lives, 900,000 had to be evacuated, and over 85,000 are still living in temporary shelters across the Balkans. A group of concerned global citizens have come together to form "Blues for the Balkans" to show solidarity with the Balkan people and to raise awareness about the Balkan floods. Luke Winslow King saw pictures about the floods on Facebook and offered support. Others supporting this effort include Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant in Washington DC, Kameron Vollin-Reed a...

The chart below shows the top 10 most funded video game crowdfunding campaigns from Kickstarter and Indiegogo. "Rank"   i s based on the dollar amount raised. The table was complied using data from our crowdfunding research reports: The Top 50 Crowdfunding Campaigns and the  Top Crowdfunding Campaigns for Computer Games As we saw from our analysis of the Top 50 most funded crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo 34% of the top campaigns were video game related. The most notable gaming campaign is Star Citizen which raised $2,134,374 on Kickstarter. The developers of the Star Citizen video game went on to create a crowdfunding platform specifically for their game. With amazing graphics and a detailed storyline they managed to raise over $47 million, making this the most funded crowdfunding campaign of all time! This is great news for video game developers. It shows the potential that crowdfunding holds for that industry. So, what should...

Thank you for your interest in crowdfunding. Please take a minute to answer three brief questions. We promise, this is a SHORT survey.  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BNDGP3Y

DC announced they are considering a crowdfunding exemption. See:  http://youtu.be/ImVLxX2z0rQ

The chart below results from an analysis of the Top 50 crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo, 'Top' measured by total dollars raised. The X axis shows the dollar amount of the reward or  perk ($1 to $10, $11 to $20, etc.) The Y axis shows the cumulative number of rewards/perks collected across all 50 campaigns, so the chart shows that, for the top 50 crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo, 100,000 rewards/perks with a  value ranging from $1 dollar to $10 dollars were selected by supporters.  Normally, we might expect this chart to be convex, declining steadily from $1 to $5000. This is not what we see, however. It seems that people are willing to donate small dollar amounts, up to about $50, and then contributors look to donate at least $100. What's going on here? To explain this phenomenon, classify backers into two categories: 1. The first category are people who simply want to help. They donate less than $50 dollars and do not donate for the reward (normally a T-shi...