Crowdfunding Now!

From a recent article, 7 Key Elements of a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign. My comments are in bold text below: 1. "Tell your story. As the old adage goes: facts tell, stories sell. When it comes to eliciting customer engagement, a campaign with a good story is an unparalleled strategy . Did you experience some kind of obstacle on your path to entrepreneurship? Did a major life event influence your career choice or business decisions? Tell your story in your crowdfunding pitch to make a connection with backers and encourage engagement.If you don’t have a personal story to share with your audience, share facts and highlights about your startup, product or vision instead. Describe the problem (and severity of the problem) your product will solve, or discuss the vision for your startup . Keep your tone and messaging personal to make backers feel closely connected to you and your project." Agree wholeheartedly. Telling your story is key 2. "Provide value for value. Crowd...

" African American buying power will increase 73 percent between 2000 and 2012, which not only overtakes the 60 percent increase in Caucasian buying power, but also the 67 percent rise in total buying power of all races combined. Two factors contributing to the gains include a 61 percent increase in black-owned businesses in the five-year period between 2002 and 2007 and 84 percent of blacks over 25 years of age completing high school or college – a sharp increase from 66 percent in 1990."  Related articles The Color of Money African Americans face financial challenges New Prudential study shows African Americans' wealth building weakened by competing financial priori In Colorado, Blacks Make Up 4 Percent Of The Population And 100 Percent Of Death Row

Martin Luther King Memorial, Washington, DC Photo by William Michael Cunningham Copyright, WMC, 2012. "Evil is not driven out, but crowded out...through the expulsive power  of something good. " MLK Related articles "I Am MLk" Poem Crowdfunding statistics & trends [infographic]

A short video describing the top 10 things black folks (and others) need to know about crowdfunding. A plug for Blackcrowdfunding.net. http://youtu.be/4hXsgxuO-ag

Join Us for a FREE Webinar on Crowdfunding! May 7 at 10 AM PT/ 1 PM ET http://greenforall.org/programs/business-engagement-strategies/crowdfunding-101/ Related articles What to do after you've launched your crowdfunding campaign Champions of Change: Crowdfunding Entrepreneurs New Crowdfunding Site Supports Black Entrepreneurs 7 Strategies For Launching A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign Upstart, A Site For Crowdfunding People, Raises $5.9M From First Round, Eric Schmidt, And Others | TechCrunch Crowdfunding websites raise $2.7 bln in 2012

The University of California, Berkeley's Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership has conservatively estimated the size of the equity and debt based crowdfunding market to be at least $3.98B.  Professor Lee Fleming, Faculty Director of the Fung Institute, Academic Director of the Program and contributing author said, “While estimating the size of the future and currently non-existent market is a hazardous endeavor at best, we have presented a set of data, assumptions, and estimations that may prove useful. From the lenses of Angels, VCs and Small business lending we believe a market as large as $3.98B per year could rapidly evolve.” “While Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson added credibility to the concept of crowdfund investing by predicting crowdfund investing could amount to a $300B market, we believe that the market size may be much small yet equally impactful” said   Sherwood Neiss , co-founder of the Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance and ...

This free telephone conference call will describe why and how one participates in a crowdfunding campaign.  We will discuss a specific campaign, currently seeking donations on Blackcrowdfunding.net, the Charles Junction Community Gardens :  "Charles Garden is a 501(c)(3) social service and job building program for chronically unemployed and hungry families. Charles Garden trains and equips people within the community to grow whole fresh foods for themselves and to sell their home grown produce for economic empowerment. Funding will be used to train the unemployed to grow and produce whole foods for themselves and their families. Contributions are tax deductible."  Dorothy Pitman Hughes , the creator of this crowdfunding campaign, will be on the call to answer questions. Ms. Hughes was a co-founder (with Gloria Steinem, left) of Ms. Magazine. We will also discuss how to make a contribution on Blackcrowdfunding.net .  To participate, call  1-6...