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PDF version of Shareable's Crowdfunding Nation eBook. A collection of articles, how-to and legal guides, and case studies about crowdfunding. Also available as a Kindle eBook or ePub: http://bit.ly/vJKCKd

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Crowdfunding NationThe Rise and Evolution of Collaborative Funding

Edited by Paul M. Davis

This eBook is available for $2.99 in the Kindle Store or as a non-DRM ePub file at Shareable.

A collection of articles from Shareable Magazine.

Cover image by Open Source.com, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

All of Shareable’s content is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Crowdfunding: Its Evolution

and Its FutureCrowdfunding Nation: The Rise and Evolution of Collaborative Funding

By Paul M. Davis

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When Kickstarter was launched in 2009, it seemed like a unlikely proposition: fund your passion projects with money donated by eager supporters? Get strangers to fund your dreams with only an idea and a good pitch? While there were precedents, such as the microfinance service Kiva, Kickstarter projects thrived on the goodwill of the crowd while the world economy was in the midst of the global recession. Yancey Strickler, one of Kickstarter’s founders, had his own reservations before starting the company, noting in a New York Times interview that his initial response to co-founder Perry Chen was, “I’m not so sure about this...If you let people vote for what they want — that’s ‘American Idol,’ that doesn’t produce great art.”

Yet in the past two years, crowdfunding has exploded, thanks in part to the Kickstarter’s “all-or-nothing” model for funding. It’s democracy in action: think you have a great idea? Convince enough people and you can make it a reality. If not, back to the drawing board. By turning collaborative funding into a high-stakes game, Kickstarter demands a certain level of quality from its creators, encourages that they work to promote their project, and gives backers confidence that they’ll only pay for projects that achieve a critical mass of support. Even as competing services launch, some serving different creators and audiences, many follow the model popularized by Kickstarter.

The momentum shows no signs of letting up. Yesterday, Kickstarter announced that they hit their one millionth backer, with adoption increasing exponentially: on their blog, Kickstarter notes that it took 16 months to reach the first 200,000 backers, while the last 200,000 signed on in only three months. Funding projects is habitual, according to Kickstarter’s figures. Out of 1,013,725 total backers, 166,823 have funded two or more projects, 66,676 have backed three or more, and 23,601 have backed five or more. This phenomenon echoes Shareable’s view that sharing is contagious, and one shareable act begets more.

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Graphs in this chapter via Kickstarter’s blog.

In July, upon reaching 10,000 successfully funded projects, Kickstarter released metrics that revealed a 44% success rate among projects, and a rapid increase in the number of successful projects month-by-month.

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Breaking down successful projects by category, Kickstarter revealed some useful insights on what types of projects get the most traction on their creative-oriented platform. Music, film and video are the clear frontrunners:

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Who would have thought that tapping your networks for donations would prove such a sustainable model? Certainly not myself — last year, I discussed my concern about impending crowdfunding fatigue from friends and colleagues who had been tapped for donations one too many times. But so far, the numbers haven't borne this out. The sheer breadth of successful campaigns launched in the past year are impressive, including feature films, web series, musicians releasing records, web startups, gadget accessories, art projects, homebrew video games, urban farms, journalism, open-source projects, road trips, social activism, small businesses, even documentaries about the sharing economy— the list goes on. Even if some of the projects are silly and ephemeral, that breadth demonstrates the fundamental strength of the platform.

Kickstarter is the most visible of all the services, but far from the only one. A wide array of services aim to serve different constituencies. Kiva is one of the originals, garnering the attention of Oprah and facilitating $240,410,450 in microloans since its inception in 2005.

This spreadsheet curated by Joe Brewer and Suresh Fernando, who are in the process of writing a Crowdfunding Manual for Social Change, demonstrates this wealth of options. There are creative-focused ones such as IndieGoGo, and

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platforms specific to pursuits such as music, publishing, and even wine making. There is the journalism-focused platform spot.us, a “community-funded reporting” platform which Shareable and the Public Press have used to help fund investigative reporting. Peer-to-peer lending services like Lending Club aim to remove large banks as the middlemen for loans. The Occupy Wall Street Journal, the occupation’s newspaper of record, has raised $75,690 in funding on Kickstarter to cover publishing costs. Concurrently, there’s an increasing number of social movement-focused platforms, such as the social enterprise-focused Start Some Good, and non profit-centric CauseVox.

With such growth, critiques are inevitable. Perhaps most common is the fear that we’re in a crowdfunding “bubble”. In a blog post, designer Andy Mangold offered some well-directed critiques before launching his Kickstarter project, noting that selling an idea is much easier than selling an actual product, that these platforms prefer those with large established networks, and that the lack of insurance for backers could lead to backlash if the creators don’t deliver what was promised.

Consider the hype and backlash cycle endured by the people behind Diaspora, one of the most high-profile crowdfunded projects to date. The enthusiasm that greeted Diaspora’s plan to build an open-source alternative to Facebook quickly curdled among some supporters and journalists who felt that the development process took too long and were disappointed by the limited alpha release. While gathering funding from your networks and supporters can make otherwise impossible projects possible, creators may then face expectations they can’t meet. In a social media climate where everyone has a voice, excitement can turn to disappointment or anger when money has been given up front.

That said, crowdfunding’s momentum shows no signs of flagging. There's no doubt that as adoption increases, so does competition, making it more crucial than ever to stand out from the crowd. Before starting a campaign, do your research, and be prepared to work hard. There are many how-to guides, including Shareable’s guides in these pages on how to run your own campaign and what you’ll need to start. Metafilter founder and serial backer Matt Haughey offers a useful list of suggestions from the perspective of a funder, and the Modest Guide to Success on Kickstarter offers particularly useful advice. Common tips among the various how-to posts including defining success beforehand, communicating with backers transparently, and carefully structuring the reward system. In addition,

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Kickstarter’s online school of how-tos and FAQS is a must-read, no matter which service you choose to use.

Be sure to look at the profit/loss statements released by those who have successfully funded similar projects — Diaspora released a detailed statement after their campaign, breaking down Kickstarter’s fees and promotional costs, and many have released similar statements, such as the documentary filmmaker Joey Daoud. Be realistic, and make sure you’re setting the goal at something achievable — if you can’t hit that total, you’ll be walking away with nothing but squandered good will.

Living in an era of unprecedented connectivity, crowdfunding represents a new way for creators, makers, entrepreneurs and social activists to realize their dreams. Moreover, the collaboration enabled by peer-to-peer social lending and funding platforms represents a unique opportunity presented by The New Sharing Economy.

Crowdfunding continues to evolve. Services such as Sprowd aim to make it a credible way to fund startups. Congressional Bill HR2930 could make it easier for businesses to raise equity from investors through campaigns. Joe Brewer and Suresh Fernando believe crowdfunding is a way social entrepreneurs and activists can fund the commons, inspire engagement, and foster movements. The rise of mobile devices hint at immediate and location-aware platforms that could support small-scale projects in real time.

Will the bubble burst? It’s too early to say, but the numbers show that the trajectory remains on a steadily upward path. No matter its future, crowdfunding represents collaboration and funding opportunities that would have been unthinkable only a decade ago, with a transformative impact on creators, makers, entrepreneurs, and social movements that cannot be understated.

Crowdfunding Social ChangeBy Suresh Fernando

We are at an inflection point in human history that requires that we answer the call. There is no more time to dawdle. This inflection point can be characterized by the convergence of a transformation in values with a technological revolution. This combination will enable a techno-cultural re-ordering that will allow us to interact

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differently. This will make it possible to organize and coordinate activity in new and innovative ways as well as to re-define the very structure of our institutions since, no doubt, the structure of our institutions is deeply connected to how we interact with each other.

A key feature of the reorganizing of our institutions will be the way that resources are allocated to change agents, visionaries, revolutionaries and the like. The emerging Internet and network infrastructure makes it possible both to coordinate activity as well as to source and access financial capital in new and innovative ways; ways which circumvent the current institutional framework against which most change stand in opposition. Within this context many innovative models that enable us to coordinate activity and resources around projects will be developed. Against this backdrop we will advance a few ideas as to what the future of crowdfunding holds.

The Tipping Point: Ushering in the New Paradigm

Change agents need to be aware of their historical context. We are at a Tipping Point that is the result of the convergence of dramatically shifting values and perspectives, in conjunction with a rapid transformation in the dynamics of communication and interaction. The convergence of these with larger socio-technological trends is a combination ripe with possibility.

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The values transformation is the result of a number of different forces, including climate change, rampant distrust of and disillusion in the political process, the collapse of the financial markets, the introduction of species extinction risk into the discourse, alienation and fragmentation within western culture, global economic inequity, terrorism and war, the erosion of the importance of spirituality and a sense of higher purpose in western culture etc, and the list goes on. The conjunction of all of the above is leading a massive sense of discontent that is permeating our collective consciousness.

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This transformation in values that is taking place is simultaneous with, and in part the result of, the rapid evolution of the technological infrastructure that is substantially increasing connectivity and communication across the world. This technological ‘revolution’ is in itself the result of several convergent forces: the increased ubiquity of broadband in the Western hemisphere, and the rapid decrease in the price of both memory and processing power. The conjunction of these three forces is leading to the Real Time Infrastructure; a world where we are both highly connected and visible to each other and where processing power is pushed to the edge of the network. We are literally connected to most of the people that matter in our lives all the time. Furthermore, with the increased capability of search and filtering tools, we have the ability to find people at a moment’s notice.

The New Paradigm

If we are indeed at a Tipping Point, then we need to reflect on what the future holds. The New Paradigm that we will collectively usher in, due to its basis in changes in patterns of communication, will both serve to reflect those changes.

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We are moving to a world that is more open than ever before and where privacy is becoming a thing of the past. We will see a transition from hierarchical governance and institutional forms to ones which are based upon decentralization and peer-to-peer interaction. Cooperation and collaboration will replace the ethic of self-interest that has been reinforced by capitalism and the ‘economic lens’ that institutionalizes greed and avarice. Living isolated, insularly focused lives will be replaced by more connected and holistic ways of being in the world. Corporations, the dominant legal structure of the last several centuries will, in time, be replaced by legal entities that are aligned with a broader mission than simply the maximization of financial profit. We will see the birth and the boon of the social finance sector and other institutional paradigms that are more deeply connected with our fundamental desire to support life, love, our health and the health of the planet. Finally, we will see a revival of the need to view the self and our agency in the world merely as ‘consumers’ and ‘producers’; as merely cogs in a larger architecture that is gauged purely on our ‘efficiency’ and ‘productivity’. This will result in a more holistic picture of ourselves that recognizes our need to commit to the health of mind, body and spirit.

This is the context that modern day change agents will create, and they will do it using innovative models and tools made possible by the rapidly changing

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communications architecture that radically transforms the very nature of community. It is against this backdrop that we need to understand the emergent financing, and more generally, resource allocation models at our disposal.

Mass Collaboration

The current explosion in crowdsourcing as a means towards tapping the intelligence and power of the masses, and crowdfunding as a means of raising financial capital, owe something to those that paved the way through the exploration of collaboration models that were designed to engage large numbers of people. The most well known examples are the Linux operating system and Wikipedia. In both cases a massive, heterogenous and geographically dispersed constituency has been able to sufficiently coordinate activity to create something that is much more functional than anything to which they can be compared. Linux is the poster boy for the open source software movement, and the principles of open source which it has spawned. Wikipedia is the single largest information resource which, for the most part, has been developed in an open way, allowing virtually anyone to participate. In both cases, we have seen that non-hierarchical

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models that don’t rely on centralized quality control are not required. The collective good will of the crowd is sufficient.

The successes of projects like Linux and Wikipedia have opened the eyes for those exploring innovative models to seemingly intractable problems, one of which is raising capital for risky projects that don’t meet traditional financial criteria. This has resulted, in the last couple of years, in an explosion of crowdfunding platforms onto the scene.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding platforms initially provided a central location for artists to promote their projects. Artistic projects are ideal in this context because the output is tangibly visible and is something that contributors can share in. Furthermore, the projects are easy to define and easy to represent via rich media which is the preferred mode of communication in the new world.

In the recent past, we have seen the emergence of several platforms, the focus of which is to support ventures that deliver social value — StartSomeGood, Bzzbnk and 33Needs, for example. We can expect more platforms of this sort to emerge in the coming months as more and more social innovators realize the need to find alternative ways to support their more experimental projects. Since the needs of social innovators differ from those of artists, the crowdfunding models will need to evolve.

Based on our research on existing crowdfunding models as well as our street level activity as social innovators, we expect the next generation of crowdfunding models to look something like this:

The Emergence of TribeSourcing

TribeSourcing, a term coined by Mark Frazier, is the most important feature of new platforms, one that borrows from the principles of mass collaboration which matches the platform to the group, community or movement within which it is situated. Currently crowdsourcing platforms are designed to enable a single entrepreneur to simply solicit funds from her network, but the relationship between her contacts is not a consideration. Current platforms don’t account for the fact that people are situated within communities and that the people within

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communities have established relationships. New platforms will therefore include mechanisms that enable projects within a particular community to be evaluated, voted upon and supported. They will also include collaboration features that enable members in the larger ‘tribe’ to provide non-financial support: helping with websites, business planning etc. This will reflect a recognition that entrepreneurs need more than simply financial capital. They need social capital and intellectual capital as well.

This move towards TribeSourcing will include a number of specific features that support ongoing projects (as opposed to isolated campaigns):

• the ability to run multiple different campaigns in relation to a single project (finance the development of a website, write a business plan, etc.)

• the ability for contributors to make monthly recurring contributions to support a venture’s ongoing operating cash flow requirements.

• the ability to piece out specific aspects of a project within a single campaign for funding. For example, the development of a business plan or website in support of a single event campaign.

Funding the Commons

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Social innovators and change agents rely on the power of the crowd and hence one strategy that they will likely pursue in time is the development of an infrastructure to fund a commons pool, to act as an umbrella structure that more broadly serves the interests of innovators and change agents. The precise details of what this structure will look like remain to be developed, but we can imagine the creation of a commons that was structured in such a way to that it garnered the trust and confidence of the crowd. We can imagine change agents world wide signing up to contribute $10/month. We can imagine the crowd scaling to a million, two million, ten million, and so on.

In summary, the future looks bright for change agents seeking sources of capital that are distinct from what is available via current institutional channels. Crowdfunding is coming of age and we can expect a proliferation of innovative platforms and models that will be more collaborative and engage communities around projects in a deeper and more powerful way.

Of The Crowd: An Interview With Daniella Jaeger of Kickstarter

By Malcolm Harris

I chatted with Kickstarter's Community staffer Daniella Jaeger about what it's like to work for an industry leader and start-up at the same time, and what prospective creators can do to make their projects stand out.

Malcolm: How did you get started working at Kickstarter? What attracted you to the start-up?

Daniella: I moved to New York and was looking for a job and came across a posting for a Community position at Kickstarter. By the time I applied the position was filled but I went into the office to chat. I thought the site was cool though I hadn't totally wrapped my head around it yet. After talking to Yancey and Perry about it, though, I fell in love. (Not with Yancey and Perry, with Kickstarter. Though all three are easy candidates for falling in love.) I had been looking to join

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a small team, but Kickstarter quickly became much more than a cool startup. It felt incredibly special, a project with a beautiful mission and a very interesting group of people behind it. So I sent them ideas and applied for another job a few months later and eventually they let me on, in the spring of 2010.

I like to think of crowd-funding as part of a whole wave of social entrepreneurship, how do you think Kickstarter's mission differs from the average tech start-up?

Kickstarter’s focus is on creative projects. It’s a blend of patronage and commerce, a place for musicians, filmmakers, artists, writers, designers, et al to reach out to their fans and community for support with their projects. Creators maintain full ownership and creative control of their work; Kickstarter gives them the tools and social space to build an audience around their ideas and bring them to life.

I know working at a start-up means there are no average days, but tell me a little about what you do at Kickstarter.

Yes — every month feels different, it's wild. Our team is organized between Community and Product. Product does development and design, Community handles curation, editorial, customer support, and outreach, among other things. My role has morphed into a kind of community product manager: collaborating on new features, writing site copy, overseeing customer service, and contributing to curation and editorial. Nearly everyone on the Community team started out getting their hands dirty in the same way: reviewing project proposals and providing support. Understanding where projects come from and how users interact with the site provides a really good foundation.

You must see a lot of interesting and thoughtful projects succeed and fail to meet their fundraising goals. What're some things users can do to help distinguish their proposal?

There are amazing things going on all the time. I've backed 170 projects and wish I could back hundreds more right now. Projects don't need to be flashy, they just need to have personality — soul. A strong project has a clear focus, and making a personal connection is key, which is why a video is essential. The value of video cannot be overstated. And then, inspired rewards. Offer cool things at fair prices, so people will back them.

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Kickstarter has also been used of late as a fundraising platform for causes (like, for instance, The Occupy Wall Street Journal) that aren't trying to make consumer products per se. How does this fit with Kickstarter's current and future plans?

When people traditionally think fundraising they think of charities and causes, but Kickstarter allows neither of these things. We've built something very different that's focused on people pursuing creative passions and having fun doing it, and those include things like public art, journalism, documentaries, and performance. It's not our intention to divorce art from message, nor from emotion. But we are dedicated to a site that's completely devoted to creativity.

Sites like Kickstarter are based on a certain amount of trust — the customer believes they will receive a product that doesn't even exist yet sometime in the future. Why are people willing to put that kind of trust in the Kickstarter community?

Backing a project on Kickstarter is a combination of commerce and patronage. Often you're not just buying a product, you're joining someone on their creative project, getting a window into their thoughts and process. Most projects get their initial momentum from the creator's network of friends, fans, and immediate communities. That direct relationship between creator and backer makes for pretty powerful motivation to see a project through. But ultimately, it's part of every creator's job to earn a backer's trust, especially backers who don't personally know them. And a lot of creators do a wonderful job of it. They tell a compelling story, they're passionate about their work, they're transparent with their backers, and they want to share what they ultimately create.

Crowdfunding How-To Guides

What You’ll Need to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

By Joe Brewer

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Creating a successful crowdfunding project is both an art and a science. It is an engagement process that requires you to do the following:

Find A Crowd

Remember that this isn’t primarily about money. Otherwise you could just go to your rich uncle or pitch to a friend with deep pockets. It’s about getting a lot of people involved in your cause. So you’ll need a crowd of people who want to see your project succeed.

Tell A Good Story

Getting the attention of your friends and followers can be tough in our time-crunched world. You need to engage them with a good story. What is it that you’re trying to do? Why should they care about it? What will they get out of the experience that makes it special to them?

Create Value for the Community

Not just any project will do. You’ve got to propose something that your crowd really wants or needs. In other words, you’ve got to carefully consider just what your community values enough for lots of people to pitch in and make it real.

Use Social Media Tools

Working with crowds takes a special kind of conversation. Monologuing just won’t cut it. You’ve got to sustain meaningful dialogue with your crowd that encourages the word to spread. This is not a “low touch” activity. Talking with the crowd is ongoing, dynamic, and sometimes outright intense.

Get Your Fans to Spread The Word

Few among us have a thousand followers already hanging on our every word. And simply talking with your two best friends for weeks on end isn’t going to get the word out (or bring you a large enough range of people to get the pledges you’ll need to fund your project). You’ve got to ask more of your fans AND do it in a way that helps them feel good about doing more than dropping money into the coffers.

Follow Through on Your Promises

At the end of the day, if all goes well, you’ll have all hands on deck and enough fuel in your tank to make the drive. Even when you reach your fundraising goal the conversation continues. Remember that this is about engagement. You’ve got to

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deliver the rewards, stay in contact with your fans while you create your killer product, and get it out in the world like you said you would.

How To Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

By Joe Brewer

Looking for advice on how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign? This article lays out some of the most important considerations you’ll need to take into account if you want to build your crowd, get them engaged, and drive them to a rewarding conclusion.

So first things first: you’ve got to have a crowd to crowdfund something. Who are you going to reach out to with your pitch? How do you know if they’ll care about what you’re doing? How will you identify your early adopters, those precious individuals who step up first and get the process rolling? And how much money should you ask for from your community of potential supporters?

To answer these questions, you’ll need to:

• Define the user group that will benefit from bringing your project into being;

• Measure your sphere of influence to get a handle on the power of your crowd for leveraging change;

• Determine the scope of your project based on insights about your crowd;

• Set priorities for who to engage first before you get started;

• Get the momentum rolling and grow your support base as you go along.

What Are You Trying to Accomplish?

Figuring out who’s in and who’s not is all about identifying a shared purpose. The “crowd” can be any self-selecting group of people that shares an affinity for something (e.g. loves bird watching), wants to achieve something (e.g. have a great school in our neighborhood), or wants to be part of a meaningful experience (e.g. we elected the first African American president.).

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What Can You Achieve This Time Around?

With every crowdfunding campaign, you’ll want to start out with a set of realistic expectations that fit your situation. Two important considerations are:

How much money should I ask for?

How long should I take to raise it?

We recommend using the Goldilocks Principle to answer these questions:

“The target amount shouldn’t be so big that it feels unachievable. Neither should it be so small as to feel insignificant for a crowd to address through collective action. It needs to be just right.”

In our experience, a good balance is somewhere between several hundred dollars and several thousand dollars depending on what you hope to create, how much work will be required to get it done, and how big your sphere of influence is (more on this in a moment.)

Who Do You Know Already?

If you run a non-profit, you’ve probably got a list of donors and an email list for people who want to stay informed about your work. If you are a local artist, you’ve got some fans who signed up for your Facebook group to get the inside scoop on upcoming venues and exhibits. Figuring out who you can reach out to at the moment of kick-off is important for gauging how easy it will be to build a crowd of passionistas who will step up and play when the fundraising begins.

You might want to make a mental check-list of the following:

• Email lists or social media groups for fans of your work;

• Online forums where the issue you’re addressing is a common conversation topic;

• Other organizations or community groups who stand to benefit from what you create who might help promote your cause;

• Individuals you know personally who can be asked to contribute money and help spread the word.

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This will help you map out the web of people who can be invited into the process. Your crowd will likely spread beyond these immediate contacts as people in your network spread the word to others in their networks. But you’ve got to start with who you know.

Getting to “Yes We Can”

A great example of successful crowdfunding is the historic presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008. The story that inspired tens of millions to get involved can be expressed in three simple words — yes we can. It is a story about empowerment.; a story about hope; and a story about collective action.

So many people believed in this story that fundraising records were broken as the Obama campaign raked in $750 million over a 21 month period. According to the campaign staff, more than 80% of this money came in as small donations of less than $200. Now that’s an engaged crowd.

There is tremendous power in storytelling. Your ability to engage your crowd will be strongly influenced by the narrative that lays out:

• What you are trying to accomplish;

• Why I should care about it;

• What we’re capable of doing together;

• How we’ll get to the better world if I get involved.

Typically, stories in the political realm have been in the “what I can do for YOU” category. There is no story of WE. Yet crowdfunding is about collaboration. The locus of action is in the synergy that exists between leaders and followers. Members of the crowd really need to internalize the mantra that “yes we can” do this together.

A useful way to think about this is through the Criterion of Belief:

The Criterion of Belief is reached when members of your community begin to believe that what you’re doing is going to happen because they are making it so through collective action. It is the perceptual shift that arises when they start to believe they can make something significant happen.

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Getting beyond this threshold involves a combination of shared purpose and shared enthusiasm. It happens when your story of collective action begins to feel real. Psychologically, this emerges through four stages:

Stage 1: I want to SEE it become real.

Your story needs to convey that collaboration can lead to a desirable outcome, that members of the crowd can visualize it, and they can feel good about being a part of.

Stage 2: I see that OTHERS are getting involved.

It isn’t enough to tell a good story and walk away. You’ve got to demonstrate that others in the community want to make it real as well, by putting money in the game and helping spread the word.

Stage 3: I see myself as a SIGNIFICANT person.

Getting people engaged will require that participation be meaningful and significant. They have to feel like their contributions will make a difference.

Stage 4: I feel the INEVITABILITY that this will happen.

Bystanders who haven’t jumped on board will watch to see if it looks likely to succeed. Many of them will take action only when it begins to feel inevitable that enough people have gotten involved. Others may feel that failure is eminent…and that their contributions could be what pushes it over the top.

If you get people to this point, you’re well on your way to a successful campaign. Crowdfunding isn’t primarily about money. It’s about getting a crowd of people inspired and engaged to take collective action. So you’ll be successful as people take meaningful action and more join the bandwagon.

Best of luck.

Crowdfunding and the LawBy the Sustainable Economies Law Center

What is crowdfunding?

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Crowdfunding is basically the opposite of the mainstream model of business finance. In the mainstream model, when you need to raise capital you go to a bank, a wealthy individual (often known as an angel investor), or a venture capital fund. You rely on one, or very few, large funders for your project. With crowdfunding, you open up funding opportunities to a much larger audience and may end up with tens or hundreds of funders. There are several advantages to this method of funding:

• You have more people that are invested in your success and are likely to support you.

• You create an opportunity for non-wealthy, nonprofessional investors to put money into something they feel excited about.

• With a large number of small investors, it’s unlikely that any of them will expect to be able to control the way you operate.

• With a larger potential pool of funders, you have a better chance of actually raising the amount of money you need.

The main downside is that there are some legal constraints that can get you into trouble if you aren’t careful.

Legal traps for the unwary

Offering any kind of investment opportunity is an activity that is highly regulated by both state and federal law, known as securities law. These laws were passed early in the last century to protect investors from slick pitch artists who traveled across the country selling worthless investments. Kansas adopted the first securities law in 1911 to “keep ‘Kansas money in Kansas’ and help local farmers and small businesses rather than enriching ‘New York Stock Exchange speculators and gamblers.’”

Ironically, these laws now make it almost impossible to invest in small businesses in our communities and pretty much compel us to invest in the New York Stock Exchange. In the name of protecting investors, securities laws now make it very difficult to raise money with crowdfunding.

The basics of these laws is that before any investment opportunity can be offered, the person making the offering must file extensive disclosure documents with the federal government, as well as any state in which the offering will be made.

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There are some exemptions to this general rule, but even the exemptions take securities law expertise to comply with. The result is that anyone offering an investment opportunity may have to spend thousands in legal fees and filing fees before even being able to mention it to any potential funders.

Generally, if you bring on a large, wealthy investor, the legal compliance required is minimal because the law assumes that these people and companies need much less protection (they are defined as “accredited” investors under the securities law). The moment you want to offer an investment opportunity to the public and to non-wealthy investors, the legal requirements become far more onerous.

Failure to comply with these requirements can, at a minimum, result in having to return all your investors’ money. At worst, there could be civil and even criminal penalties.

Best practices for crowdfunding within the law

There are ways to do crowdfunding within the law. Unfortunately, under the current legal regime, the options are fairly limited. As discussed below, this all may be about to change very dramatically.

1. Fall outside the securities laws

The easiest and lowest cost strategy is to raise money using a method that is unlikely to fall within the legal definition of a security.

Unfortunately, this definition is quite broad, especially under the laws of many states. For example, even if you offer an investment opportunity in which your investors do not expect any financial return and do not receive any ownership share of your business, this still may be considered a security if your investors are expecting something in return and there is some risk that they will not get what they are expecting. Under this definition, if you were starting up a café and you sold gift certificates for the café as a way to raise your start up capital, this could be seen as a security in certain states. Similarly, if you borrowed money to start a new business and did not promise any financial return (in the form of interest) but did promise to return your lenders’ principal, this could also be considered a security.

So how can you raise money in a way that almost certainly will not be considered a security? Ask for donations. If it is completely clear that there are

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absolutely no strings attached to a contribution of funds, it is highly unlikely that any state would consider the securities laws to be applicable. Web sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter provide a platform for doing this and have helped many people reach their funding goals. On these platforms, people sometimes offer “perks” in exchange for contributions. To our knowledge, none of these offerings has been subjected to scrutiny by securities regulators to date, but it is possible that even the offering of a perk in exchange for a donation could convert these offerings into securities in the eyes of some state governments. And of course, when you are raising money on the internet, you can be scrutinized by the regulators of all 50 states.

The moment you offer anything in return to your donors and there is some risk that they will not receive it, there is a chance that your state will consider what you are offering to be a security. (This is not the case under federal law where if the investor has no expectation of a financial return the securities laws do not apply.)

What if you’re not sure whether what you want to offer your funders will be considered a security under your state’s laws? You can write a letter to the department within your state government that is responsible for securities regulation describing what you plan to offer and request a “no action letter.” This is a letter stating that the securities regulators will not take enforcement action against you based on your description of what you plan to offer. If you receive a no action letter (which usually does not require the payment of a fee), you are good to go.

2. Legally compliant platforms

There are two crowdfunding web sites that have spent tens of millions of dollars in legal fees so that they can offer crowdfunding opportunities that are compliant with state and federal securities laws. These are Prosper and Lending Club. You can use these web sites to raise money from the public in the form of debt (i.e. loans that must be repaid as opposed to other kinds of investments where repayment is usually contingent on the company’s success).

3. Co-ops

Many state securities laws contain exemptions for cooperatives. For example, a cooperative in California that sells memberships to the public for no more than $300 each is exempt from the California rules regarding securities offerings. Co-ops

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in Colorado are exempt regardless of the membership contribution. If you choose to form a co-op, it’s worth exploring whether your state might have an exemption from the securities offering requirements that will make crowdfunding possible for you. Note however that this will only work if you are exempt from federal securities registration requirements because you do most of your business within the state where you are located, you are formed under the laws of that state, and you only offer securities to the residents of that state (this is know as the federal intrastate exemption). Also, if you are a farmers co-op that has received tax-advantaged status from the IRS under Section 521, lucky you. You are exempt from both federal and state securities registration requirements. This is what allows the co-op Organic Valley to raise money from the public without having to spend millions of dollars in compliance costs.

4. Private offerings

A private offering is a legal term which means that you do not advertise your investment opportunity to the public. These kinds of securities offerings are less highly regulated than ones advertised to the public because of the belief that public advertising creates a greater risk of fraud. Being unable to advertise to the public seems inconsistent with the idea of crowdfunding, but not necessarily. Gather Restaurant in Berkeley successfully used a private offering to raise funds from approximately 100 investors. If you have relationships with a lot of people who might be willing to invest in your idea, this strategy can work. However, these kinds of offerings generally do require working with a lawyer, although the costs are much lower than for a public offering.

5. Direct public offerings

A direct public offering involves making the required filings with relevant regulators that allow you to offer your investment to the public. This can sound overwhelming, but many states have made an effort to make this process accessible to small businesses. Many small businesses have successfully completed the process with minimal or no legal support. Because you are required to file offering documents and application forms with the state, the state regulators will make sure that you complete these documents correctly before you begin your offering. Once you have a sign-off from the state, you can be fairly confident that you’re legally in

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the clear (this assumes of course that you have been honest in the documents you submitted.).

New developments

By now you are probably outraged to learn that most crowdfunding is either illegal or prohibitively expensive. You are not alone. In July 2010, Sustainable Economies Law Center sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal body charged with regulating securities, with a modest proposal. Why not exempt very small securities offerings from the onerous requirements that make it almost impossible for all but the nation’s biggest businesses to raise money from the public? We proposed an exemption for capital raises of up to $100,000 with a maximum of $100 contributed per investor. The SEC received over 150 letters of support for the proposal. Other similar exemptions have been proposed and the idea got the attention of some members of congress who held hearings on crowdfunding. A proposed bill, HR 2930 (McHenry), would exempt offerings of up to $5 million with a maximum of $10,000 or ten percent of net worth per investor and would exempt such offerings from state-level registration requirements. Meanwhile, President Obama recently proposed a similar exemption. And SELC has begun to make requests for a similar exemption from state securities regulators.

Stay tuned — crowdfunding may become much easier very soon.

Note: Sustainable Economies Law Center is working on various tools to provide information about securities laws that is practical and understandable for non-lawyers. Please check our web site for updates.

Perspectives on CrowdfundingWhy Crowdfunding Isn't Really About Money

By Joe Brewer

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We are in the midst of a revolution where self-organized crowds have begun to displace entrenched powers as the primary driver of social change in the world. At the heart of this revolution is the capacity for people to easily find like-minded peers and collaborate using social media tools.

Crowdfunding has grown in popularity as a way for artists and entrepreneurs to directly engage their fans and invite them to help make their projects a success. The most visible element in this process is the money that changes hands. Yet, there are much more interesting (and potentially transformative) things going on that warrant special attention.

Crowdfunding is a community-engagement process between an individual or organization seeking money to create something new and a crowd of supporters who want to participate in the effort in a meaningful way. It is primarily about open collaboration among the participants that takes the form of:

1. An Invitation to Make A Successful Project; followed by

2. A Campaign to Engage More People in the Effort; and culminating in

3. A Celebration of What Everyone Has Created Together.

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Invitation to Participate

Unlike donations given to a charity, the crowdfunder is invited to participate in the effort. They are asked to publicly show their support for an endeavor that will benefit the community. This makes the act of contributing more akin to political organizing to build a movement than simply giving to a cause.

Building A Community

Those who contribute to the campaign are treated as self-selected members of an important community — the true believers who have publicly expressed their support for the work. The number of people who contribute is in many ways a more significant measure than the amount of money raised because it indicates the power of community.

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Reaping the Rewards

When a crowdfunding campaign is successful, there arises an opportunity to celebrate what everyone has created together. Initially, this takes the form of distributing promised rewards to those who contributed. As the creative process moves forward, and the promised deliverable gets developed, its community of supporters are reminded that they share ownership of the outcome because it was their social acknowledgement of its significance (through financial contributions) that made it possible to proceed.

Note how none of these steps is really about money. Yes, there must be money pledged by fans. And the amount of money raised needs to be sufficient for achieving the goals set out initially by the project’s host. But the central action centers around meaningful engagement that empowers the crowd to create something new. This is why crowdfunding has so much potential for “game changers” in the arena of social movements. It is a fundamentally empowering process that engages people in meaningful action.

Not bad for a process that also generates revenue for cool projects, eh?

Crowdfunding As Gateway to Engagement

Organizers in the social change arena can employ crowdfunding as an organizing tool because it aligns engagement with desirable outcomes. Many people have become dissatisfied with traditional organizations because of their unresponsiveness and one-way communications. The tools of social media enable the organic formation of peer-to-peer networks able to set agendas and aggregate resources to move toward their shared goals.

Crowdfunding itself is a “sticky” idea with mass appeal because it is proving to be an effective way to democratize finance by making the exchange of money more transparent as a way to empower social action. What started out as a cool way to support your local band by getting their first recording out to their fans has evolved into a recognizable platform for bypassing bureaucratic institutions and taking action straight to the crowd.

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The Enabling City: Crowdfunding Urban Livability

By Beth Buczynski

Crowdfunding allows people to tackle problems and endorse solutions that aren’t necessarily getting attention from markets or governments.

But what about problems that can't be addressed by a new gadget or ad campaign? 

According to Chiara Camponeschi, author of The Enabling City, principles of crowdfunding can be applied to human capital as well as traditional funding to catalyze the progressive policies and infrastructure that make cities more inclusive and sustainable.

"Crowdfunding is a process of community engagement," remarked Camponeschi during a panel discussion at SxSW Eco. "It’s about money yes, but it’s about more. It’s a statement of democracy for funding and getting capital where it’s needed in the community."

But using community support to share knowledge and create positive change is easier said than done.

How do you corral raw energy into practical actions? How does one set the framework for a collaborative process through which citizens can be directly involved in shaping their environment?

Published under a Creative Commons license, The Enabling City is a toolkit that empowers cities governments and community leaders to do just that.

The result of a graduate project, Camponeschi hopes the book will take on a life of its own as a platform for social innovation, urban sustainability, and participatory governance. Using its plethora of examples as a guide, community members can learn how to restate their claim in the larger processes that impact their daily lives.

Today, I am fascinated by the world of creative communities because, to my eyes, it represents an antidote to the widespread erosion of local practices and cultures, and is also an inventive and timely way of tackling increasingly interconnected social

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issues. What is even more remarkable is the democratic and grassroots level in which communal change is achieved — through dialogue, openness, collaboration, and the rediscovery of the everyday.

Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, which focus on funding individual projects that can be caused-based or not, The Enabling City advocates "place-based creative problem-solving" to transform cities into holistic, living spaces where people make their voices heard and use everyday experiences to affect change.

The toolkit helps readers to imagine and redefine the characteristics of the city of the future, including a bottom-up approach to leadership, resource sharing, and the use of commons-based production.

But for Camponeschi, coming up with a finished "product" is far less important than the community that crowdfunding helps to form around a common issue or cause. 

"In the civic sector, crowdfunding often emerges around a self-selected community," said Camponeschi. "Reputation is important in both a physical and virtual sense. Sometimes, even projects that aren’t completed can contribute to the common knowledge on a subject."

Camponeschi's latest collaboration, Enabling Suburbs, gathers experts from various interdisciplinary arts and design backgrounds to discuss the future of our suburbs and communities, drawing on and developing alternative representations as a strategy for change.

Loudsauce Crowdfunds Advertising That Matters

By Beth Buczynski

Social media and mobile technologies make it easier than ever for cause-based companies and organizations to deliver their message.

But most of these outlets require people to "opt in" to receive updates and invites. This means that for the most part, organizations with the ability to catalyze social and environmental change end up preaching to the choir.

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The people who really need to hear, read, and see these messages are those who would never sign up for a newsletter about economic inequality or watch a YouTube video about climate change.

That's what makes Loudsauce such a unique player in the crowdfunding market.

Unlike Kickstarter, which focuses on funding individual creative projects, and IndieGoGo, which caters to "anyone with an idea," Loudsauce was designed specifically to transform the medium of advertising from one that primarily drives consumption to one of civic participation.

"Loudsauce came from experience in the social sector and frustrations because much of that work is invisible," said Loudsauce co-founder Colin Mutchler during a panel discussion at SxSW Eco. 

Mutchler says Loudsauce took its cues from the mainstream advertising industry, which has made a science out of changing behavior and getting people to support one brand over another.

In this way, Loudsauce can almost be considered a second-stage crowdfunding service: it gets people to help not just in the early stages of a socially responsible project, but then to help amplify these projects and get them out into the mainstream consciousness.

Loudsauce successes include running a commercial about the Story of Stuff during an episode of Hoarders (potentially reaching two million people and resulting in 40,000 visitors to the Story of Stuff website) and helping Uniting NC, a nonprofit that works to build understanding and respect for immigrants in North Carolina, place two billboards that celebrate community diversity.

Right now there's a Loudsauce campaign to place a commercial about the Occupy Wall Street movement on cable television during some of the most popular shows. It's collected almost half of its $5,000 goal in just 24 hours.

Crowdfunding is often motivated by a desire to be involved in something worthwhile, and to feel the pride of giving to a good cause, says Mutchler. We’re shaping what things are worth by spending our money in this way.

By not only funding these ideas, but funding the mechanisms that amplify them to the national and global community, we increase the value of progressive causes and make them accessible to those who need to hear their message the most.

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The Motorhome Diaries: The Dance of Crowdfunding

By Kelly McCartney

Asking for help, especially in the form of financial assistance, is not something that comes easy to a lot of people — myself included. Having a self-sufficient streak serves you well when you don't really have a family to lean on or any other solid net to fall into. And, yet, that very same life-saving tendency can hinder someone's ability to break down the walls between independence and community. It's the blessing-and-curse duality that attaches itself to so many things.

Crowdfunding, by its very nature, demands that we set aside both our egos and our insecurities. We must humble ourselves enough to ask for support from others while fully believing that we are worthy to receive the offerings that come. Funding a project in this way, well, it's a dance, to be sure.

Many musicians I know have used Kickstarter or Pledge Music or some other such tool to raise money to make their records. But when I considered launching an IndieGoGo campaign to move forward into the next phase of my life, I didn't want to ask for something from others without offering something of myself. After all, I wasn't aiming to be a “money for nothing” rock star. (And we all know chicks aren't free.) I simply needed a little help from my friends after trudging through nearly three years of severe underemployment with no relief in sight.

My goal was to raise money to buy and renovate an old motorhome to live in so that I could cut my overhead and live within my minimal means. I reckoned, because I have myriad skills and plenty of time on my hands, those were the things I could give in return, but not to the contributors – to non-profit organizations. So, I laid out my terms: For every $20 someone contributes toward my motorhome fund, I will volunteer one hour of my time to help a non-profit of their choosing. Everyone pays it forward here, and that feels really right to me, fully shareable through and through.

Only one person has taken issue with my project, accusing me of using non-profits for personal gain. This was someone who I'd consider to be somewhere

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between a buddy and a friend, and she came at me with both guns blazing. I withered in the face of her attack, breaking down into tears at the thought of someone so completely misinterpreting my premise. I imagined nothing but upside for the organizations and for me, a rare win-win scenario for all involved. She, however, saw it as cunning and manipulative, and didn't hold back on the accusations. I responded with my most sincere apologies and tried to clarify my stance, but the interaction was devastating and its impact lingered for days. Luckily, it was a singular exception. Everyone else has been immensely supportive, lauding my creative approach and passion for serving others. One early donor, when I told her of the incident, advised, “Look, there are always ALWAYS people who are going to judge, not agree, etc...Anyone who really knows you — and even those of us who only know you a little — GETS you. You ARE goodness, honesty, integrity.” That reassurance went a long way, especially after my chosen organizations expressed their immense gratitude for being included.

Still, even with the loftiest of goals and the best of intentions, asking people to give you money is a difficult and awkward thing to do. How much is your funding goal? How much is your minimum or suggested donation? How long is your campaign? What kind of perks do you offer? How often do you plug it via social media? How many email blasts do you do? All of these considerations must be taken up again and again. The dance must be done.

As best I can tell, there are no right answers, either. Each campaign differs in terms of its needs and the demographic being solicited for donations. It's really a matter of feeling your way through it with awareness of your audience. Push too hard and you may well meet your goal, but you may also alienate some friends along the way. Some time last year, I had a friend touting a project on Facebook. She repeatedly sent blanketed, group messages begging for money that invariably led to people hitting 'Reply All' and cluttering up everyone's in boxes. I finally wrote her and said that it was too much, especially for those of us who simply couldn't afford to contribute. A little sensitivity would have gone a long way, but she was unapologetic about her promotional style and, ultimately, met her goal.

My kinder, gentler strategy has certainly been informed by that experience of over-saturation. Now that the newness of my campaign has worn off, I'm promoting the link to my peeps and doing updates to my donors about once a week. Those gentle nudges seem to be enough to keep the dollars trickling in. A few people have even sent me checks outside of IndieGoGo, which is great, though

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not reflected in the online total. At just over the halfway point in my time line, I've raised just under 60% of my target. In hindsight, I wish I'd done a shorter timespan because 60 days is a long time to beg for money. My suspicion is that it might be better to go full-on for 30 days (or even less) than to drag it out for 60 (or more).

Two weeks into things, I had a couple of friends write to me saying that my e-mail had gone into their Spam folder and they just happened to check it. Both immediately tossed some coins into my hat. Naturally, then, I wondered if all (or most) of the other folks on my list had failed to receive my plea or did they just not have an interest in participating. Do I send another round now? Do I wait until closer to the end of the campaign?

I will send another round, and I will wait until the final, say, 10 days to do so because I need the help. And that's the bottom line, really. I can't do this alone, nor would I want to. But it's more than just the community-based financial support; it's the moral support that makes the world of difference. Having a waiter friend toss in 20 hard-earned bucks is a huge deal to me because I know what he puts into making that money. And when people pat me on the back, cheer me on, or spread the gospel to their friends — that really is priceless. It re-affirms that we are all, indeed, in this together when we let ourselves be. After all, it takes two to tango and this dance doesn't end until the campaign does.

The Top Shareable Crowdfunded ProjectsBy Paul M. Davis

One of the most impressive aspects of crowdfunding is its versatility. Feature films, music releases, web startups, gadgets, art projects, urban farms, journalism, open-source platforms, and social activism comprise only a short list of the types of projects that have been funded by crowdfunding. And as we’ve explored in this eBook, it's only expanding. We’ve been covering crowdfunding since Shareable launched, and here are some of our favorite projects, both past and present.

Drew Little’s Web Series Documenting The Shareable Economy

Drew Little of The Illuminated Ventures Project is a vocal collaborative consumption advocate creating a web series that documents the sharing economy.

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Thanks to money he collected through an IndieGoGo campaign, Little will travel the West Coast and interview leaders in the collaborative consumption space.

MakerBeam

MakerBeam is a project to ignite the imagination of makers and the open source community. The Mini-T is a building system fashioned from aluminum beams that operates like a Lego baseplate for open source hardware projects, enabling makers to create anything from toy robots to operational machines. MakerBeam follows the Mini-T standard, and is now available for order through SparkFun.

Save the Atwater Elementary School Library

As Shareable has been examining in our series on the state and future of libraries, these centers serve a crucial role in the community, and are transforming into hubs for sharing. Yet as budgets are slashed, libraries are threatened. The Atwater Elementary School library is one such library, having closed only two weeks into the school year due to California’s funding crisis. A campaign is underway on IndieGoGo to save the library, with the non-profit Friends of Atwater Elementary requesting $30,000 to hire a librarian, keep the doors open and renovate the library.

Global Village Construction Set

The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is an open-source project to develop a wide variety of industrial machines. With plans for 50 machines that include a 3-D printer, backhoe, bakery oven, and even a bulldozer and cement mixer, the GVCS aims to furnish all the tools needed by a small society off the grid or in the developing world. Though they have realized many of their plans already, Open Source Ecology are now soliciting funds for the GVCS through a Kickstarter campaign.

FreedomBox

The FreedomBox is a project to make secure Internet access cheap and widely accessible. A plug computer, the FreedomBox serves as a wireless Internet router and stores and encrypts data to keep it private and secure. The FreedomBox quickly surpassed its $60,000 crowdfunding goal earlier this year.

Urbanized

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Among designers and those of us who are merely geekily-obsessed observers, filmmaker Gary Hustwit has achieved folk hero status for his ability to turn dry design topics into engaging cinema. The director of Helvetica and Objectified is working on Urbanized, the third in his trilogy of design documentaries. The film, which examines the issues faced by architects, city planners and policymakers as the world’s population migrates into urban centers, received much of its funding through a Kickstarter campaign.

Help Me Help Others

This one’s close to home: our own Kelly McCartney is soliciting contributions through IndieGoGo to help her drive around the country in a motorhome while volunteering at organizations such as H.A.R.P., The If Project, and the Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic. The more you contribute, the more time she will have to volunteer. She’s documenting the process on Shareable in her Motorhome Diaries blog, and accepting contributions through IndieGoGo.

Co-opoly

Since the venerable board game Monopoly teaches kids the dubious values of the 1%, The Toolbox for Education and Social Action has created Co-Opoly, an educational board game in which players are tasked with running a collaborative, democratic business. The game was funded through a Kickstarter campaign, and continues development in advance of the game’s impending release.

Further ReadingShareable is a nonprofit online magazine that tells the story of sharing. We

cover the people and projects bringing a shareable world to life. And share how-tos so you can make a sharing real in your life. In a shareable world, things like car sharing, clothing swaps, childcare coops, potlucks, and cohousing make life more fun, green, and affordable. When we share, not only is a better life possible, but so is a better world.   

The remarkable successes of sharing projects like Zipcar, Wikipedia, Freecycle, Kiva, and Creative Commons show this. They tell a hopeful story about human nature and our future, one we don't hear enough in the mainstream media. 

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They show what’s possible when we share. They show that we don't act merely for our own good, but go out of our way to contribute to the common good. They show that we can solve the crises we face, and thrive as never before. They show that a new world is emerging where the more you share the more respect you get, and where life works because everyone helps each other.

We tell this story because a shareable world might be just what's needed to enjoy life to the fullest today while creating a better tomorrow. And it's being built by people from all walks of life right now. Shareable is an invitation to join these everyday innovators.

Want to share? If you're human, you share. But we can share so much more. Check out our top 20 how-to share posts, our full collection of how-to share posts, and our e-book Share or Die: Youth in Recession.

Want to get involved ? You can contribute stories, feedback, and money. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Identi.ca and share our stories with friends. You can register and join discussions about your favorite posts. You can join our e-mail list. See more ways to get involved here.

Want to know more about sharing? For the big picture, check out the following: "Four Degrees of Sharing," by Janelle Orsi; "Ten Ways our World is Becoming More Shareable," by Neal Gorenfo; and our report with Latitude Research on The New Sharing Economy.

Suresh Fernando and Joe Brewer are in the process of writing a Crowdfunding Manual for Social Change. Their contributions for this collection are excerpts from the forthcoming eBook and republished with permission.

The Sustainable Economies Law Center facilitates the growth of sustainable, localized, and just economies through education, legal research, and advocacy to support practices such as urban agriculture, sharing, cooperatives, barter, local currencies, community-supported enterprises, local investing, and eco-villages. They are working on various tools to provide information about securities laws that is practical and understandable for non-lawyers. Check their web site for updates.

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Disclaimer: Don’t rely on anything in their article as legal advice or even as being thorough and applicable to your own situation or jurisdiction. In spite of what some courts may hold or what we at SELC may opine, every jurisdiction has a mind of its own.

About the ContributorsPaul M. Davis is the Science, Tech and Civicsystems editor for Shareable, and

an Austin-based writer obsessed with the politics and culture of technology, social movements, music, literature and comedy. His work has appeared in the SF Weekly, UTNE Reader's Alt Wire, the AV Club, Punk Planet, the Santa Cruz Weekly, and DEMO Magazine. He blogs at 12 Pt. Plan, and his freelance work can be found at paulmdavis.com.

Malcolm Harris is a writer based in Brooklyn and the Life and Art editor at Shareable. He is also the managing editor at The New Inquiry and a blogger for Jacobin Magazine. His work has appeared in N+1, UTNE Reader, Yes! Magazine, and elsewhere. You can follow him on Twitter here.

Suresh Fernando is a visionary, a strategist, a leader and a project manager whose breadth and depth of analysis and understanding of the way that technology is changing the way that we interact with each makes it possible for him to design precise strategies that can transform and prepare your organization for the new paradigm that is emerging. He blogs at Masskollab.

Joe Brewer is an innovation strategist who weaves together brilliant people and ideas to create integrated solutions across organizations. His specialties include design for social change, the architecture of human interactions, creating large-scale behavior change, and incubating social innovations that promote the growth of livable and resilient communities. He blogs at Chaotic Ripple.

Beth Buczynski is a freelance writer and editor living in the Rocky Mountain West. She specializes in providing online content and community management services for those who want to have a positive impact on our world. Her writing appears on EcoSphericBlog, Crisp Green, Care2, Deskmag and Insteading. Stay in touch with Beth on Twitter as @ecosphericblog and @GoneCoworking

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Kelly McCartney is a lover of nutritional healing, indie music, creative solutions, progressive thought, comparative religions, wandering, wondering, and her stripey dog. She’s also an advocate for social and economic justice, tolerance, sustainable living, food security, ocean preservation, community building, and human rights. She blogs at The Kel Word.

The Sustainable Economies Law Center facilitates the growth of more sustainable, localized, and just economies, through education, legal research, and advocacy that support practices such as local investing, community-supported enterprise, urban agriculture, cooperatives, barter, sharing, local currencies, and eco-villages. Find them at their website.

Crowdfunding NationThe Rise and Evolution of Collaborative Funding

A collection of articles from Shareable Magazine. Edited by Paul M. Davis

This eBook is available for $2.99 in the Kindle Store or as a non-DRM ePub file at Shareable.