What is crowdfunding?

The crowdfunding approach has its precedent in charity. It is inspired by crowd sourcing, that describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money together, usually via the internet, to support efforts by other people. Crowdfunding occurs for purposes like disaster relief, artistes seeking support from fans and political campaigns. Crowdfunding is now receiving attention from both commercial and social entrepreneurs, as social media, online communities and micropayment technology make it straightforward to secure donations from potentially interested supporters at very low cost.