SAN FRANCISCO, March 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Nonprofit organizations that engage in crowdfunding raised more than five billion dollars worldwide in 2013, and peer-to-peer nonprofit fundraising is seeing explosive growth. Those are only two of the findings included in a new infographic published by craigslist founder Craig Newmark on his craigconnects website today.
Other information details various crowdfunding results, the success of the crowdfunding holiday #GivingTuesday, and the best practices of nonprofits that have seen great success with this new fundraising tool.
"I've worked on four crowdfunding campaigns myself in the past three years, and I'm pretty pleased with the results," said Newmark. The campaigns included two to raise funds for veterans and military family organizations, another for Hurricane Sandy relief, and one in late 2013 called the Holiday Challenge for any charity that wished to participate. Newmark worked with prominent crowdfunding platforms to promote the campaign and has donated prize money for the organizations that raise the most in order to stimulate competition and success. All told the campaigns raised an estimated $2.6 million for more than five hundred charities.
Newmark started his craigconnects initiative in March 2011 to organize his efforts to help support nonprofits working in his areas of focus. He said crowdfunding is a natural fit for his efforts to promote the use of technology for the public good because it involves grassroots efforts and involvement. "I'm not much for top-down stuff. I only understand bottom-up stuff," he said.