Garnering funds in the form of donations has always been a major focus for university leaders. These donations are usually found in the form of large annual gifts by alumni and friends of universities, along with funding from government entities for public universities. More recently, universities have been taking steps to modernize their giving structure through the use of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is an online tool utilizing peer-to-peer relationships to help gain funds for different aspects of university culture.
Crowdfunding uses the “crowd” to gain needed funding for a product or cause instead of specialized donors. Crowdfunding typically enlists the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn increasing the virality of a project to make it more successful.[1] In the scope of university crowdfunding, most donations go to a specific fund or cause, and because the money goes to supporting a larger nonprofit organization, many donations are tax-deductible. Because of the nature of university crowdfunding, its structure typically varies slightly from the usual crowdfunding campaign. Where a video game campaign might offer the donor early access to the game upon production, most university run projects do not have the same type of tangible product that someone is investing in that can be enjoyed. For that reason, university crowdfunding campaigns typically use giving levels or project-specific perks to incentivize their donors. Levels usually explain what the specific donation amount will do to help the project, whereas perks will offer individual recognition to the donor for their support to the cause.
Historyedit
Crowdfunding first came into the university world in 2012, with the partnership of the University of Utah and the crowdfunding website RocketHub.[2] The first set of projects launched in the partnership raised a total of $32,000 and brought in over 210 donors. Similarly in 2012, the University of Virginia launched a crowdfunding site to try to gain information about donor interests and allow donors the ability to focus of projects they are passionate about.[3] Utilizing crowdfunding has been a way for universities to leverage the creativity and individuality of their communities as well as the accessibility of the Internet to bring in new donors.[4] The success of a crowdfunding campaign can also typically depend on the use of social capital in the form of friends and family of the project creators. University crowdfunding websites have since moved from partnerships with existing crowdfunding websites to using crowdfunding platforms that can whitelabel their pages and provide training and support services to the university staff and student population with access to project creation.[5]
Main Use Casesedit
Unrestricted Fundsedit
In many cases, universities will use crowdfunding to add to existing unrestricted funds such as scholarships, annual funds, or emergency funds.[6][7] Typically these crowdfunding campaigns will use offline donations concurrently with the crowdfunding campaign in the form of gift matching,[8] or by hosting in person fundraising events during the run of the crowdfunding campaign.
Participation Drives/Challengesedit
Another way the universities use crowdfunding is to increase their alumni engagement through giving to the institution. This is done through projects that place focus on participation as opposed to donation amount, measuring the success of the project by how many people gave to the cause instead of how much the total giving amount was.[9] This type of project can also be used to generate excitement for an alumni challenge, as used by University of Texas at San Antonio in their “Alumni Challenge City Race”.[10]
Research Projectsedit
Universities have found that crowdfunding is great resource for large and small research projects in a few different ways. The obvious resource is the gain of funds from donors that are interested in the specific project. However, the use of crowdfunding for research projects also helps to boost the popularity and interest in a project, increasing its visibility to the global community.[11] These types of campaigns use effective marketing and communications strategies to engage their potential donors.[12]
Athleticsedit
Other highly successful types of university crowdfunding campaign are athletics based campaigns. These campaigns use the pre-existing popularity of college sports to boost their fundraising capacity for different sport-related projects. One notable such project is the UCLA Spark campaign to renovate the gymnasium used by the UCLA Gymnastics team. This campaign used crowdfunding and gift-matching to raise over $150,000 for the extensive renovations.[13] Another notable and attention-grabbing university athletic crowdfunding campaign was the “Ole Miss Football October 4, 2014 Victory Celebration”.[14] This campaign gained media attention when it went viral and raised its total goal amount of $75,000 within three hours of going live.[15]
Student Run Projectsedit
University crowd funding platforms also focus on student run projects that benefit a specific student group on campus. For example, the MIT Ski Team successfully funded a "snow day fund" with the use of MIT's crowd funding platform.[16] The project highlighted the group's needs and used appropriate perks to incentivize their potential donors. In this way, student run projects are usually very specific to the group that is creating the project and will use that specificity to garner new donorship for the university. The University of Maryland uses mostly student run projects on their crowd funding platform.[17] One such project used the vast network of the student group by reaching out to similarly inclined student groups at other universities to raise 276% of their original goal amount.[18]
university, college, crowdfunding, platforms, garnering, funds, form, donations, always, been, major, focus, university, leaders, these, donations, usually, found, form, large, annual, gifts, alumni, friends, universities, along, with, funding, from, governmen. Garnering funds in the form of donations has always been a major focus for university leaders These donations are usually found in the form of large annual gifts by alumni and friends of universities along with funding from government entities for public universities More recently universities have been taking steps to modernize their giving structure through the use of crowdfunding Crowdfunding is an online tool utilizing peer to peer relationships to help gain funds for different aspects of university culture Contents 1 Crowdfunding 2 History 3 Main Use Cases 3 1 Unrestricted Funds 3 2 Participation Drives Challenges 3 3 Research Projects 3 4 Athletics 3 5 Student Run Projects 4 See also 5 ReferencesCrowdfunding editCrowdfunding uses the crowd to gain needed funding for a product or cause instead of specialized donors Crowdfunding typically enlists the use of social media such as Facebook Twitter or LinkedIn increasing the virality of a project to make it more successful 1 In the scope of university crowdfunding most donations go to a specific fund or cause and because the money goes to supporting a larger nonprofit organization many donations are tax deductible Because of the nature of university crowdfunding its structure typically varies slightly from the usual crowdfunding campaign Where a video game campaign might offer the donor early access to the game upon production most university run projects do not have the same type of tangible product that someone is investing in that can be enjoyed For that reason university crowdfunding campaigns typically use giving levels or project specific perks to incentivize their donors Levels usually explain what the specific donation amount will do to help the project whereas perks will offer individual recognition to the donor for their support to the cause History editCrowdfunding first came into the university world in 2012 with the partnership of the University of Utah and the crowdfunding website RocketHub 2 The first set of projects launched in the partnership raised a total of 32 000 and brought in over 210 donors Similarly in 2012 the University of Virginia launched a crowdfunding site to try to gain information about donor interests and allow donors the ability to focus of projects they are passionate about 3 Utilizing crowdfunding has been a way for universities to leverage the creativity and individuality of their communities as well as the accessibility of the Internet to bring in new donors 4 The success of a crowdfunding campaign can also typically depend on the use of social capital in the form of friends and family of the project creators University crowdfunding websites have since moved from partnerships with existing crowdfunding websites to using crowdfunding platforms that can whitelabel their pages and provide training and support services to the university staff and student population with access to project creation 5 Main Use Cases editUnrestricted Funds edit In many cases universities will use crowdfunding to add to existing unrestricted funds such as scholarships annual funds or emergency funds 6 7 Typically these crowdfunding campaigns will use offline donations concurrently with the crowdfunding campaign in the form of gift matching 8 or by hosting in person fundraising events during the run of the crowdfunding campaign Participation Drives Challenges edit Another way the universities use crowdfunding is to increase their alumni engagement through giving to the institution This is done through projects that place focus on participation as opposed to donation amount measuring the success of the project by how many people gave to the cause instead of how much the total giving amount was 9 This type of project can also be used to generate excitement for an alumni challenge as used by University of Texas at San Antonio in their Alumni Challenge City Race 10 Research Projects edit Universities have found that crowdfunding is great resource for large and small research projects in a few different ways The obvious resource is the gain of funds from donors that are interested in the specific project However the use of crowdfunding for research projects also helps to boost the popularity and interest in a project increasing its visibility to the global community 11 These types of campaigns use effective marketing and communications strategies to engage their potential donors 12 Athletics edit Other highly successful types of university crowdfunding campaign are athletics based campaigns These campaigns use the pre existing popularity of college sports to boost their fundraising capacity for different sport related projects One notable such project is the UCLA Spark campaign to renovate the gymnasium used by the UCLA Gymnastics team This campaign used crowdfunding and gift matching to raise over 150 000 for the extensive renovations 13 Another notable and attention grabbing university athletic crowdfunding campaign was the Ole Miss Football October 4 2014 Victory Celebration 14 This campaign gained media attention when it went viral and raised its total goal amount of 75 000 within three hours of going live 15 Student Run Projects edit University crowd funding platforms also focus on student run projects that benefit a specific student group on campus For example the MIT Ski Team successfully funded a snow day fund with the use of MIT s crowd funding platform 16 The project highlighted the group s needs and used appropriate perks to incentivize their potential donors In this way student run projects are usually very specific to the group that is creating the project and will use that specificity to garner new donorship for the university The University of Maryland uses mostly student run projects on their crowd funding platform 17 One such project used the vast network of the student group by reaching out to similarly inclined student groups at other universities to raise 276 of their original goal amount 18 See also editComparison of crowd funding servicesReferences edit Belleamme P et al Crowdfunding Tapping the right crowd J Bus Venturing 2013 Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Bench Taylor 20 Dec 2012 University of Utah Embraces Crowdfunding to Develop Technologies UNews Center http unews utah edu news releases university of utah embraces crowdfunding to develop technologies Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Craven Julia Universities explore crowdfunding social media to raise money USA TODAY Retrieved 2023 04 20 This Might Be The Craziest College Scholarship Idea Yet HuffPost 2013 09 21 Retrieved 2023 04 20 Gossen Andrew 22 Oct 2014 100 Funded How to Promote a Crowdfunding Project http higheredlive com how to promote a crowdfunding project Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Archived 2014 11 07 at the Wayback Machine title missing UC Berkeley Crowdfunding crowdfund haas berkeley edu Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Mary Holmes Legacy Project crowdfund ucsc edu Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Ole Miss Pharmacy Day of Thanks ignite olemiss edu Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Houston Alumni City Race fund utsa edu Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Short on grant money Five tips for crowdfunding success The Conversation Retrieved 2023 04 20 Walsh Lucas By the masses the emergence of crowdfunded research in Australia The Conversation Retrieved 2023 04 20 150K in 30 Days for UCLA Gymnastics spark ucla edu Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Ole Miss Football October 4 2014 Victory Celebration ignite olemiss edu Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 Rebels with cause Fans pay for fine damage ESPN com 2014 10 08 Retrieved 2023 04 20 MIT Crowdfunding Launch UMD www launch umd edu Retrieved 2023 04 08 Sentinel Hives Guardians of Honey Bees www launch umd edu Retrieved 6 Nov 2014 1 edseed me Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title University and college crowdfunding platforms amp oldid 1206954459, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
