Crowdfunding: Taking Biz from CUs & $$$ from Members Posted by AVCU on 2:10 PM

The growing popularity of crowd-funding has more effect on your credit union than you may think. Increasingly, entrepreneurs are turning to crowd-funding online versus traditional sources of business loans.

And on the flip side, many of your members, even those of modest means, are contributing to online entrepreneurial efforts that attract them. Witness the recent story of the creative Ohio resident who, just for the fun of it, published a Kickstarter page with a goal of raising $10 to whip up a batch of potatoes. He probably didn't imagine that his creative caper would actually attract 6,500 people to donate over $52,000.

And then there's the 1998 case of a guy that honestly, and simply, asked for $1 contributions online for his personal benefit. His fully transparent request garnered $75,745.

Last year, a grad student experimented with commercializing personal data and got $2,733 by selling access to his own online behavior.

Read the entire TowerGroup article about the amazing draw of crowdfunding and its effects on social media and your members