The Collective Effort

 Take an image and put Photoshop's "stained glass" filter applied to it.  Why?  because I felt it best illustrates the complexity and beauty of crowdfunding.   With the filter, my painting is a large composition pieced together out of smaller chips of colored glass.  Each contribution to a crowdfunded project is a small part; the sum of the parts makes up a whole that is greater than the totality of the individual pieces. Crowdfunding is a network of individuals who pool their resources (is it always on the internet?) to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.^[1]

I am helping others and I, too, am starting my own crowdfunded campaign using Kickstarter.  It has been a really fun experience for someone like me with a marketing consulting firm and new PR platform tech  project, but I started to wonder if there were any alternatives to the platform I chose.  Of course there is.  Today, I compiled this list of crowd funding platforms. Each one has a slightly different agenda.  

wefunder  "crowd investing platform for startups"
Startup Addict "a community for entrepreneurs, investors & startups"
Appsfunder "support new mobile apps"
RocketHub "a launchpad and community for independent artists and entrepreneurs"
quirky "Complexities relating to financing, engineering, distribution, and legalities. . . of brilliant people executing on their great ideas."
New Jelly "allows talents to showcase their work, goals and dreams."
Cofolio "allows small businesses to efficiently raise money from their local community."
Kickstarter "a funding platform for creative projects."
StartSomeGood "connects social entrepreneurs with people who want to help."
Peerbackers "an online funding platform that allows business owners to raise capital from their “peers” – in small increments – in exchange for tangible rewards to those who contribute."
Eppela "Art, technology, cinema, design, music, comics, literature, no-profit initiatives: think up ideas, share them, get them funded, and bring them to life."
Indiegogo "People all over the world use our industry-leading platform to raise millions of dollars for all types of campaigns."
Crowdtilt ". . . we’re trying to make it easier for groups to do things together – we just want to make that process of grouping those funds as easy as possible."
AngelList "a platform for startups"
crowdfunder "early stage funding through equity, revenue, and contribution-based investment."
MicroVentures "an investment bank for startups. We conduct due diligence on startups and then if approved we help them raise capital from angel investors."
OnSetStart "crowdfunding company that has committed itself to a higher standard of its category and will continuously innovate to improve ways to enable our economy and the growth of small businesses."
GoFundMe "allows regular people to accomplish extraordinary things with easy-to-use personal donation websites."
Crowdrise "an innovative, crowd-sourced community of volunteers and online fundraisers that are coming together to answer the call to service, create online fundraising projects for charity. . ."
Razoo "Give to or fundraise for the nonprofit of your choice."
Go Get Funding "Launch your personal fundraising website and accept donations for any cause, project, event or charity"
Techmoola "Inventor Funding &Technology Crowdfunding."
Spot.us "an open source project to pioneer "community powered reporting." Through Spot.Us the public can commission and participate with journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics.
Authr "helps aspiring and established Authors raise funds for their book projects."
Grow VC "the first global, transparent, community-based platform dedicated to entrepreneurs and investors."
Peoples VC "to enable individual investors to participate in the growth and success of small companies, while helping entrepreneurs succeed through grassroots funding, with special support for companies and investors after the initial public offering of stock"
EarlyShares "an equity based Crowdfunding platform. . . connects investors and entrepreneurs securely and effectively.
Start.ac "expands CrowdFunding to make a home for gadgets, startup businesses and technology products; and, makes CrowdFunding for creative projects and great ideas more fun!"
Crowdcube "Raising business finance through online investments... helping start ups and growing businesses by providing business finance opportunities for online investments with our equity based crowdfunding platform."
Pleasefund.us  "the leading UK crowdfunding platform specializing in helping creative projects get full funding."
ArtistShare "is a platform that connects creative artists with fans in order to share the creative process and fund the creation of new artistic works."
PledgeMusic "helps artists and bands design a specifically tailored fundraising campaign to raise money for their next release."
Fondomat "the original Czech crowdfunding platform enabling its users to raise money for any activities or projects. . . create a project free of charge"
Rock The Post "a crowdfunding website designed to fund small businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits. It is the ideal tool for entrepreneurs to leverage networks, reach out to new contacts, and fill in the missing pieces of their projects."
Sponsume "a global platform dedicated to collaborative funding and co-creation."
Prosper "the market leader in peer-to-peer lending—a popular alternative to traditional loans and investing options."
Zopa "people who have spare money lend it directly to people who want to borrow."
Lending Club "an online financial community that brings together creditworthy borrowers and savvy investors so that both can benefit financially."
GlobalGiving "connects you to over 1,000 pre-screened grassroots charity projects around the world. It's an efficient, transparent way to make an impact with your giving."
Zidisha "Zidisha is the first peer-to-peer microlending service to offer direct interaction between lenders and borrowers across the international wealth divide."
Upstart "lets you raise money in exchange for a small share of your income for 10 years. It's an investment in you, not your idea or your business."
Crowd Funding Kids "Projects For Teen Entrepreneurs 13-19 Years Of Age."
ChipIn "mission is to make it easy to collect money."
Fundable "crowdfunding platform based on rewards & equity"
Sonic Angel "innovative music platform for young talent where fans make the difference!"