Every innovation needs financing. Some (local) governments offer loans or subsidies to researchers to realize their dreams while some people receive investments or gifts from friends and family. But in the current financial crisis it can be difficult to raise enough funds to finance your innovative plans.

Luckily a new mode of funding is available: Crowdfunding – a collective effort to raise money (or resources) to realize a project started by other people or organizations. Instead of having one large sponsor, you have hunderds of sponsors who are also the ambassadors of your project. Worldwide this is already used by millions of people and in 2011 $1.5 billion was raised through crowdfunding.

In this workshop we will discuss the concept of crowdfunding. How did it start? What type of crowdfunding business models are there and how do you crowdfund successfully? Can you use it for all projects and organizations and how does it change the way we work?