The Four C’s of Crowdgranting
People have been running crowdfunding campaigns for years. From companies hoping to raise money to release products to people looking for financial help from others across the internet, crowdfunding is a widely known way to raise funds. While these types of crowdfunding campaigns are common, there is a new way of giving that’s taking the stage: “crowdgranting.” Although these two concepts may sound similar, they are actually quite different.
Grapevine is the first ever crowdgranting platform. At Grapevine, individuals can come together with other like-minded people based on a common cause, identity, or location and then decide together where to regularly send donations. Grapevine is about more than just raising funds though - it’s about forming authentic communities around making a difference.
How is crowdgranting different from crowdfunding? Check out the 4 C’s of crowdgranting below to find out!
- Community: When giving to a crowdfunding campaign, typically there is no way for donors to connect, meet new people, and build a community. Those participating in a crowdfunding campaign contribute independently of each other. Crowdgranting involves people coming together to form a community and make a difference as a collective. Like-minded people connect around a shared cause, identity, or location and pool their funds before a donation recipient is even chosen, fostering a sense of community between donors.
- Collective Resources: The one area where crowdfunding is similar to crowdgranting is pooling collective resources. Both of them involve people coming together to donate to a common cause and pooling their resources for donation. However, instead of many individuals giving independently to a campaign (such as the case with crowdfunding), crowdgranting enables communities to pool their funds first and make one larger contribution together. Imagine, if 100 people all give $100, they can give away $10,000 to an organization. That’s incredible!
- Collaboration: When participating in a crowdfunding campaign, the donation recipient is decided before the campaign is even launched. The individual or organization that starts a campaign has a goal of funding a certain project or recipient. Crowdgranting, however, involves a community donating together for a common cause, without yet knowing where their pooled donation will go. Once funds have been pooled, the group democratically decides where to send those funds. This process often includes members nominating nonprofits for the membership to vote on.
- Continuation: Crowdfunding is about one-time campaigns, like a company looking to launch a product or a person looking to fund a specific project. Participating in a crowdfunding campaign involves making a one-time donation to help that person, organization, or community for a specific purpose. On the contrary, the idea behind crowdgranting is a community coming together to regularly connect and donate to their shared cause to make a bigger impact through sustained support over time.
Both crowdfunding and crowdgranting have their place. When a company has a quick project to get off the ground or a natural disaster hits and an emergency relief fund is needed, crowdfunding may be the way to go. Crowdgranting, on the other hand, is for people who want to build connections and community with other like-minded people through the process of giving back regularly to a common cause and making a bigger difference together over time.
If you want to learn more about crowdgranting and how to start your own Grapevine, check out the Grapevine site here. What’s even better, Grapevine provides training and support, and even offers matching opportunities every month to help new groups launch and grow.
