Published on: July 8, 2025 at 3:59 pm
Crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe, through which hundreds of millions of people have donated more than $30 billion for mostly charitable causes since it launched in 2010, also provide nonfinancial support via social media. For example, in 2024 alone, GoFundMe users drove support for causes they care about through 55 million-plus shares across various social-media channels and via email.
Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd of the University of Notre Dame said that crowdfunding has opened the world to a new way of doing good. This form of support for micro-entrepreneurs’ mini-projects affects the global economy.
“In some ways, it’s like the economy itself has these little probes into an uncertain environment, and some are going to fail, and some are going to gain traction,” Shepherd said. “And all of that’s a good thing, because it creates innovation, so we’re really just pitching out a whole lot of different potential opportunities; some are going to fail, and that’s perfectly fine, but some are going to be successful, and those successful ones may actually lead to something very interesting.
“Crowdfunding was quite an innovation,” he said. “It came from a change in regulation that actually freed up a lot of little bits of money for little entrepreneurs who may actually become highly successful entrepreneurs.
“It could be one of the greatest innovations to allow for more everyday entrepreneurship, and future superstars may actually even come from some of those smaller programs and initiatives that get off the ground thanks to crowdfunding.”
