BACKGROUND Did you know crowdfunding first gained popularity as a way to fund grassroots social endeavours? The flagship Crowdfunding for Development (CF4Dev) MOOC is an exciting and innovative training course that combines unconventional approaches in development financing with an innovative online learning platform. Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs provide a free open access web-based learning platform to a large number of participants around the world. MOOCs platforms such as Coursera, EdX, and Stanford Venture Lab are democratizing education, promoting lifelong learning internationally, and transforming learning. Meanwhile, crowdfunding is a relatively new approach to financing development projects that uses the power of the ‘crowd’ to collect small contributions from a number of supporters to help finance start-ups, nonprofit initiatives and social enterprises. Around the world, national and international institutions, such as the GIZ, DFID, EU and World Bank are paying greater attention to the impacts of crowdfunding on local economic development. Crowdfunding is democratizing access to capital and bringing greater financial inclusion and economic development to traditionally “bottom of the market” segments of the population that were previously considered “unbankable,” or unprofitable. Crowdfunding has the potential to unlock much needed early-stage financing for entrepreneurs in developing countries. By 2013, crowdfunding had become a US$ 5.1 billion market globally.
Crowdfunding is democratizing access to capital and bringing greater financial inclusion and economic development The CF4Dev MOOC leverages on ITC-ILO’s recent work on crowdfunding for a mobile learning product, e-learning platform, and our previous experience in collaborating in MOOCs. An 8-weeks online MOOC with 7 modules on the fundamentals of crowdfunding for development projects, methodologies and tools. In each of the modules we will discuss and exchange knowledge through a variety of learner-centred action activities. The centrepiece of the CF4Dev MOOC is the capstone project at the end of the course, where participants will have the chance to exhibit and share their ideas with others. The course starts with basic concepts of CF4Dev, and with each learning module, we will provide you the know-how, tools, templates, and build the peer support system for you to build and launch your own CF4Dev campaign.
DID YOU KNOW CROWDFUNDING FIRST GAINED POPULARITY AS A WAY TO FUND GRASSROOTS SOCIAL ENDEAVOURS?