The following is an article translated from Spanish to English from Asociación de Emprendedores de Chile (The Association of Chilean Entrepreneurs). The original article, published Jan 28, 2014, can be read here.
The current President of the United States, Barack Obama, issued a creative call to his supporters to finance the electoral campaign that brought him to re-election. While in North America donations to political parties are very common, Obama always showed interest in new platforms and technologies. This was how Crowdfunding came to be: a collective financing alternative that seeks to support a creative project through personal donations.
The method is used for the benefit for both parties because, on the one side, we have entrepreneurs that can meet their goals through donated proceeds, while on the other side, we find those who invest, who issue donations in exchange for various rewards.
One of the advantages of crowdfunding is that it democratizes access to capital for development of entrepreneurship. In addition, it manages to give publicity to projects that in the majority of cases would only remain an idea.