Is philanthropic crowdfunding a growing industry? Crowdfunding characteristics and recent developments worldwide

What are the characteristics and recent developments of crowdfunding worldwide? Crowdfunding markets have experienced a severe growth in recent years; however, this was mostly among non-philanthropic platforms (Chervyakov & Rocholl, 2019). Philanthropic crowdfunding builds on a large group of (private) individuals each donating a small amount online. In exchange for their donation, donors can receive a reward (i.e. reward-based crowdfunding) or they can also opt to donate without receiving a reward, i.e. donation-based crowdfunding. Reward- and donation-based crowdfunding are also referred to as philanthropic crowdfunding (van Teunenbroek, 2016). The two other types of crowdfunding, equity- and lending-based, focus on crowdfunding projects with a financial incentive where backers expect an economic return (see Figure 2). Unless noted otherwise, we will further focus on philanthropic crowdfunding.