The concept of crowdfunding was spurred by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 when individuals finally took it upon themselves to finance their ideas instead of heading to banks and other big financial institutions for their initial capital. American economic and social theorist, Jeremy Rifkin, summarized this: “Now millions of people are becoming their own bankers.”
And indeed this had become the trend with sites such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter, where individuals could post their ideas online to harness the power of the “crowd”. Crowdsourcing Week CEO and Founder, Epi Ludvik Nekaj said that, “If you have passions, talents and skills, you could engage the crowd in a meaningful way through technology.”
Crowdfunding is relatively new in the Philippines. The Spark Project’s Founder, Patch Dulay, said that the concept is similar to “Bayanihan, alay, o ambag” or the English equivalent would be the of pooling little funds from different sources via social media and e-commerce to finance one’s ideas.
Some of the successful crowdfunding projects launched in the Philippines are ZIG by CarrierPro, Jeepneed, Kawil Tours, First Harvest, AV Manila Creative Production, Gouache, Artisteconnect, Gift Launcher and ProTees.
The 1st Philippine Crowdfunding Conference was held at the Tent, Enderun Colleges, Taguig City.