The Effects of Site Controls on Community Objectives: Communityfunded.Com

Gary Brown LSTU E-120 Assignment 2 March 3, 2015

The Effects of Site Controls on Community Objectives: communityfunded.com

Crowdfunded.com, or “CF” as it calls itself, is a crowdfunding website where members can seek funds for their projects from the public. CF is similar to kickstarter.com, but much smaller. CF envisions its place in society as supplementing traditional sources of funds. I intend to consider how this site’s controls affect its ability to meet the needs of its community, both members that start projects and those that support them, or don’t support them.

CF’s stated purpose is to “engage and inspire… individuals and organizations to come together and use our collective resources to support the things we love, find solutions to the problems we don't, and re-energize our lives and communities.”1 This seems on its face to be a worthwhile goal with some potentially troublesome obstacles in the way. Certainly failed projects are a concern for reputation, as are fraudulent projects. Building and keeping the trust of supporters must also be a major consideration in the management of the site. This necessarily implies some fiduciary responsibility in the selection and vetting of projects permitted to use the site. A selection process must necessarily discriminate among projects, and the basis of that discrimination must be transparent and balanced. This paper will also consider the means of communication among community members, as well as the functionality and architecture of the site and the implications of these features on the site goals.

Government regulation will affect them directly, at least through securities regulation, and indirectly through regulations that enable, favor or protect other forms of public investment.

1 http://communityfunded.com/about-cf/ Accessed 1 Mar 2015 Brown 2

Certainly, any site soliciting money for “projects” should consider the governments’ interests in protecting the public.

I plan to research the numbers and types of projects funded and break them down by type of advocate, type of project, budget, term, methods, rewards, and the degree and form of success.

I will analyze these facts in the context of the controls in place on the site. Understanding the types of supporters could be insightful as well, but could be challenging to uncover, considering the forms of privacy I would expect for these contributors.

This research will reveal advantages and disadvantages of the controls in place, which should contribute to an understanding of whether crowdfunding sites like communityfunded.com can offer viable alternatives to more traditional funding for certain types of projects.