ORG457 Crowdfunding Lab (Høst 2020)

• Familiarity with crowdfunding principles, types and models, and discuss the differences between them
• Understanding for the role of context, industry, national and international issues in crowdfunding practice and patterns
• Familiarity with key actors in crowdfunding markets, including platforms, types, functionalities, and business models
• Skills in crowdfunding campaign planning, components and process development
• Skills in crowdfunding campaign budget and financial planning
• Skills in crowdfunding campaign marketing and promotions planning
• Understanding of success and failure factors in crowdfunding practice
• Understanding of ethical dilemmas in crowdfunding practice and possible mechanisms for mitigating them

The goal of this course is to acquaint students with fundamentals of crowdfunding, with a specific focus on understanding crowdfunding models, markets, as well as development of skills for campaign planning and development.

The course guides the students from a general understanding of the crowdfunding phenomenon, its manifestations, and contextual conditions towards developing skills of planning and preparing an actual crowdfunding campaign for specific causes. The course balances an application of digital marketing, e-business and entrepreneurship models into crowdfunding practice, with an introduction to new frameworks and models unique to the crowdfunding context.

The course is developed with several UN development goals in mind  including goals 1, 5, 9 and 10. Here, through the introduction of crowdfunding as a new financing channel for innovation development and entrepreneurial venturing, we also discuss potentialities of  poverty reduction, reduction of social inequalities, and the promotion of gender equality in access to finance.