The outlook for crowdfunding

Global Business

Imagine asking a friend to give you 10 dollars for lunch, and getting nearly 47 thousand dollars instead. That actually happened last week when one man took to crowdfunding to make his potato salad.
The amount pledged actually hit 70 thousand dollars, but some reports allege that some backers withdrew their donations.
If you’ve never heard of crowdfunding, it allows anyone from aspiring entrepreneurs to social activists to raise money online for their cause.
The biggest crowdfunding sites include Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowdfunder.
According to the World Bank the global crowdfunding industry generated at least 5 billion dollars in 2013.
And in 25 years, that number could rise to 96 billion dollars annually.
Crowdfunding expert Kendall Almerico shares his insight on this trend. He is a CEO of FundHub.Biz, an equity and crowdfunding compliance website; founder of CrowdItForward, a charity-based crowdfunding site; and the CEO of ClickStartMe, a site providing hands-on crowdfunding assistance.