The potential in crowdfunding

Striking off on your own, or just doing something different in the lab from what you can get a grant for is difficult. Money, therefore, is the biggest concern. Sure, we use a lot of Duct Tape, but it’s not like science is really inexpensive most of the time. So, what’s the alt-pather to do?

I want to discuss the potential of crowdfunding to support scientific research. Crowdfunding is a way that a collective of individuals interested in a project can network and pool their money together to support efforts initiated by others. A simple Web seach for “crowdfunding science” will lead you to many platforms that can be used to support a wide array of endeavors — disaster relief, personal projects, medical needs, political campaigns, inventions, civic projects, and even scientific research. This article covers some crowdfunding basics, gives examples of successful campaigns, and offers a few ideas on where you can start your own.

Crowdfunding in a nutshell

The Boston Globe sums up the process nicely when it says, “It is scientific funding for the social media age, with pitches made in brief videos, funders often kept updated on results through blogs, and the normally secretive ‘peer review’ process used to vet proposals taking place in public as funders decide whether to contribute.”

If this sounds a lot like outreach and marketing, it is. The more you reach out and tell people about your research, the more likely people are to discover it and invest in you, your lab and your time. As Dr. Jai Ranganathan, conservation biologist and co-founder of SciFund, put it, “Science crowdfunding changes the equation by adding a powerful new incentive for scientists to engage the public with science: the potential for raising money for research directly from the public.”

Does crowdfunding work?

The most common types of crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is becoming a way of life in the R&D world. Whether we turn to angels or crowdfunding, we must ask the inevitable question: Is it worth my time and effort? Some suggest that running a crowdfunder is hustling like an aggressive marketer. Others approach it more like expansive outreach, where there is both an element of marketing and of educating people about your research. Either concept takes a good deal of time and energy.

It does take constant refining of your pitch to get people interested enough to fund your research, a tactic you’ll see in many campaigns. Keeping the angle fresh makes it easier for people to talk about your project and helps you gain a following. For example, if you find that sending out a Facebook status update or Tweet once a week isn’t working, you might want to try a direct marketing approach, such as asking friends and family to share your goal and funding campaign with others. If you love your work, you’ll probably already have the materials to put together a good proposal that engages the public. Then it just takes a few minutes of networking a day to keep the word out.

While crowdfunding starts with your networking and marketing ability, panelist Erica Hermsen pointed out in a recent AAAS MemberCentral webinar on crowdfunding that it really helps to have interesting rewards for backers. In her example, she offered souvenirs and photos as rewards for backing her biology conservation research.

There have been many success stories so far, and I’m sure there will be many more. For instance, Physics Today notes that a Harvard postdoc raised $12,000 for a computer server that will help him search for extrasolar moons; a biophysics Ph.D. at University of Mexico successfully brought in $2,200 to fund experiments with heavy water. Undergraduates also raised money at Ohio’s Miami University to do field research on clouded leopards in Borneo. The crème de la crème, however, was illustrator and comic Matthew Inman, who raised $1.37 million to establish a Nikola Tesla Museum.

If you find yourself stuck with questionable funding, give crowdfunding a try. You’ve got nothing to lose, and in the end you just might find it fun and rewarding. I’ve helped colleagues with crowdfunding projects in the past and even these goodwill contributions have left me feeling satisfied and motivated in my own work.

Want to learn more?

Here are some great links that I’ve come across while researching this funding issue.