One of the most powerful but little talked about movements that has arisen in the last few years is that of crowdsourcing. According to Wikipedia crowdsourcing “is a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people.” With the explosion of the Internet, crowdsourcing is at last realizing its true potential as an amazing tool to help an entrepreneur succeed in their cause.
Crowdsourcing allows any social enterprise to tap the power of many people all over the world. This can be for ideas, mechanical tasks, creating, voting, or anything else that can be done online. Through crowdsourcing, you are able to utilize the minds and talents of hundreds and even thousands of people all over the world to advancing your social cause. This is an amazing opportunity for social entrepreneurs.
The nonprofit I lead is built around using a specific type of crowdsourcing, called crowdfunding, to help students achieve a higher education. On our website, current college students are able to post profiles about themselves and tell their stories of what they are hoping to achieve with their education. Donors from all over the world are then able to make donations directly to students to help pay for their education. Although the donations are small, the power of crowdfunding means that thousands of donors all over the world are able to chip in to help students achieve their dreams. This is just one way in which crowdsourcing is being used to advance a social cause.
My hope is that after reading the example of how StudentDonate pioneered the use of crowdsourcing to help students attend college, you will think of ways you can tap into the power of crowdsourcing to help your social cause. It might be through raising funding for your cause from thousands of people all over the world, or simply tapping their ideas on how best to tackle the challenges your social enterprise faces.
