Sponsume

As a doctoral student at Oxford University, Vincent developed a keen interest in the works of Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer of microfinance. Vincent saw in peer-to-peer microfinance a brilliant alternative to traditional methods for funding innovative ideas.[3] The 2009 financial crisis and subsequent cuts to subsidies that hit the UK arts scene highlighted the need for an alternative, community-led way of raising funds for artists and innovators, prompting Vincent to launch Sponsume.[4]

The site uses the power of social networks and the wisdom of crowds[5] to help fund a variety of projects ranging from films[6] and documentaries,[7] to music, theatre, photography, fashion, technology, scientific[8] research, green and social enterprise. As of 2012, Sponsume has helped crowd fund over 1000 campaigns.[9]

Project owners choose a timeframe deadline and a target funding goal. They create non-monetary rewards generally linked to their project.[10] The site levies a 4% fee for successful campaigns and collects 9% for campaigns that failed to reach their target amount.

• DigVentures – the world's first crowd funded and crowd sourced archeological dig.[11]
• Dirty White Gold – a documentary about the plight of India's cotton farmers.
• Belarus Free Theatre – a campaign to help the exiled theatre set up a London office and fight for freedom of speech in Belarus. A number of artists, including actor Kevin Spacey supported the BFT's crowdfunding campaign.
• The Halloween Kid – by Axelle Carolyn, James Webber and Neil Marshall – an homage to Halloween, as well as a tale of childhood, loneliness and monsters.
• The Occupied Times of London – a non-profit, free newspaper that describes itself as the voice of the Occupy movement.
• Spirit of '71 – by David McNulty: a documentary about the first Glastonbury Festival.
• Undermining Justice – by Michael Watts: an investigative documentary about human rights abuses allegedly committed by British mining company Monterrico Metals in Peru.
• Il Maestro – by Jennie Paddon: a short film about competitiveness in the world of classical musicians.[12]
• Three-Legged Horses and Five Six Seven Eight! by Felipe Bustos Sierra, made with Debasers Filums, two Scottish crowdfunded film projects.
• The Salt Maiden – Australian film shot on Coochiemudlo Island, Australia.
• Living in the Future – web series documenting the birth and life of the first eco village in the UK.
• The Better Man – British feature-film and winner of the Welsh Dragon Award at the International Film Festival of Wales 2013.
• Plastic Republic – by University College London research students. Synthetic biology project to clean plastic pollution from the oceans using synthetic organisms.[13]

• Comparison of crowd funding services

• Official website