Do you know all the powers of crowdfunding? Often used by companies to create or launch a new product, it can also be used within organizations themselves. It then makes it possible to subsidize projects designed by the collaborators themselves. Here's how this powerful engagement tool works in detail.
What is crowdfunding?
Definition
According to the definition given by Crowdfunding France, crowdfunding, also called crowdfunding, is a “tool of fundraising operated via an internet platform allowing a set of contributors to collectively choose to fund identified projects directly and in a traceable manner”.
Who uses crowdfunding?
Individuals
They are among the players who use crowdfunding the most. They can be charitable projects, artistic productions, or more simply joint gifts (birthdays, birthdays, births, etc.).
Communities
Since December 2015, they have been able to use crowdfunding. This makes it possible to set up cultural, educational or solidarity projects for example.
The real estate sector
It allows developers to obtain the funds necessary for the construction or renovation of housing. This complements the financing collected from banks.
Businesses
Finally, most often, crowdfunding is used by businesses to create projects. It can also be the resumption and development of an activity. In this case, crowdfunding complements a traditional financing method (bank loan), and sometimes even as a replacement. Investors can receive financial compensation, benefits such as pre-sales or access to a private club.
Crowdfunding can also be used to test a project without taking a lot of financial risks. This creates an appetite for the project and creates a community of potential and loyal customers.
Crowdfunding can also be used in a very different way, within companies themselves. Instead of creating projects only for customers, it allows you to launch actions for employees, according to their desires. Here is how it works in practice.
Using crowdfunding differently in business
An alarming observation
Your employees are all different, and each of them has different values, interests and expectations about their work. Some of the people who work with you have great ideas for:
- give more meaning to their work;
- promote team spirit;
- improve their daily lives;
- develop a new product;
- get involved in a cause that affects them.
- etc.
However, on average, only 2% of employees' ideas come true. As employee expectations change and they want more than ever to feel fulfilled in their work, this statistic is disconcerting. This lack of investment creates disengagement, which is very harmful for the company.
So that all these ideas do not fall into oblivion and for the projects of your employees to come true, Teamstarter decided to launch a crowdfunding platform. Its operation is very simple.
Crowdfunding to (finally) complete projects
Corporate crowdfunding with Teamstarter works in 4 very simple steps:
- You Allocate a monthly budget to each collaborator. You decide the amount: €10, €30, or even €100.
- Your employees can create, alone or with others, interesting projects for the company or for employees. They define the budget necessary for its implementation.
- The collaborators Choose the projects in which they want to invest their monthly budget Project leaders can carry out a fundraising campaign with their colleagues in order to quickly reach the expected amount.
- When the project is 100% funded, it is carried out in collaboration. Thanks to the combined budget, the sponsors are responsible for setting it up. A team of Teamstarter coaches is there to help them if they have any difficulty.
Conclusive results
The numbers don't lie: 92% of the projects supported by Teamstarter are completed, compared to an average of 2% in businesses. 88% of project leaders say that they would not have been able to complete the process without the intervention of Teamstarter. This proves that crowdfunding is a great way to turn employee ideas into reality in business.
The ease of use of the platform allows everyone, regardless of age, computer level or role in the company, to actively participate in the financing of projects. Once installed, we notice a 80% adoption rate. This makes it possible to engage all the employees of a company.
Examples of projects set up thanks to crowdfunding
It is important to emphasize that projects do not have to be expensive to have an impact within your structure. On the contrary, most ideas from employees have fairly low costs, and can be implemented quickly and frugal way.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of projects that have been implemented thanks to Teamster at our client companies:
- Taking photos of employees to strengthen cohesion and corporate culture.
- Creation of a room dedicated to nursing mothers in order to guarantee their good balance between professional and personal life, and to facilitate their return to work.
- Carbon footprint assessment and climate fresco workshop.
- Introduction to the Klaxoon tool to promote digital meetings.
- Installation of a solution to regulate the noise level of open spaces.
- Creation of a fundraiser to support war doctors in Ukraine.
You can see: the areas of action are very broad. Thanks to collective intelligence of your employees and their creativity, all types of ideas are proposed. They are then financed and implemented in just a few days by the employees themselves. Everyone can find an interest in it: employees can improve their well-being and get involved in projects that are important to them. For its part, the company fully involves its employees. Thanks to a rate ofHigh commitment, it sustainably improves its performance. The gain is therefore both human and financial.
Crowdfunding is not just about financing the creation of a business. This powerful tool can be used to engage your employees, by allowing them to carry out projects they care about. Setting up such a system within your company makes it possible to reinforce the feeling of belonging of your teams, but also to take advantage of their creativity and their collective intelligence to establish great projects, in a wide variety of fields. Concretely, it is beneficial both for the company and for all of its employees.
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