Wednesday, May 28

Top Stories

Fundrise Announces $31M Funding Round — Fundrise, the Washington, DC-based equity crowdfunding platform for real estate projects, announced this morning that it closed a $31 million funding round. The round was led by Chinese social networking site Renren, CEO Marty Burger and CIO Tal Kerret of Silverstein Properties, and the Collaborative Fund. It’s the latest in a string of investments into real estate equity crowdfunding platforms. Previously, Realty Mogul, RealCrowd, and RealtyShares had announced seven-figure raises, with other platforms also getting in on the action.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

YouTube Plans to Introduce Crowdfunding for Video Creators

YouTube announced late last week some big news: it’s looking at crowdfunding as a way to help its creatives make money from their videos. And, it’s looking at the crowd to help with transcription and translation of captions.

Producing Quality Via the Crowd [Video]

To find out how Lionbridge, one of the most experienced crowdsourcing companies around, assures quality for its clients, we spoke with Dori Albert, the business process crowdsourcing practice manager. Check out the video after the jump.

IdeaStormz: An Open Community for Ideation

We recently came across the ideation community IdeaStormz, which encourages discussion around ideas about pretty much anything. Unlike most other ideation platforms, IdeaStormz doesn’t have a specific goal for the ideas it receives, and is more of a place to kick around thoughts on everything from office decorating to energy saving.

The Costs to Raise Crowdfunding Capital

Thomas Vass, owner and manager of The Private Capital Market, a fee-based subscription crowdfunding site. In this guest post, writes in to discuss the costs of raising cash via equity crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding as Patriotic Duty

On this Memorial Day, crowdfunding expert Rose Spinelli took a look at a campaign that aims to improve governance and politics in the US.

Crowdtilt Introduces ‘Sell Something’ Feature

Crowdtilt, a tech-savvy crowdfunding platform, has differentiated itself from others by offering its users a suite of nifty features. On Monday, Crowdtilt added yet another feature to its toolbox: Sell Something, a new fundraising option that allows campaign owners (as the name implies) to pre-sell pretty much anything.

Why Millennials Are the Ideal Target Market for Crowdfunding

Ruby Au of Empowered.org, a crowdfunding platform that focuses on humanitarian causes, writes in to discuss why nonprofit campaign owners should market their projects to millennials, and offers some tips on how to entice the younger generation to donate.