Will The Donald Ruin Crowdfunding!

In prepared remarks for the website's launch, Trump all but billed the effort as a Donald Trump charity service. "People's lives have been destroyed by this economy and they feel hopeless," Trump said. "I'm taking a stand, and am putting my money where my mouth is to help get people back on their feet."

Even the language on the website seems to bill the service as more of a lottery for anyone in need of money rather than a crowdfunding platform for people with ideas. At the top of the page, you'll see an option to "Create a Campaign & Win," which seems to imply that the real goal isn't just to raise funds from peers as on traditional crowdfunding services, but rather to be fortunate enough to have Trump pick your project out of the crowd and fund it himself.

Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of Indiegogo, another crowdfunding service, suggests that a service like FundAnything— which has someone curating successful projects — doesn't really qualify as "classic crowdfunding" so much as more of a "media publishing model." Nonetheless, she believes that Trump's decision to get into crowdfunding is ultimately a good thing for the industry.

"What's actually great is that a person of such clout and notoriety is validating the space," Ringelmann told Mashable. "I think that will add a new twist to things."  More information at Mashable


Fundanything.com