The social impact of crowdfunding

: PPL and BES crowdfunding : a social impact measurement study for “crowdfunded” projects

Abstract

In the last two years we are witnessing a rapid change in how startups and philanthropic projects are fundraising their activities. Institutional donations and individual supporters are becoming scarce and this fact is particularly relevant to projects that need external funds like non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or social enterprises; hence crowdfunding platforms are becoming widely known as a response to those concerns. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how crowdfunding is emerging in Portugal by looking at PPL, the main crowdfunding website in Portugal and BES Crowdfunding, a social platform resulting from a partnership between PPL and BES (Banco Espírito Santo), a national bank. With a case study format, this thesis also aims to analyze how social projects are facing social impact measurement, by presenting the main methodologies and a practical example of how to apply the Expected Return model. Secondary topics such as motivations for the surging of crowdfunding, future trends, the importance of social impact measurement and its interconnection with crowdfunding are also analyzed. We can conclude that crowdfunding is changing the fundraising paradigm in Portugal and social entrepreneurs are increasingly benefiting from it. Also, social impact measurement has become essential for both philanthropists and organizations, who need to convince external investors and achieve a higher internal efficiency.

Date of Award	10 Feb 2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Frazão Ferreira Fernandes Pinheiro (Supervisor)