# There’s a problem with crowdfunding…

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/12/07/theres-problem-crowdfunding/
- Published: 2016-12-07T17:59:13+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The problem is the name. Crowds are anonymous and amorphous. A big lump of strangers.
You don’t have a relationship with the crowd.**

Before you ask someone for money, it’s a good idea to have a relationship with them.
Those people are your tribe. Tribes are communities. They contain trust. They have
leaders that bring individuals together. They work together for the common good.
The tribe forms part of the individual’s identity.

I’m not calling it crowdfunding any more: I’m calling it tribefunding.

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A new donor is not a new relationship.

![Tribefunding, not crowdfunding - quotation by Dave Pearce](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2016/12/tribefunding-not-crowdfunding-dave-pearce-quotation.jpg)

When Dignity in Dying ran its fist tribefunding campaign [we exceeded out target three fold](http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/dignityindying).
But why? I think there are several reasons for this; including a focus and connection
with why Dignity in Dying exists (our purpose) and that it was part of a broader
and more significant campaign backing the Assisted Dying Bill. Perhaps most telling,
though, is who supported the campaign: 85% of donations came from our existing email
and social media. With those on our email lists representing the vast majority. 
Or to put it another way, those people who we communicate with the most, in the 
most personal way, where those most likely to back us. Our backers weren’t a crowd,
they were our tribe.

Supporting that campaign said something about those people and united them:

> “I have written to my MP, but he does not support this bill, **thank you for giving
> me a voice**…”
> A member of our tribe

This campaign was about so much more than money for billboards – it was about giving
people a voice. It was about our mission. That’s why we didn’t call the campaign,“
Help us fund 10 billboards”.

We called it,”Help fix our broken law on assisted dying”. One day, with the support
of our tribe, we will.

 

_[**David Pearce**](http://twitter.com/medavep) is Director of Fundraising & Marketing
at [Dignity in Dying](http://www.dignityindying.org.uk) & Compassion in Dying._

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