Making dreams come true

The Dutch initiative Dream or Donate is an online platform that allows individuals to realize their dreams or ideas by crowdfunding. It brings together two groups of people; namely the dreamers who want to share an idea and the donors who can give money for its realization.[1] In that sense, Dream or Donate can be considered as a two-sided network. It this case, one group of users is entirely subsidized whereas the other group of users can be considered the ‘money side’. [2] The difference here with two-sided networks as described by Eisenmann, Parker, and Van Alstyne (2006) is that there is no tangible advantage for the donors to attract large groups of dreamers. It might be that donors experience glory from their donations, since the dreamers will get a notification of their donation. It works as follows:

1. Someone who has a dream or a wish but is not able to realize the required amount of money share it with their friends, family and acquaintances
2. When €25,- has been donated by this group, the dream becomes visible everywhere on the website so all members of the platform can donate through the website
3. A certain ‘goal amount’ is set and when this has been reached before a set end date the idea will be realized.

The website allows users to choose per category of interest and also features certain dreams as ‘popular’, ‘new’ or ‘almost ending’. It shows the percentage of the goal amount that already has been donated and even shows how much the latest donation was.

Related to the first point, previous research has shown that friends and family are often disproportionally large investors in the funding cycle.[3] By only allowing dreams on the website that originally have been able to generate €25,- by donations from just family or friends, Dream or Donate tries to ensure a high goal attainment for the posted ideas.

So instead of dreaming about ideas, make your dream come true on http://www.dreamordonate.com

Sources:

1. http://www.dreamordonate.com/about-us
2. Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., & M. W. Van Alstyne (2006). Strategies for two-sided markets. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
3. Agrawal, A. K., Catalini, C., & Goldfarb, A. (2013). Some simple economics of crowdfunding. National Bureau of Economic Research.