Crowdfunding Essay Example

Target Segment

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The campaign to raise money for the Vijana Reloaded initiative will be a donation crowdfunding type, meaning that there will not be rewards or equity returns to investors (Andel, 2013). Hence, the first segment to target will be the non-governmental institutions that have an interest in Africa. NGOs running programs in Africa have a firsthand understanding of the region, including the knowledge of the needs of the people and governments. As a target group, these organizations will give money to the project on the understanding that Vijana Reloaded is helping the teams shape up the economic prospects of young people in rural Kenya. The initiative of Vijana Reloaded fits most non-governmental aims of reducing poverty levels and creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurship (Swai, 2008). Therefore, they form a potential source of funds.

The second target segment is the African Diaspora. There are those Kenyans and Africans who live and work in foreign countries, including America. Most of them have moved permanently out of their countries, but they still have an interest in the affairs of their home country. In most cases, the Diaspora groups have networks that run across US and Canada, concentrating on the kind of assistance they can give to their country. By offering them a platform like Vijana Reloaded, they will be glad to see a pragmatic approach to solving unemployment problems in Africa by empowering Africans with skills for agricultural production.

Individual philanthropies are those people who are interested in doing good for humanity. In some cases, this segment of funders does not want to be identified, and they give money anonymously (Steinberg, 2012). Their primary objective is to see their contributions go a long way to helping the beneficiaries, and, the fact that the Vijana Reloaded initiative has been very successful is a strong reason for them to invest their money. The challenge is that the individual givers are spread all over the country leading healthy lives. They are the usual guy in the streets; government employees, state government workers, accountants and doctors working in normal workstations. However, crowdsourcing would offer a unique way of identifying them through social media and other advertising platforms. Mobile money transfer makes the group a potential source of capital because it reduces the chances of their identification to the general public.

The last segment would be local institutions in Kenya. This section is made of vocational training centers, the ministry of education, science and technology as well as interested universities. Though the institutions will not raise money, they can be very helpful in giving Vijana Reloaded working space and local trainers. Most universities have branches in rural Kenya, with establishments of infrastructures like internet connection and working space. By targeting these institutions in the crowdfunding, it will become easy to implement the project and expand it. Moreover, funds that would have been consumed in renting working space and buying computers can be channeled to other uses, considering the tightness of the budget.

Needs, interests, and constraints

For the non-governmental organizations, the core point of interest will be the extension of their mandates and concerns for Africa. However, it will be a challenge for them to get their funding for the Vijana Reloaded initiative approved by key decision makers like the project managers. In that regard, Vijana Reloaded can promise to disclose the use of the funds and track the graduates of the initiatives, and the value they will be creating for the society. Disclosure of the funds uses meets part of the aims of the groups of transparency.

The Africans living in America and Canada, as well as Europe, will be interested in seeing young people venture in agriculture to ease the burden of unemployment. Usually, when the rates of unemployment are very high, crime goes up as many people do not have means of living. It is an emotional commitment for most people of Kenyan origin living in the western countries. Hence, their funding for the project will be hinged on their desire to see growth and improvement of livelihoods in their backyards where corruption is rife, and opportunities are rare, and the young people feel disenfranchised. However, coming from a period of hard economic times (as a result of the 2008 global meltdown), and the over-reliance from people at home, they may not have much to give to the fund. That is a big letdown given that they would be an ideal source of the financing.

Individual philanthropists are concerned with the use of their donations. Their interest is to see a positive change as a result of their contributions, and most definitely, they will be following the fund very carefully to know how many youths have been trained through the Vijana Reloaded initiative, (Verhage, 2015). To the funders who will wish to remain anonymous, fulfillment comes from the act of giving, and they do not have any substantial concerns on how the funds are being used.

The most challenging part of the crowdfunding will be the construction of working relationships with the local institutions or government agencies. Lengthy negotiations, a lot of paperwork and back and forth procedures may hamper the speed of implementation. But that does not mean that the option is not tried, because, partnerships with local institutions ensures that the learning process is not only individual but also institutional. This will lead to sustainability and replication of the initiative to many people, expanding the scope of the beneficiaries.

Value proposition

The value proposition for the NGO community will be the advancement of their mission in Kenya and Africa in general through innovative empowerment approach that turns the mentality of young people from employment dependence to self-employment. The fact that it comes with job creation is an added advantage and one of the primary objectives of many nongovernmental organizations with a presence in Africa. Also, non-governmental organizations have a lot of institutional backing in their source countries, and, by approaching them, the Vijana Reloaded will be looking at taking advantage of the underlying funding networks in the NGOs.

For the rest of the segments; Africans in Diaspora, individuals and institutions, the value will be the improvement of the lives of the beneficiaries. Reduced unemployment rates lead to better societies, safer communities, and better-educated populations in the long run. Particularly, for the Africans living abroad, the project will ease the burden of supporting their kin with handouts for consumption. Instead, they will be contributing to a future driven initiative that will have a wholesome impact on the people lives. Vijana Reloaded, therefore, will be sold on the basis of its role in the lives of the beneficiaries in Kenya, and the scalability to other African countries.

References

Andel, C. (2013). Principles of persuasion in donation-based crowdfunding. Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit.

Steinberg, D. (2012). The Kickstarter handbook. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.

Swai, E. (2008). The NGO Factor in Africa: The Case of Arrested Development in Kenya , Amutabi N. Maurice. Africa Today, 54(4), pp.109-111.

Verhage, J. (2015). Here Are the Biggest Crowdfunding Campaigns of 2015. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-22/here-are-the-biggest-crowdfunding-campaigns-of-2015 [Accessed 14 Apr. 2016].