Crowdfunding has already begun to emerge as one of the broadest changes in capitalization of small businesses and start-up enterprises since the creation of capital markets over a century ago. Although in its infancy, the crowdfunding movement has left many potential investors chomping at the bit as they anticipate the final rules and regulations which will identify the methodologies and practices to be put in place.
Future participants in the crowdfunding model will have the greatest opportunity afforded them in the last 100 years toward not only investing in American enterprise, but also in watching how their contribution to the process launches their nation toward regained economic and political power. It’s not just about making a return on an investment, it’s about making a return to what made America strong – Main Street.
Crowd investors will come in all shapes, sizes, and volumes. Retirees on a pension, parents trying to increase their children’s college funds, and company employees who want to invest in their company and their own futures will become mainstream participants in the groundswell of support expected to rock the financial world. The variety of organizations which will benefit from this formative change in financing covers the spectrum – Not-for-profits, trade associations, universities, and thousands of other groups will find a new capital resource from which to draw.
The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) recognizes the importance in these opportunities for improvement in the business capitalization process and works diligently to insure that the average citizen investor won’t be left at the curbside when it comes time to place the rules and regulations involved in crowdfunding around this newly-emerging landscape. Leaders and visionaries in the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding initiatives have come together under the umbrella of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) to create a valuable resource for education, legislative interaction, policy review and implementation strategy.
Crowd Investors are the key to success for Crowdfunding. Being well-informed and actively involved in the processes which will form the foundation for the new model of capitalization are critical components for every citizen’s successful engagement in the process. The Crowdfunding Professional Organization seeks to provide the needed direction, guidance, interaction, and voice which will determine the accessibility all investors should have to this monumental shift in the American economic environment.
For the first time in America’s history, the common person, the small investor can be given an opportunity to invest in and support new ideas and new startups that, over the years, only a privileged few have been able to access. The environment that exists now has been exclusionary and un-fair at many levels both for the common man and for the entrepreneur. The crowdfunding platforms, over time will grant the ability for the common person to invest in university research, public initiatives and thousands of other deals that heretofore have been made available only to a select few. The previous entry thresholds reserved to accredited investors will be torn down and replaced by a model that supports new ideas and provides the means for millions of people to invest in them.