Use Case Difference between CiviCRM and Croudfunding Sites?

Question

Several people (who know little about CiviCRM) when looking at CiviCRM claim that it's no different than a Crowdfunding site, but I look at it as you don't own a Crowdfunding site, and thus they can impose rules on you, while charging you, and non of that will apply if you own the platform you're running it on. Of course your host can do that as well, but not to the extent that a business that works to specifically do crowdfunding can.

I've never actually tried a crowdfunding site, and so I was wondering what the differences are...I would imagine that the data on the crowdfunding site is what they give you, and that there's no way to add additional information or query it in different ways. The project still exists, and is still active, so there must be some advantage to it over a crowdfunding site.

Answer 1

Hard to really know where to start with this. Generally a crowdfunding site does that and only that, people can donate to a specific project with various 'bonuses' on offer.

CiviCRM can also provide

• event registration
• membership systems
• case management systems
• volunteer management process for events

and a lot more, and I suggest you do some further background reading on what CiviCRM offers and then perhaps come back with more specific questions when you have them.

I realise I may be missing some nuance in what you have asked.

Answer 2

I totally agree with Pete. To put it more bluntly, to me it sounds as if you are saying that a pushbike is the same as a car as they can both be used for transport :-) Or that a calculator and a spreadsheet are the same type of software as you can do sums with them :-)

CiviCRM is a full blown CRM that offers functionality for fundraising, event management, membership management, relationship management, case management, some automated workflow. A crowdfunding site supports fundraising with crowdfunding, full stop.