The crowdfunding of sport – paving the way to shared sponsorship?

Abstract

The rise of crowdfunding as a way of funding sport projects has prompted numerous companies to become involved in these campaigns. This paper explores a model of crowdfunding in which a sponsor company supports individual projects. A qualitative study based on interviews with crowdfunding executives showed that campaigns are more likely to be successful if they include a sponsor company, and that crowdfunding platforms and the projects they support have become a new interactive, online communication tool for sponsors. Our data revealed four modes of corporate involvement in crowdfunding and fourteen objectives companies hope to achieve through this involvement. Three of these objectives can be attained exclusively via this communication tool. In addition, companies focus on five “success factors” when deciding whether or not to sponsor a crowdfunding campaign. This model of corporate-supported crowdfunding is creating a new paradigm of “shared” (by a community) sponsorship that will complement the current system of “confined” (to specific companies) sponsorship.