I had an augment last week about crowdfunding philosophy and I'm now curious what you think.

Have you backed up some Kickstarter, Indiegogo & co. projects just to see them funded and either didn't expect anything in return or didn't use what you got for it?

For me, there are two kinds of crowdfunded projects:

  1. Innovations that I will probably not see in the stores before long time. When I back up this kind of project, it's most likely in order to get the end-product, like a pre-sale.
  2. Projects that I find cool. Project I wish I could have done myself. Projects I would like to succeed, just because I feel empathy for the author and would like him/her to be successful. My participation is really some kind of donation, a way to spread happiness.

I love creating and personally have a few dozens unfinished projects in my drawers. I admire people that do try to finish them. If a little bit of money from me can enable it and scratch my makers itch by piggy-backing on someone else's dream...
I might indeed have little to no use of it at the end, but even the project interest me, I might still back it up.

Have you had the same experience?

Image Source: Crowdfunding by Rocío Lara (CC BY-SA 2.0)