Crowdfunding website Indiegogo teams up with numerous of organizations to help support more female-led campaigns. The company is trying to create diversity on successful campaigns on the platform and is focusing on female entrepreneurs, in the time of the International Women's Day on Tuesday.
In its pledge to a full year of extra support for women-run crowdfunding campaigns, Indiegogo partners with Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network, Girls In Tech, Blooming Founders, Trep Life, also Lipstick and Politics. Not only funds, the company will also host events on supporting female throughout the year and offer optional "one-on-one consultations" and "campaign mentoring from Indiegogo's dedicated support team", as reported by Venture Beat.
In a blog post that announces the new program and partnership, Indiegogo also stressed the importance of supporting more female-led crowdfunding campaigns, especially for entrepreneurs. "Seeing women break into business by Indiegogo is inspiring, but there is still much to be done. We've always been committed to improving diversity in entrepreneurship because we believe that the world is better when more ideas are given the opportunity to succeed, and this year we're launching key initiatives to encourage even more," the company wrote.
For Indiegogo, women are also a potential and remarkable group that is worth giving support for. The company found that the same women who are often turned down by VC after VC are responsible for 47 percent of successful campaigns via the website. Indiegogo also cited a recent study from the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley that concludes that women may actually raise more money than men do in crowdfunding because of the more inclusive and positive language they use, which makes contributors feel like they are an integral part of the teams.
Startups noted how Indiegogo has contributed in promoting gender equalities from business and funding. As Indiegogo co-founder, Danae Ringelmann puts it, "Because it's a completely open platform Indiegogo has broken down gender inequalities and removed bias from the funding equation. We're really proud of building a platform where all ideas are welcome and have a chance to thrive."
Lipstick & Politics founder Mira Veda, who also participates in the initiative, underlined how women still face a multitude of challenges in business and leadership. She noted that even though there are 9.4 million women own businesses, support and career advancement is negligible. That's why such initiatives are crucial in building a productive platform for both genders.
With the newly-launched initiative to support female-led crowdfunding campaigns, Indiegogo is determined to open more opportunities for women to thrive especially in business. With supports from other female-supporting organizations, female-led campaigns that use Indiegogo will be offered supporting events, consultation sessions, and campaign mentoring.
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