Should Your Church Raise Money Through Crowdfunding Sites?

Brady Josephson spends a lot of time thinking about fundraising. A self-described “charity nerd” who teaches fundraising at North Park University in Chicago, he is vice president of innovation and optimization at NextAfter, a company that helps nonprofits raise money.

ChurchLawAndTax.com talked to Josephson about how crowdfunding can work for churches.

What are some of the pros and cons of crowdfunding?

First off, let’s define crowdfunding. It’s really just raising money in smaller amounts from a variety of donors using an online tool. The biggest difference with crowdfunding is that it is often done on an online platform like GoFundMe.com, CrowdRise.com, or FundRazr.com. This style of fundraising often has a funding goal with a thermometer and a timeline or countdown. These tools often try to tap into the social networks with easy-to-share functionality.

One of the ...