The crowdfunding campaign for the Commsrisk Global Fraud Dashboard will launch on Kickstarter soon. The idea is to obtain the resources needed to secure the services of professional developers on an ongoing basis by guaranteeing a predictable amount of work over the course of the next 12 months. If we meet or exceed the target of GBP7,250 (USD10,000) then a donation will be taken from everybody who pledges support. No donations will be collected if the total value of pledges falls short of that target at the end of the 60-day campaign period. The target was chosen for the following reasons.
A Proudly British Contribution to a Global Challenge
We considered setting the target in either US Dollars or Euros for the convenience of donors in those respective regions but ultimately chose British Pounds for a mixture of reasons. Commsrisk is owned by a company legally incorporated in Britain and the lead developer of the dashboard is based in Britain, so there are obvious practical advantages to expressing the target in British Pounds although donors can make payment in a wide range of currencies. There are also symbolic reasons to emphasize the British nature of the dashboard (even though my editorial policy has always favored American English for an international audience). The information gathered will be presented without bias, irrespective of any trade wars that may occur between the USA, China or other nations. Britain’s economy is highly dependent on international trade, making the country’s politics supportive of free trade in general as well as relatively tolerant of free speech about international relations. These factors have also encouraged several important telecoms associations to base their head offices in the UK.
The Cost of a Hundred New Charts
GBP7,250 is approximately worth USD10,000 at current exchange rates, and this leads to a simple linear relationship we can use to explain the practical worth of each donation. Put simply, we estimate that 100 new charts can be developed and tested for that sum of money, meaning each individual chart costs roughly GBP72.50 or USD100. Hence, a 10-dollar donation is roughly equivalent to funding one-tenth of a new chart. We hope this simple relationship will help donors to understand the difference they will make, especially if we surpass the fundraising target.
A Stretch Target
If we fail to reach the goal then no money will be collected and the dashboard beta will be taken out of service to eliminate the current costs of maintaining it. We know the target amount is trivial compared to the expenditure many organizations are prepared to devote to participating in information-sharing activities, especially when done on a face-to-face basis. On the other hand, there is a definite risk that the Commsrisk audience will reject an unfamiliar funding model based on many small donations from many individuals instead of a few large corporate donors. I find that information-sharing in the comms sector has degraded over time due to the intrusive influence of vendors who expect a return for any financial support they provide. This crowdfunding exercise is an experiment in whether the audience is willing to counter that influence by guaranteeing a program of activity that can be sustained without relying upon corporate marketing budgets.
