Crowdfunding and Sustainability. UN SDG Goalsversus Campaign Goals in Developing and Developed Countries. Does it Matter?

Abstract

Sustainability can be perceived as a life belief as well as a way to impress when presenting a business plan, or a combination of both. Cr owdfunding can be the way to finance such a business plan linked to sustainability. For example, the UN has established 17 sustainability goals, the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the several sources, especially the World Economic Forum survey, it was possible to indirectly deduce that in developing countries the goals perceived in the survey as top-ranked are accentuated, while in developed countries rather the goals perceived as least-important. In view of the above, the aim of this contribution is to identify and describe how crowdfunding campaigns work with the concept of sustainability with regard to the SDG goals, using the case of a selected crowdfunding platform (indiegogo). The monitored variables were the nature of the campaign in relation to the SDG goal being met, the degree of development of the economy in which the campaign was launched, and the percentage of the received amount from the target amount. The work concludes that the analyzed campaigns do not systematically communicate their intention with regard to the SDGs, which are perceived as important for their environment. I.e. the dependence between the nature of the campaign fulfilling the SDG goal and the degree of economic development was not identified. On the other hand, it is still possible to observe that campaigns respecting the SDGs in relation to their economy are more successful in terms of the amount collected.