The History and Evolution of Crowdfunding: From The Irish Loan Fund to Digital Era

Crowdfunding has a long history that began in the 1700s with the establishment of The Irish Loan Fund by Jonathan Swift, aimed at providing loans to the less fortunate in Dublin. In 1852, Credit Unions emerged as nonprofit institutions offering low-interest loans to their members. Later, in 1976, Prof. Muhammad Yunus pioneered the Grameen Bank and microfinance project in Bangladesh, which was also funded by members or donors with low-interest rates. Modern crowdfunding began in 1997 when the British rock band Marillion funded their tour through fan donations. 

In 2001, ArtistShare became the first crowdfunding platform to be launched. The term "crowdfunding" itself was first introduced by Michael Sullivan in 2006. The global economic crisis in 2008 drove people to seek funding through the internet, leading to the rise of various crowdfunding platforms between 2009 and 2015, such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. By 2012, there were about 450 crowdfunding platforms with a total of $2.7 billion raised, and by 2015, this figure had skyrocketed to $24.4 billion. The peak came in 2017, when the Filecoin crowdfunding campaign raised $257 million in just one month.