MENACatalyst & LaunchGood Team Up to Teach Startups the 411 of Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is increasingly becoming the go-to fundraising platform for a wide array of social initiatives, and can often be a great way for these ventures to fundraise through small donations from a large number of people. With the dawn of crowdfunding offering startups and social impact initiatives opportunities to seek funding to help fuel their ventures, MENACatalyst jumped at the opportunity to offer startups in Palestine an insider’s glimpse into the key drivers of a successful crowdfunding campaign. MC had the passionate girls from the LaunchGood team flown over to Amman, Jordan, where they set to educate a group of 19 social and tech startups from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in a two-day workshop, on how to lead successful crowdfunding campaigns for their own ventures.

To date, LaunchGood – a crowdfunding platform dedicated to featuring the values of the Muslim community worldwide, through helping today’s changemakers financially fuel their social initiatives in the hopes to generate big impact. And, with some of the LaunchGood team being of Palestinian descent, it was only natural that MC thought to reach out.

Over the course of two days, startups learned from model campaigns that reached remarkable success which were able to do so through impactful, thought-provoking and emotionally-driven stories that reaped an extraordinary audience of like-minded and passionate individuals dedicated to making a difference through their support to the social-initiatives driven by LaunchGood’s platform. Since its establishment, LaunchGood has managed to secure a whopping $70 million in funding for over 6,000 campaigns, spanning 124 countries! All this to say - they know their stuff.

Participating startups had great things to say about their time spent in the workshop, highlighting their intent to use the platform for their upcoming campaigns. Moreover, with part of the workshop geared to one-on-one tailored campaign guidance, startups received invaluable feedback and guidance they can now put to work.

For Palestinian entrepreneurs who once believed their only access to funds was either through personal loans, family, or close friends, crowdfunding has opened their eyes to a new world of fundraising with no boundaries, no limitations, and no financial burden - all of which hinders many aspiring entrepreneurs in Palestine from launching their own social/tech ventures.