Crowdfunding is often known by other names as well, such as crowd-sourced funding and crowd financing. It refers to a group of people, previously not connected, getting together to fund a cause or project, typically through the internet and often through social media.

A crowdfunding project may begin with one person or a group, often called the project initiator. He, she or they will use the internet to publicise the project and try and attract funding for it. The most common platform for this is a crowdfunding site - there are lots of these online but you can find a good list here.

The project initiator will then use this site, plus any other means available, to raise awareness of the project and try to get as many people as possible to support it. A lot of money is raised for different charities through crowdfunding, for instance.

Crowdfunding is also used to finance business projects.