Crowdfunding is a way of asking your supporters to support you in financing an idea before it’s come to fruition. There are lots of Crowdfunding websites on line and the idea is that you join a site, post your project and then ask your supporters to help finance it. Your supporters can then go to the Crowdfunding website and contribute directly. Some Crowdfunding sites take a commission and others waive this for the not-for-profit sector.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations is working with a crowdfunding website called Crowdfunder.co.uk, other sites include JustGiving.com and BuzzBank which seems to have a bias towards social enterprise and environmental projects.