Preview: Ethics And Future Of Crowdfunding For Communities

NeffDavid Neff is a seasoned veteran at SXSWi. When he takes the stage this year for his panel Ethics And Future of Crowdfunding for Communities it will be his seventh time as a speaker during SXSWi. Neff will bring his wealth of experience in startups and nonprofits to the stage on Friday, March 7 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in room 5ABC of the Austin Convention Center.

Neff currently works as a senior associate at PwC in Austin. He has over 13 years of experience in marketing for both nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies. His book The Future of Nonprofits: Thrive and Innovate in the Digital Age is designed to help nonprofits create a culture primed for positive growth.

“My main focus is digital social, where digital and social media are taking us, nonprofits, and then startups … are my three big areas,” Neff said.

Neff’s panel will focus on crowdfunding sources like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other crowdfunding apps. Crowdfunding and nonprofits are a growing world, and with that growth brings ethical questions. When someone donates to a nonprofit, does there money really go towards what they wanted it to?

“Do they have a realistic timeline? Are they actually going to ever deliver on this?” are a few more of the questions that Neff wants added to what he calls a “Bill of rights for crowdfunding.”

The panel will be one of the core conversation series, which means it will rely heavily on crowd involvement.

“There will be a big crowd of folks there, hopefully, and there will be a lot of interaction with the crowd,” Neff said. “What does the crowdfunding bill of rights look like? We want to come out of there with that.”

Although Neff suspects a lot of themes to pop up, like a clear timeline and project development, he also expects the audience insights to add to it.

Not only will Neff be hosting a panel on Friday, but he will also have a meetup for nonprofits as well. What Is the Future of Non-Profits? will be at the Driskill Hotel from 5-6 p.m. Big hitters from the nonprofit world will be in attendance to have a discussion about the future of nonprofits. Beth Kanter from Beth’s Blog, Mark Horvath from Invisible People, VP of Communications of Reddit Victoria Taylor, and Rob Wu from CauseVox will all be in attendance to bring their expertise to the subject.

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