Social crowdfunding: new perspectives on social entrepreneurship in developing countries

This article focuses on crowdfunding investment in projects initiated by social entrepreneurs in developing countries in order to enhance the likelihood of those projects’ success in developing countries. Babyloan, the microlending crowdfunding platform used for the study, is an important source of capital for budding social entrepreneurs who are typically at a disadvantage due to their small size and limited access to resources. We outline our collection and analysis of a set of projects from the platform. In addition to a simple statistical analysis, we illustrate the Babyloan platform using a graph. This model allows us to analyze the relationships between projects and funders. We highlight the importance of this model for mapping and identifying central financial and project platforms. We demonstrate that well-tested and often-applied indicators from graph theory, among others, can help illuminate the likelihood of a project’s success or failure.