Crowdfunding for sustainability ventures

Sustainable entrepreneurship is raising and already providing a response to environmental, social and economic issues. However, it is still at disadvantage when seeks funding from traditional providers of capital. Crowdfunding has opened a new possibility for closing such funding gap. This study investigates the role of crowdfunding as a creative source of capital for ventures with sustainable orientation. The analysis seeks to understand to what extent project characteristics influence the ability to raise funds on the world leading reward-crowdfunding platform, and, importantly, to explain their survival post-campaign. Results show that the perceived sustainable mission positively influences the outcome of the campaign. An average survival rate over 70% after one year of operations suggests the creation of healthy sustainability ventures through crowdfunding. Furthermore, a higher percentage of female co-founders improves the chances of success during and after the crowdfunding campaign. The paper discusses implications for the success of crowdfunding campaigns and their development post-campaign in sustainable entrepreneurship. •Crowdfunding is an effective creative fundraising tool for sustainability ventures.•Sustainability initiatives are 70% likely to survive after crowdfunding campaign.•High ratios of female founders foster crowdfunding success and survival likelihood.•Ventures donating to charitable causes deliver better crowdfunding campaigns.•Diverting profits to charitable donations makes ventures' survival less likely.