Financing social entrepreneurship: a study of communication and the use of social networks in the "Goteo" crowdfunding platform

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, crowdfunding has become a generally used practice to finance, among others, projects that produce a certain positive impact on society and/or the environment. These days, crowdfunding could not be understood without the expansive capacity of social networks. Thus, crowdfunding has been able to use existing strengths in social networks and in its information tools to make communication easier and exchange knowledge between project promoters and potential contributors. The objective of this article is to identify the keys to effective communication, demonstrating how platforms like crowdfunding are a source of funding for social economy projects For this, a theoretical approach is followed through the review of various bibliographic sources related to social entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, communication and social networks. Next it is highlighted which of them could be the essential communicative components, extracted from the literature, that have to be taken into account in a successful crowdfunding campaign. These essential communication components are analyzed in a campaign on the crowdfunding platform "Goteo", to seek funding for solidarity projects to combat the effects derived from the health situation caused by the pandemic (SARS-CoV-2), in order to corroborate if the previously identified characteristics are present. In conclusion, this article aims to explore the use of communication as a strategy to obtain funds through crowdfunding and analyze how social networks can help Social Economy organizations to finance their projects through citizen participation. As well as showing the necessary efforts of these organizations to have effective communication channels to facilitate financial fundraising campaigns by establishing a valid decision process on communication and use of social networks.