Crowdfunding for linguistic variety

The “Crowdfunding for linguistic variety” module brings to the fore the dynamics of crowd initiatives, and in particular, crowdfunding, to enhance linguistic variety in society. The module consists of three units:
Unit 1.“The power of crowds: Key features of crowd initiatives”,
Unit 2. “Crowdfunding: What is it and how it works?”,
Unit 3. “Crowdfunding for linguistic variety: Examples of successful campaigns!”.

Introduction

By adopting BOLD’s call for social action, this module embraces crowdfunding for linguistic variety as an innovative and participatory method that should be integrated into learning and educational settings. Specifically, in unit 1, we explore the variety of crowd initiatives and highlight their social value and potential for multilingual purposes. In unit 2, we focus on the objectives and tools of crowdfunding, while unit 3 presents concrete examples of successful crowdfunding campaigns for linguistic variety.

This module aims to promote and expand the skills and comprehension of users on crowdfunding for multilingual and intercultural purposes. It will amplify user’s knowledge and competences in this topic by providing an overview of the crowd initiatives landscape, and the way crowdfunding can trigger social action in multilingualism.

Stefania Oikonomou, Katerina Zourou

On completion of this module participants will be able to:

  • distinguish the different types of crowd initiatives;
  • understand the social dynamics and value of crowd initiatives;
  • identify key components of a crowdfunding campaign;
  • set up their own crowdfunding campaign for linguistic variety.

The target groups of this module are aligned with those of the BOLD project. In particular, 

  • Pre-service educators at universities: 

This module will critically contribute to the capacity of student teachers to navigate the spectrum of crowd initiatives and understand their social relevance and value. It will provide specialised knowledge and upskilling relative to crowdfunding for linguistic variety.

  • Civil society organisations: 

This module will offer members of civil society a concrete view of the social dimension of crowd initiatives, especially crowdfunding, and their potential for citizen engagement in multilingualism and linguistic variety.

  • Unit 1 investigates the spectrum of crowd initiatives, from crowd translations to crowdsourcing actions, aiming to pinpoint the social value and unleashed potential in those social actions regarding linguistic variety.
  • Unit 2 examines crowdfunding by providing a concrete presentation of its key components, objectives and tools, thus supporting users to set up their own crowdfunding campaign!
  • Unit 3 presents successful crowdfunding campaigns that champion linguistic variety. This overview and analysis of concrete examples further expands user understanding of crowdfunding’s social dynamic!

8 hours

The sources used to build this module include:

  • Studies and reports issued by scholars and policymakers;
  • Explanatory videos;
  • How-to guides, and
  • Charts and graphs to enhance visualisations.

Unit 1: The power of crowds: Key features of crowd initiatives

The digital revolution has facilitated direct access to information for millions of people worldwide. However, claiming that knowledge production and knowledge sharing are equally accessible to everyone on the web doesn’t always reflect reality on the ground. In fact, activities such as knowledge sharing require access to  resources available in indigenous or endangered languages (Canestrino, Magliocca & Li, 2022). 

As the English language represents more than a quarter of all the languages used on the internet (UNESCO & Global Voices, 2023), there is an urgent need to safeguard linguistic variety. In this challenging landscape, there are not only questions as to who can truly access the content available on the web but also concerns over the infrastructural capacity of marginalised communities to access the internet and make their voice heard in the digital world (Paolillo et al., 2005). 

While acknowledging existing challenges for speakers of less-used languages, this module aims to shed light on participatory crowd initiatives that leverage the power of crowds for linguistic variety. Despite the alarming environment, language activists, scholars as well as groups of motivated individuals, have found crowd initiatives to be a significant tool for raising collective awareness and mobilising for action.

1.1 Understanding crowd initiatives: types & examples

The digitalisation of almost all spheres of social life has enhanced the potential for collective and bottom-up action by individuals and communities that can now connect “through a common technology or use-condition” (Harhoff & Lahkani, 2016). This collective mobilisation of people has led to the emergence of the term “crowd”- namely, “a large group of people who have come together” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.)- that is often utilised to emphasise individuals’ involvement in a campaign, a project or an action, that is considered crucial to its implementation.

Hence, experts, especially those working in business, management and financial sectors, were among the first to see the value of crowd initiatives for innovation purposes. As people share their knowledge and expertise openly and freely online, a new field of practice has emerged, giving rise to terms such as “crowd-related phenomena” (Felin, Lakhani & Tushman, 2017), and “crowd-powered innovations” (Boudreau & Lahkani, 2013). 

In this module, we consider crowd initiatives as participatory processes whose social value and relevance is growing! Existing literature review connects crowd initiatives to the concept of “crowdsourcing” introduced by Howe (2006) to describe “the engagement of individuals who voluntarily offer their knowledge to a knowledge seeker” (Zourou & Ziku, 2022). In this context, “crowd initiatives” relate to forms of “crowdsourcing” which is “an umbrella term for a variety of approaches that tap into the potential of a large and open crowd of people” (Geiger, D. et al. 2011). Stemmed from the words “crowd” and “source”, crowdsourcing is a synonym for digital actions that are based on volunteers’ contributions, usually to serve a social purpose. 

Watch this 1-minute video by Harvard University that shows how crowdsourcing first emerged in society.

Types & examples of crowd (sourcing) initiatives

To better understand the range, the objectives, and the various forms of crowdsourcing initiatives, we found  our analysis on Howe’s typology (2008) that distinguishes four (4) types of crowdsourcing: 

  1. Wisdom of the crowd
  2. Crowd creation
  3. Crowd voting, and
  4. Crowdfunding.

Let’s find out together more about them!

a) Wisdom of the crowd

Have you ever participated in an online competition or project that called for volunteers to exchange their ideas and knowledge and to find solutions to a problem? By invoking  the “wisdom of the crowd”, Howe (2008) aimed to highlight the unleashed potential existing in large pools of people who join forces to resolve an issue! These types of crowdsourcing initiatives are designed to encourage, support, and integrate user knowledge and expertise in developing innovative solutions that would be impossible to achieve with a small group of people.

Acknowledging the value of individual and local knowledge that is amplified by collective participation, initiatives of this type can take several forms and entail various levels of user engagement. Indicative examples of such actions are hackathons and citizen science projects as showcased in the Zooniverse platform! 

Click here to see how hackathons leverage the wisdom of the crowd to solve a problem!

Watch this 1-minute video to learn how citizen science is empowered through the Zooniverse platform!

b) Crowd creation

The “crowd creation” type of crowdsourcing encourages users and communities to co-create for social objectives. The tangible outputs of these initiatives include digital repositories, videos, online spaces, etc. You don’t have to prove your expertise or studies’ portfolios to take part in a user community that creates content for a particular theme or social matter. You should just express your availability and start co-creating with others!
In the field of advocacy and action for language safeguarding, there are several crowd creation actions. An indicative example is the First Voices initiative! “First Voices” was made possible through the active contribution of Indigenous community members who share their language and linguistic history on its platform. This online space was developed by the First People’s Cultural Council (FPCC) and acts not only as a living repository of Indigenous languages but also as an educational and learning portal that is open to users worldwide!

Likewise, crowd translations are another type of crowd creation for language safeguarding. An outstanding example of a crowd translation is the “Second Life Community Translation Project” which is hosted on the wiki platform. Set up in 2009, “Second Life” engaged thousands of users who actively contributed to translating web pages into less-used languages. 

Learn more about the Second Life Translation Project here.

Finally, another crowdsourced inspirational initiative is “Living Dictionaries” which was first launched in 2006 as the “Talking Dictionary” by linguists Gregory D. S. Anderson and K. David Harrison (Living Dictionaries, n.d.). “Living Dictionaries” include collaborative multimedia features and tools that facilitate the safeguarding of endangered languages by users across the globe. The “Living Dictionaries” app allows users to create new digital dictionaries and add their language entries. Thus, the app fosters the development of  dictionaries for several endangered languages, such as the “Talking Dictionaries of Micronesia”.  

Watch this 5-minute tutorial provided by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages on how to add a new Living Dictionary!

c) Crowd voting

Have you ever participated in the voting process of a TV show? Have you voted for your favourite weekly-news article in an online magazine? If yes, you have been part of a large crowd voting initiative! Based on users’ preferences for specific products, performances, and outputs, organisers gather the feedback they need to improve their services or products.

To learn more about crowd voting, check this paper by Chen, Xu & Liu (2020).

d) Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding generally refers to the act of offering a lump sum to an online campaign that calls for people to support a specific cause. Want to learn more? In this module’s units 2 and 3, we will go deeper into crowdfunding, its objectives, and its different methods! 

Get ready with us!

1.2 Why crowd initiatives for linguistic variety?

Language is a fundamental element of civilisation, rendering each linguistic community and its cultural identity unique through time. To protect endangered languages from becoming extinct, concrete, and collective efforts should be envisaged that also make provisions for  sustainable and long-lasting results and impact. In this context, digital tools and technologies cannot serve this purpose unless they are designed to encourage and allow open and collective action by users all around the world. 

In other words, the task of preserving and enhancing linguistic variety online cannot be effectively achieved by the efforts of only a few, dedicated individuals or groups. What crowd initiatives achieve is to generate and strengthen more participation and engagement of community members and individuals, thus enabling better outcomes in terms of quantity,  quality, and diversity of contributions.

To highlight the value of digitally-enhanced crowd initiatives for Indigenous languages, UNESCO, together with Global Voices’s Rising Voices, has issued the “Digital Initiatives for Indigenous Languages” (2023) toolkit intending to upskill Indigenous language-users in utilizing digital tools and media for the  preservation and promotion of their language.

Hence, in the Toolkit (2023), we read:

“Digital initiatives in Indigenous languages can thus be understood as forms of social engagement which resist language displacement and loss.”
(UNESCO & Global Voices, 2023)

Watch this video by UNESCO on the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032).

To learn more about the UNESCO & Global Voices Toolkit, click here.

Conclusion

In this unit, we navigated the colourful spectrum of crowd initiatives for linguistic variety, highlighting their empowering and community-driven value. What is purposefully  missing from unit 1’s list of initiatives is another form of crowd action known as “crowdfunding”. The reason? We are going to focus entirely on it in the next unit! 

Are you ready?

Unit 2: Crowdfunding: What is it and how it works?

When we set up an initiative or campaign for linguistic variety, we are faced with the question of “How will it be funded?”. Hence, the motivation to contribute to a greater cause may mobilise several people to freely dedicate their time and resources to a crowd initiative, like the ones presented in unit 1, but the reality is that some kind of funding is usually necessary to ensure smooth implementation and sustainability of the action. For example, think of the maintenance costs of an online platform over time…

However, what seems to be a no-go to organise a crowd initiative is just an important element you should consider and potentially solve through….another crowd initiative… 

Crowdfunding! 

Let’s find out more about it together!

2.1 What is crowdfunding?

Made of the words “crowd” and “funding”, crowdfunding can be generally conceived as an “alternative finance mechanism” (Demattos Guimarães & Maehle, 2022). Thanks to digitalisation, crowdfunding emerged as a means to collect funds from several diverse users, whether they are individuals or organisations. By not limiting the pool of potential supporters to a single group of people, crowdfunding allows you to seek funding from various actors that are active in the online world, and who are willing to finance your project. 

The reasoning behind crowdfunding assumes that “it is better to acquire smaller sums of money from a diverse pool of people than wait for one generous donor to finance you”.

Through this assumption , we aim to highlight the value of bottom-up, participatory, and collective support of a project in comparison to top-down and elite-financed projects. Hence, adopting crowdfunding as your main source of fundraising is a responsible and courageous decision, as success is not guaranteed unless you dedicate time and work to  organise your campaign efficiently. 

Crowdfunding campaigns usually include different kinds of reward(s) for their supporters. People who decide to contribute any amount of money to its cause must be sufficiently acknowledged to minimise the risk of an unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign. At the same time, rewarding people may increase their motivation to contribute further.

Watch this 15-minute TED Talk by Simon Walker on Why and How to Crowdfund!

As with many things, crowdfunding comes in many different forms and it may serve various goals. According to De Voldere & Zeqo (2017), there are four (4) types of crowdfunding models:

  • Donation-Based: donating small amounts to meet the larger funding goals of a  project while receiving no financial or material return in exchange.
  • Reward-Based: donating small amounts to meet the larger funding goals of a  project with the expectation of receiving a tangible (but non-financial) reward or product at a later stage in exchange.
  • Peer-to-Peer Lending: borrowing from several lenders via an online platform with each lender lending a (small) amount in return for financial compensation.
  • Equity-Based: investing in a business via an online crowdfunding platform in return for a share in the business.

Source: De Voldere & Zeqo (2017)

Naturally, seeking alternative financing from your fellow community members or other groups of people is not a new phenomenon. What is considered innovative in crowdfunding nowadays is the strong prevalence of the digital component in the organisation and hosting of the campaign, from its ideation to marketing and communication.

Although crowdfunding has been particularly utilised in the cultural sector to remediate the progressive lack of public and private funding for this industry (Rykkja et al., 2020), crowdfunding is employed by individuals, communities, and organisations of any background  and sector. 

In the field of linguistics, one particularly inspiring crowdfunding campaign was the Yoruba Names Dictionary campaign, organised to fund a project for the preservation and the continued use of Yoruba names! Hosted on the crowdfunding platform, IndieGoGo, the campaign aimed to raise 5000 dollars to set up and run the online space that will host the digital Yoruba dictionary. The campaign was successful in reaching its funding objectives, while the digital space that emerged  (see here) is populated by the users who contributed to that funding, thus enhancing its crowdsourcing approach and practice.

Check how the “Yoruba Names Dictionary” campaign looked like on the IndieGoGo platform here.

2.2 How to run a crowdfunding campaign

As highlighted in the previous sub-unit, crowdfunding is more than an alternative or digitally-enhanced way to finance your project. Crowdfunding’s true value lies in connecting  people from various socio-cultural backgrounds who commit to supporting a project. Based on the type of rewards provided to supporters and the ultimate goals of the campaign, the level of user engagement may vary. In the case of linguistic variety, we aim to foster long-term engagement in crowd initiatives and so it is crucial to maintain supporters’ engagement beyond the crowdfunding campaign. 

Think of a linguistic variety project that you would like to create and that you may need funding for. Why not combine your campaign with your crowdsourcing action and let supporters know that their contribution is welcome once your initiative is up and running?

In the next section, we will provide you with a concrete, step-by-step guide on how to set up a successful crowdfunding campaign based on the Tsakarelou & Zourou (2023) guide.

2.3 Barriers and opportunities of crowdfunding

You are now halfway to setting up your own crowdfunding campaign to support your linguistic variety project! What remains is for you to become aware of potential barriers and opportunities for your campaign, that are likely to affect its level of success.

Potential barriers to a successful crowdfunding campaign

Although there are concrete steps to organise a successful crowdfunding campaign, there is no guarantee for success. The good news is that the majority of reasons that may negatively influence the success of your campaign may be avoided by following the instructions provided in this guide!

A) Unclear concept

Providing a complex and non-cohesive outline of your project will make it hard for supporters to see why and how they should contribute to it. Hence, it is crucial to create a clear identity for your project, highlighting its mission, its aim, and its social value. It is important to provide a clear overview of why and how people should support it.

B) Wrong choice of reward

Regardless of the project’s objectives and aspirations, your choice of rewards, if not carefully thought through, may discourage users from supporting you. An indicative example would be to choose the same type of reward for all supporters, without acknowledging those who chip in more to your campaign. Remember! The more significant the reward the more likely it is to attract bigger contributions from users.

Watch Web2Learn’s introductory webinar on crowdfunding here.

C) Lack of trust in online payments

This barrier is not entirely up to you to address, since it is connected to wider user perceptions and experiences regarding online payments. However, the most popular crowdfunding platforms provide concrete security protocols, thus enhancing trust in people to contribute to projects hosted in them. 

D) Insufficient promotion

Failure of crowdfunding campaigns is usually attributed to poor communication management of the campaign. Organisers may do their best to clearly define the purpose of their project and demonstrate its value but if they do not put significant effort into spreading the word about it, especially on social media, the initiative may never gain momentum. 

E) Lack of trust by funders

In most cases, initiatives rely on the support of strangers who find a campaign and become motivated to fund it. In reality, due to the several online scams and frauds, you should not take user-trust for granted! To amend ill trust make sure to explicitly describe the way you will distribute the collected funds and provide a concrete overview of the personal and professional backgrounds of you and your team to increase your accountability and reliability!

Watch Web2Learn’s webinar on crowdfunding with guest speaker Jill Cousins here.

Setting up a crowdfunding campaign includes dealing with issues that can be addressed  through efficient and detailed planning as well as the solid commitment of the organisers. In this final section of the module, we  share some of the most important opportunities created  by a successful crowdfunding campaign!

Let’s check them out together!

Opportunities

A) New skills acquisition

It comes with no surprise that organising a crowdfunding campaign necessitates serious upskilling of the individual or group that  leads this process. Being part of the organising team will be a true learning and competence-building experience as you will enhance your knowledge in multiple fields, from project management to social media and finances. 

B) Reaching wider audiences

Deciding to launch a crowdfunding campaign means that you aim to reach a wider pool of supporters, moving beyond traditional supporters and thus unleashing new potential for your project! Moreover, your crowdfunding campaign may forge new synergies and collaborations with people and organisations that will commit to your project beyond the lifetime of your campaign.

C) Attracting new sponsors

Directly connected to point b above, crowdfunding is an innovative way to attract the support of institutions and associations you never knew or thought of reaching out to. The more popular your hosting crowdfunding platform is, the more chances you have to receive support from important sponsors.

D) Attracting media attention

Famous or not, launching a crowdfunding campaign will increase the outreach of your project if you adopt a smart social media strategy. Especially, socially-oriented campaigns can attract meaningful media attention, if carefully planned and communicated.

E) Increasing long-term civic engagement

Your crowdfunding campaign should be seen as an impact-multiplier for your project since your supporters can be engaged in it well beyond the campaign itself, acting as long-term contributors and/or supporting your project sustainability and networking efforts. 

Think of the “Yoruba Names Dictionary” campaign! Users responded to the call for support to the project, and once the online space was created, they were encouraged to contribute to it by submitting Yoruba names in the dictionary. This great example showcases how your financial supporters can be your future teammates; people forming an integral part of your user community and becoming the cornerstone that will guarantee the success of your linguistic variety project!

The barriers and opportunities presented in this sub-unit were part of the Oikonomou, Tsakarelou & Zourou (2023) presentation of Web2Learn’s webinar series on crowdfunding  available here.

Unit 3: Crowdfunding for linguistic variety: Examples of successful campaigns!

So far, unit 1 focused on the “power of crowds”, while unit 2 centred around the concept of crowdfunding that can serve as a catalyst of change on various levels: social, educational etc. In unit 3, we will introduce seven successful crowdfunding actions, specifically designed to enhance language variety. Of course, all the presented initiatives are indicative examples, and by no means do they form an exhaustive inventory of campaigns. Here, readers will have the opportunity to better understand how crowdfunding can become an alternative project-funding method in the field of linguistic variety.

Background 

Even though many studies have been examining crowdfunding initiatives, to our knowledge, none of them emphasise crowdfunding as a means for strengthening linguistic variety. In particular, our literature review (October-November 2023) based on scholarly repositories such as Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science, didn’t identify any study addressing crowdfunding for linguistic variety. Hence, there seems to be a gap in the related literature. Interestingly, landmark studies on crowdfunding tend to primarily focus on issues such as  economic factors (Agrawal et al., 2013), its value for the public sector (Davis & Cartwright, 2019) and the democratisation of financial services (Gleasure & Feller, 2015). Additionally, a lot has been written about the value of crowdfunding for the cultural heritage sector (Rykkja  et al. 2020, De Voldere & Zeqo, 2017). As a result of our first mapping of resources, we believe that the topic of crowdfunding for linguistic variety is largely underexplored.

Framework of analysis  

Conceptual framework and criteria definition

Part of defining the conceptual framework that encompasses the aims and objectives of the research on crowdfunding campaigns for linguistic variety was to identify the selection criteria following the crowdfunding guide of Tsakarelou & Zourou (2023). The selection criteria include:

  • the crowdfunding model (donation-based, reward-based):

As outlined in sub-unit 2.1 of this module, there are generally four types of crowdfunding models (De Voldere & Zeqo, 2017). Aligning with the research scope, we  focused on two of the crowdfunding models, namely donation-based and reward-based, since they are more associated with and relevant to  socially oriented campaigns.

  • the level of citizen engagement:

Particularly regarding the level of citizen engagement, we adopted the typology proposed by the World Bank Working Group on Citizen Engagement (2015) which includes the following four levels: 

    • Information: Citizens are the recipients of information from external stakeholders. 
    • Consultation: Institutions receive citizens’ feedback with the citizens’ role being limited to a one-way interaction. 
    • Collaboration: Citizens are called to contribute to the process in a two-way  interaction scheme.  
    • Empowerment: Citizens are the initiators and strategic organisers of the actions.

From these four levels, we included campaigns that invlolve collaboration between supporters and the organisers at the least (at least level 3). Thus, we included those campaigns that aim to maximise participant engagement in its causes.

  • communication and outreach: 

A successful crowdfunding campaign is centrally based on a solid and engaging communication strategy that reaches as many and as diverse audiences as possible. In this context, we were interested in mapping communication tools and venues used by successful organisers to achieve their goals.

  • the impact of the crowdfunding initiative:

Measuring the impact of a campaign includes several data and indicators to properly assess its outcomes. Due to the limited data availability and also aligning with the specific research  scope, we focused on the amount of money raised and the number of contributing supporters to evaluate the popularity and impact of the crowdfunding initiatives. Finally, it is necessary to clarify that an important indicator for initiative success is whether or not it  raised the amount of money it had originally intended. That is, the degree to which it reached its fundraising goals.

The desk research method

The selected samples of crowdfunding campaigns for linguistic variety were collected in a shared, co-creative table. Web2Learn staff gathered data from October 1 to November 20, 2023. Once all entries were added, we screened them to categorise them in specific purpose-based types, outlined below. 

A purpose-based ad hoc typology

To systematise the collected samples, we adopted an ad hoc typology that reflected the purpose of the initiatives. In particular, based on the objectives of the campaigns,  the following typology emerged: 

  • Raising Awareness:

These types of campaigns seek funds primarily to set up awareness-raising actions informing the public about the loss of linguistic variety in the physical and digital world.

  • Revitalisation of language:

These campaigns aim to establish projects that  aim at the revival of endangered languages, according to the UNESCO language vitality scale.

  • Social representation of a minority language:

These initiatives target the underrepresentation of minority languages in physical and digital spaces, thus promoting actions that strengthen the language-presence and representation of its language users.

  • Creating language resources:

Several campaigns focus on the creation of specific resources that are deemed crucial for language preservation and linguistic variety. These resources indicatively include educational materials, multimedia datasets, etc.

Figure 1. showcases the selection criteria and the ad hoc typology (Figure 1).

Next, you can find specific examples of successful crowdfunding campaigns for language variety sorted by model and  typology!

Link: https://shorturl.at/pDVZ9 

Crowdfunding platform: Crowdfunder 

Language: Gaelic

Purpose type: Raising awareness

Status: Completed 

Success: raised £1,258

Description: The aim of the ‘Help Make #Gàidhlig Twitter Day’ initiative was to spread the word #Gàidhlig  across the digital realm in 2016, giving Gaelic language a great boost through social media and raising public awareness of the Scottish language and culture. Spreading the word #Gàidhlig was considered a fun and engaging way for people to learn about and celebrate the Gaelic language. The event was organised by a group of Gaelic speakers and supporters, and it was the first of its kind. The role of the crowdfunding campaign was to ensure that Gaelic Twitter Day on April 21st, would proceed as initially planned and further ensured that the event would take place the following year, thus facilitating the initiative’s sustainability goals.

Crowdfunding model: Reward-Based

Citizen participation: Empowerment | Citizens were not only allowed to financially contribute to the campaign but they could also participate in the project, by using the hashtag #Gàidhlig through their Twitter accounts. 

Communication and Outreach: 

Impact: 39 backers contributed

Link: https://shorturl.at/lxCZ0 

Crowdfunding platform: Kickstarter  

Language: Diidxazá

Purpose type: Revitalization

Status: Completed 

Success: raised $3,190

Description: A team of community members, artists, and language educators decided to offer a series of free Diidxazá language lessons and art workshops for children in La Ventosa, Mexico. Through crowdfunding, the team was able to employ a range of participatory educational strategies and materials. The project succeeded in engaging  children in the community in writing, reading and singing in the Diidxazá language. It represents a grassroots effort to foster knowledge, positive attitudes and self-expression, using the community’s native language among the next generation of Isthmus Zapotecs. The  motivation behind this campaign was to encourage the younger community members who were no longer learning and using Diidxazá as their native tongue, to revitalise their otherwise endangered language. 

Crowdfunding model: Reward-Based

Citizen participation: Collaboration | Citizens had the opportunity to contribute to the initiative only through their financial support. 

Communication and Outreach: 

  • Only the initiative’s page on Kickstarter

Impact: 64 backers contributed

Link: https://shorturl.at/cfnuZ 

Crowdfunding platform: Kickstarter  

Language: Mutsun

Purpose type: Revitalization

Status: Completed 

Success: raised $1,732

Description: The ‘Mutsun Language Colouring Book’ is a bilingual colouring book that aims to assist in teaching Mutsun, an endangered indigenous language of California. The Book is designed to encourage people to learn the language through showcasing indigenous  history, and featuring illustrations of traditional Mutsun culture and landscapes, along with Mutsun words and phrases. The aim of the crowdfunding campaign was to support the publication of the Colouring Book. After a few publishing cycles, the book underwent  revisions, and subsequently the campaign was oriented towards funding a new printing cycle of the revised version. 

Crowdfunding model: Reward-Based

Citizen participation: Collaboration | Citizens contribute only through their financial support. 

Communication and Outreach: 

Impact: 37 backers contributed

Link: https://shorturl.at/hkHLN 

Crowdfunding platform: Crowdfunder  

Language: Cornish

Purpose type: Social representation of a minority language

Status: Ongoing 

Success: raised £8.013

Description: “Pellwolok an Gernewegva” (“Cornish Language Revival”) is an online channel which produces television content in the Cornish language. It is an attempt to address the lack of content produced in Cornish, the native language of Cornwall, which is underrepresented in the social life of the United Kingdom, even compared to other minority UK languages. The aim of this crowdfunding campaign is to attract funding to set up a small base studio which will allow community members to involve more volunteers in the project, offering them training in media skills. The overall goal of the project is for the Cornish community to produce media content that will improve their language fluency and to offer new learners, especially children, the necessary resources to learn and use the Cornish language.

Crowdfunding model: Reward-Based

Citizen participation: Collaboration | Citizens contribute only through their financial support. 

Communication and Outreach: 

Impact: 103 backers contributed so far

Link: https://rb.gy/m3sz5p 

Crowdfunding platform: Kickstarter   

Language: American Sign Language (ASL)

Purpose type: Creating Resources

Status: Completed  

Success: raised $24,823

Description: ‘ASL at Home’ is an innovative, family-centred curriculum, designed for families of young Deaf and Hard of Hearing children. “ASL at Home 2.0” is the second expanded edition of this curriculum, containing 8 new chapters with 8 new language enrichment techniques and 8 more discussions of Deaf Community Cultural Wealth. This crowdfunding campaign was about supporting the second version of the curriculum which expanded the material by 200% plus its translation into Spanish. 

Crowdfunding model: Reward-Based

Citizen participation: Collaboration | Citizens contribute only through their financial support. 

Communication and Outreach: 

Impact: 218 backers contributed

Link: https://rb.gy/gq7x63 

Crowdfunding platform: Aviva community fund    

Language: British Sign Language (BSL)

Purpose type: Creating Resources

Status: Completed  

Success: raised £6,486

Description: British Sign Language (BSL) is considered a minority language, according to the organisers of the campaign. Their idea was to produce accessible video content in BSL for this Deaf community. The project aimed to make a “BSL Library” of information for Deaf people, thus breaking down barriers and providing equal access to information. Although it had the staff and experience to implement a project like this, the Nottinghamshire Deaf Society (organisers) lacked the equipment and editing software for making the videos, and this was their crowdfunding campaign’s aim. 

Crowdfunding model: Donation-Based

Citizen participation: Collaboration | Citizens contribute only through their financial support. 

Communication and Outreach: 

Impact: 53 backers contributed

Link: https://tinyurl.com/yu2vdhyv  

Crowdfunding platform: IndieGoGO    

Language: Yoruba language

Purpose type: Creating resources

Status: Completed  

Success: raised $5,445

Description: The Yoruba language is part of the Niger-Congo family (more info here) in Africa. Motivated to preserve and enhance knowledge of Yoruba names, the organisers launched this crowdfunding campaign in 2015 to attract people’s support for setting up a digital and multimedia dictionary of Yoruba names. Crowd participation was crucial for gathering the necessary funds for the software and hardware of the online space, and to support the project as a whole. In particular, the dictionary adopts crowdsourcing as a way to engage users in enriching the project’s database (here), thus leveraging collective action for linguistic variety!

Crowdfunding model: Reward-Based

Citizen participation: Collaboration | Citizens contribute only through their financial support. 

Communication and Outreach: 

Impact: 122 backers contributed

Summing up

This module focused on crowd initiatives for linguistic variety. By emphasising the value and social relevance of crowd initiatives (unit 1), specifically crowdfunding, this module aimed to foster the acquisition of knowledge and competences on how to set up a successful crowdfunding campaign (unit 2). Finally, unit 3 provided seven examples of crowdfunding campaigns aiming to support a particular activity or a project intended to enhance linguistic variety. Hence, crowdfunding, as a participatory and bottom-up funding method, can be applied to multiple types of projects or actions, enhancing participation, engagement and advocacy for the benefit of language variety.

Acknowledgements

The team would like to sincerely thank Mr. Stavros Samiotis, former Web2Learn employee, who contributed to the preparation of the module, at various stages. We acknowledge his contribution here and thank him publicly.

Quiz

Module E References

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De Voldere, L., Zeqo, K. (2017). Crowdfunding. Reshaping the crowd’s engagement in culture. European Commission. ISBN 978-92-79-67975-9. doi: 10.2766/011282

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Rykkja, A. et al. (2020). Crowdfunding in the Cultural Industries. In: Shneor, R., Zhao, L., Flåten, BT. (eds) Advances in Crowdfunding. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46309-0_18

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Tsakarelou, I. & Zourou, K. (2023). Α guide to running a successful crowdfunding campaign. https://www.ntnu.edu/documents/1332166109/0/Crowdfunding+Guide+by+W2L+for+eCHOIng+Project+2023.pdf/ef4f6957-4404-3c34-0284-f57d132ba08b?t=1697459585943

Zourou, K. & Ziku, M. (2022). Citizen Enhanced Open Science in Cultural Heritage-Review and analysis of practices in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6875125.  

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