Mega-networked Vinicius Brocha and myself interviewed Joel Finningley who produced an in-depth travelogue and report of crowdfunding initiatives in Brazil and Argentina. Read the extensive interview in Shareable, which also has many links. But one key question, the last one, stands out for its importance in terms of social equity: is crowdfunding only for the upper and middle classes?

“Vinicius: Recently here in Rio de Janeiro we had an unconference to discuss how the emergent crowdfunding Brazilian platforms are mostly crude copycats of KickStarter, notoriously run by fees (5%) over all-or-nothing funding. It became obvious that the main backers in Brazil are from urban middle-upper classes of brazilian society and that social grassroots projects/initiatives are minimal – did you perceive that in your studies?

First of all, I did perceive this while I was there, but I’m not sure the exact extent that it’s true. I think it makes sense because technology is a big part of the crowdfunding equation, and from what I’ve heard, internet access and technology education is a big issue in Brazil’s lower-income communities.

When I talked to Luis at Catarse, he told me that the people who really understand crowdfunding and are buying in are the youth. In this context, I think that the socio-economic background becomes less significant, as the youth that I met in Brazil wanted to do as much as they could to break down these socio-economic barriers, and I think crowdfunding is a very good way to do that. I think the intentions of the people are best reflected in projects like Pimp my Carroça and Belo Monte which are giving a voice to the people at the bottom.

I think further examples of organizations who can break this trend include:

* Organizations like Aliança in Curitiba who just launched their Impulso platform and who have deep connections with youth in low-income communities. I talked to Lina Useche about this, and she said that all of the youth in the favelas had cellphones are were really well networked. This is definitely a building block to bring crowdfunding into these communities

* Social enterprises like Solidarium. Tiago Dalvi, the founder, has crowdfunding on his radar to help propel more of Brazil’s poorest people to become artisans and pave their own way out of poverty. The idea of a Catarse (or another Brazilian crowdfunding site) and Solidarium partnership is one that I floated out there during my study, and I think it has a lot of potential.

*One project on Catarse right now shows evidence of these trends making their impact on the poorer communities. In it, the community is raising money on Catarse to support the creation of their own currency.”