The crowdfunding revolution was exciting, wasn’t it? Essentially, it began the slow path towards democratising and equalising venture capitalism.

But the crowdfunding revolution is dead. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you. Revolutions are just the means to an end. They’re all bloodshed and upheaval, uncertainty and ‘what ifs?’; they’re the untidy, chaotic mess out of which something new and better rises.

Revolutions are the rubbish bit. It’s the glittering new solution full of promise and improvement that we have them for.

With that in mind, it’s time to talk about LiveTree, a UK crowdfunding platform based in London, Hackney. LiveTree is the concomitant of the crowdfunding revolution. Where the other crowdfunding websites offer what could best be described as an ‘own brand’ service, this one goes one, two, three steps further.

You see, LiveTree is more than just crowdfunding. It is an effort in community empowerment.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYglg_0yJ2c&w=854&h=480]

Branching Out

So you want to raise the funds to carry out a project? Well, with crowdfunder.co.uk, for example, you could click on, set up the page with your description, your target and all the admin, share it on your facebook and your twitter, get your friends to share it, and hope the moolah starts to roll in.

LiveTree wants more from crowdfunding than that. And it wants more for you, for less: crowdfunder takes 5 – 8% of your funds in fees. LiveTree? 1 – 5%.

LiveTree was built not just as a way to get people to make money for their projects like crowdfunder was; it was made with social goals in mind.

Take Branch. It’s one of the unique elements of LiveTree that sets the platform apart from others like crowdfunder. Simply put, Branching is just people sharing your project on their facebook or their twitter or their blog or instagram or wherever else. But what makes it interesting is that LiveTree’s Branch incentivises people to share your project.

Whereas with crowdfunder people share your project because they’re your nan and they want to help, or because you pestered them in the twitter DMs; with LiveTree, if someone shares your project and someone else clicks through the link and pledges, the original sharer will get a commission for having been the Branch that connected that backer to your project.

So no more must you rely on your witty project bio to spur people to spread the word, because now they get money if they do!

Build Your Project; Build a Better World

What’s more, with LiveTree there is so much more scope to entice potential backers than with ordinary crowdfunding platforms like crowdfunder.

LiveTree’s roots are dug into a soil of support and community. Because of the grossly lower fees LiveTree takes in commission from the funds raised for your project, as a project-creator you have more leeway in deciding the amount of your funds to donate to charities that LiveTree has links with, such as Hope for Children, Doctors of the World and Youth Music.

And then, because of LiveTree’s inextricable links with charitable organisations, as a result of your decision to donate a greater percentage of your raised funds to charity than you would have been able to had you been using crowdfunder, your project will reach a wider audience than it would have done with crowdfunder.

Branchers; you know how you earn money from branching? That commission can also be donated to charity.

You know what they say, you’ve got to spend money (on causes that help shape a better world) to make money.

The crowdfunding revolution is dead, because with LiveTree there is no need for it to continue.

And there is so much more. To discover it, just get involved!