Crowdfunding Project Management and Personal Learning

The assignment presents a project plan for crowdfunding, emphasizing personal learning and skills developed throughout the project. It includes a detailed report, a project schedule, and references to relevant studies on crowdfunding.

Running Head: PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
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Project Placement Design
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Background and Context of Project.............................................................................................2
3. Models and Theories Used for Analysis......................................................................................2
4. Project Phases and their Effectiveness........................................................................................2
5. Skills Developed for Solving Work Based Problems..................................................................2
6. Analysis and Evaluation of Actions Taken / Not Taken.............................................................2
7. Learning from the Project............................................................................................................2
8. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................2
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................2
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................2

2PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
1. Introduction
Crowdfunding is a popular concept and method that is deployed by various organizations
and entities to fund for a particular project or development. In this process, different other
organizations or people invest in a particular project or a development process in order to
provide sufficient funding for the same. Once the project is successful, the investors get certain
amount of benefits (Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher 2014). There are several well
known projects that have been funded by crowdfunding. The most common types of projects that
are funded using crowdfunding are software development projects when the developer has
limited resources to pay for the project. However, the investments are not always safe as many of
these projects fail and the investors lose all their money making crowdfunding a very risky
business.
2. Background and Context of Project
With the help of Crowdfunding various bodies can easily raise for money for special
equipment’s, support for staff along with improving lives with Autism. For raising funds for
Autism patients, an event has been organized on 25th April for 450 people. The fund raising
target of this event is £ 10,000 and the entry fee for the event is £ 10. The event will be held
between 13 pm to 6 pm. Around 498 seats has been arranged and 2 space has been allocated for
wheelchair space. The whole presentation will be held in 3 D technology. The total cost of the
venue for this event is around £. For the set-up £ 200 is required. Apart from this, £500 is
required for foods and drinks. The entry fee for the event can easily range from £ 10 to 450 and
around 4500 tickets are expected to be sold. It is expected to set up a fund raising page which

3PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
will be directly linked to donate money in the honour Autism. It does cut off hair or can easily
consider donating during birthday for any kind of help. Around £ 2,000 is expected to be gather
or raise from this particular event. It is expected to set up a table at the front of the event which
will comprise of large number of things like cake, cotton, sports drinks and hot drinks. A tale is
expected to be gathered which will comprise of large number of things like selling of movies,
electronics. A targeted aim of £1,100 is expected to be raised from this particular step.
Around 70,000 people in UK are affected from Autism Spectrum. Together with their
families, autism is considered to be a vital part of their day to day activity. The event will discuss
some of the ways which can be used for diagnosing autism and along with impact on various
people and families. The event aims in providing advice and support to different aspects of life
with autism. Crowdfunding is considered to be the best way which can be used for raising money
which helps in providing support to particular need. As the government budget is forcing with to
cut down large number of services so some other ways should be there to provide private
funding. Crowdfunding can be considered to be a well-known tool which tends to offer a
platform for raising funds. This event can be considered to be a well-known platform where an
individual can easily bring friends and local community on the single platform and raising the
money which will help in brining difference and changing their lives. Various organization have
make use of Crowdfunding which will help in getting funding supplies and infrastructure to help
the victims of Autism. By the help any event one can easily appeal to market so that proper
money can be raised from the people. Such kind of event is required in surrounding areas so that
poor people can easily get financial back up. Specifically as an after-effect of the project, Autism
affected people are going to be benefitted by this crowdfunding program.

4PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
3. Models and Theories Used for Analysis
Crowdfunding in some recent times have gathered a lot of attention as it is considered to
be a new kind of mode of financing. Crowdfunding is the method by which finance can be raised
by help from large number of people for sum value of money. There are large number of benefits
of crowdfunding like reach, presentation, PR and marketing and lastly efficiency. By making use
of various crowdfunding platform one can easily have an easy access to interact and share with
large number of services (Schwalbe 2015). By making use of crowdfunding campaign one
generally looks at a business from the top level like history, offering, value for proposition and
more into it along digestible package. It creates a platform where one can easily share and
promote campaign by making use of social media, email newsletter and other kind of online
marketing tactics. It also creates a platform for excellent opportunity for validation and refining.
The major benefit which can be obtained online crowdfunding is its ability for streamlining and
raising of large number of funds (Horvát, Uparna and Uzzi 2015). It creates a comprehensive
profile where one can see prospects and potential kind of investors and it also eliminate the need
of pursuing it on individual basis. There are mainly three kinds of crowdfunding like
crowdfunding based on donation, various kinds of rewards based on crowdfunding and equity
depended crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding funding based on Rewards: Rewards depended crowdfunding generally
requires involvement of individual who can contribute to a business in exchange of rewards
(Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher 2014). In many cases it is seen that methods offer
various kinds of backers with some kind of rewards which generally forms the product or service
for an organization. It is generally considered to be subset of donation depended crowdfunding
as there is no kind of financial gain or equity.

5PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
Equity based Crowdfunding: In comparison to donation based and various rewards
based crowdfunding allows various kinds of contributors to easily become part of the
organization (Mollick 2014). It focuses on trading of capital which is based on share equity. Like
an equal owner own contribution can easily receive a financial return on various kinds of
investment. It will ultimately receive a share of profits in the form of distribution or dividend.
Donation based Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding campaign is considered to be platform
in which there is no kind of financial gain to the investor as a donation based crowdfunding.
Some common kinds of donation based crowdfunding are disaster relief, nonprofits.
4. Project Phases and their Effectiveness
As per the requirements, the project is to be carried into different phases, each of which
will have several different work packages. The phases of the project will include the following
phases:
Discussion – In this phase, discussions are undertaken by the project team members in
order to identify possible issues and solutions. Furthermore, the proposed system is discussed
between the members in order to add more ideas and propose design modifications (Kerzner and
Kerzner 2017). At the end of discussions, the project must be approved by the project manager
before further progress is made in the project.
Planning – This phase starts after the project and proposed system is approved by the
project manager. In this phase, the entire project is planned in terms of various variables and
parameters that define the project itself. The first duty is to determine project scope that helps to
identify the deliverables of the project (Fleming and Koppelman 2016). After defining the

6PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
project objectives from the scope, detailed planning is undertaken including schedule and budget
determination. Both of these must be done with accuracy in order to avoid unwanted problems in
the project. The planning also includes identification of risks, stakeholders, stakeholder
communication plan and other relevant areas of project management.
Initiation – In this phase, the project is officially started. However, before initiation, the
budget for the project must be first procured from the sponsor of the project. During this phase,
the project resources are collected and teams are allocated with respective duties.
Execution – This is the main phase of the project where the actual project work is
executed. Using the resources procured in the previous phase, the project team perform the duties
allocated to them in order reach the goals of the project. After all the objectives are met and
deliverables are fulfilled, the project is handed over to the parent organization.
Closing – This is the final phase of the project in which a post project review is
conducted and documentation is done. After reviewing the project, the stakeholders sign off and
the project is officially closed.
In this project, all of these phases will be strictly followed in order to meet the
requirements. The phases are provided along with their work packages are shown in the
following table and a proper schedule is developed using a Gantt chart in the Appendix. It is to
be noted that if the proper project phases are not followed and fulfilled, the project will not be
very effective and may result in failure. Furthermore, in order to maintain effectiveness, the
phases of the project should be followed in the right order.
A proposed schedule for the overall project is shown below.

7PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
System Development Using Crowdfunding 98 days
Mon
4/23/18
Wed
9/5/18

8PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
Discussion 8 days
Mon
4/23/18
Wed
5/2/18
Identify Funding Requirements for Autism Patients 4 days
Mon
4/23/18
Thu
4/26/18
Discussion of Possible Solutions Regarding
Funding 2 days Fri 4/27/18
Mon
4/30/18
Reach Agreement on Hosting a Crowdfunding
Event 1 day Tue 5/1/18
Tue
5/1/18
Make Final Agreement Regarding the Event 1 day
Wed
5/2/18
Wed
5/2/18
Gain Approval from the Project Manager 0 days
Wed
5/2/18
Wed
5/2/18
Planning 12 days Thu 5/3/18
Fri
5/18/18
Identify Scope of the Project 2 days Thu 5/3/18 Fri 5/4/18
Develop Project Plan Document 4 days
Mon
5/7/18
Thu
5/10/18
Estimate a Schedule 1 day Fri 5/11/18
Fri
5/11/18
Estimate Project Budget 2 days
Mon
5/14/18
Tue
5/15/18
Risk Identification and Management 1 day
Wed
5/16/18
Wed
5/16/18
Communication Plan and Allocation of Duties 2 days
Thu
5/17/18
Fri
5/18/18
Initiation 14 days
Mon
5/21/18
Thu
6/7/18
Procure Initial Budget and Resources 2 days
Mon
5/21/18
Tue
5/22/18
Assign Roles to Project Team Members 2 days
Wed
5/23/18
Thu
5/24/18
Allocation Budget and Resources 2 days Fri 5/25/18
Mon
5/28/18
Call Team Meeting 1 day
Tue
5/29/18
Tue
5/29/18
Analyze Expenses and Possible Amount of Funds
to be Generated 2 days
Wed
5/30/18
Thu
5/31/18
Develop Crowdfunding Advert 4 days Fri 6/1/18
Wed
6/6/18
Post Advert in Crowdfunding Sites 1 day Thu 6/7/18
Thu
6/7/18

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Request for Investors 0 days Thu 6/7/18
Thu
6/7/18
Execution 57 days Fri 6/8/18 Mon
8/27/18
Set Event Date 3 days Fri 6/8/18 Tue
6/12/18
Monitor Interest in Funding 2 days Wed
6/13/18
Thu
6/14/18
Contact with the Investors 15 days Fri 6/15/18 Thu
7/5/18
Finalize the Event 5 days Fri 7/6/18 Thu
7/12/18
Contact Autism Treatment Homes and Autistic
patients that Require Funding
2 days Fri 7/13/18 Mon
7/16/18
Collect all Event Budget and Start Event 2 days Tue
7/17/18
Wed
7/18/18
Collect Funds from the Event 1 day Thu
7/19/18
Thu
7/19/18
Donate All Funds for Autism Treatment 5 days Thu
8/16/18
Wed
8/22/18
Monitor the Progress of the Treatments 3 days Thu
8/23/18
Mon
8/27/18
Return Benefits to Investors 0 days Mon
8/27/18
Mon
8/27/18
Closing 7 days Tue
8/28/18
Wed
9/5/18
Documentation of the Project 4 days Tue
8/28/18
Fri
8/31/18
Review Entire Project 2 days Mon
9/3/18
Tue
9/4/18
Stakeholder Signoff 1 day Wed
9/5/18
Wed
9/5/18
Official Closing 0 days Wed
9/5/18
Wed
9/5/18
Based on the proposed project schedule, a Gantt chart has been developed (provided in
Appendix). A Gantt chart is an extremely important tool in project management that can be
utilized to break down different phases of the project into sub-tasks and work packages that are
also arranged and linked based on their proposed time schedules.

10PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
5. Skills Developed for Solving Work Based Problems
Problem solving skills can be differentiated into two types that is skill for mental,
creative and analytical skill. Various kinds of logical and analytical skills which is inclusive of
various parameter like orders, comparison, contrasting, evaluation and lastly selection. It
ultimately provides logical kind of framework for various kind of problem solving skills. I have
made use of eight steps for understanding crowdfunding like identification of problem, proper
collection of problem, deciding the cause for problem, identification of possible solution,
selection of best solution for problem, planning for implementation, implementing and testing
and reviewing it. The first step in problem solving skill is all about identification of problem in
crowdfunding, after proper kind of collection of information, deciding the cause of problem for
crowdfunding, identification of possible kind of solution for the problem of crowdfunding, it is
followed by implementing and testing and lastly reviewing of problem.
For this particular crowdfunding event I have followed Kolb’s learning cycle which
comprises of four phases that are Experience, observation and reflection, development of ideas
and lastly testing ideas. Along with this, I applied Honey and Mumford theory which comprises
of four stages that are concentration experience, reflection on observation, conceptualization and
proper experiments. I considered these two theories to be helpful in arranging the event of
crowdfunding. Crowdfunding for Autism can be considered to be helpful for improving the life
of students. The event aims at providing enjoyment to major kind of physically challenged
students. The event expects to raise a value of £705 which so that a school can be bought for
them. The event also aims in raising £610 which will help in rising awareness for autism and
setting up autism support group in Western Isles. Lastly, the event aims to raise £615 which can
provide support to different families affected from Autism in surrounding areas.

11PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
6. Analysis and Evaluation of Actions Taken / Not Taken
During the course of developing a suitable plan for the project, I took some actions while
there were some actions that I avoided. These are listed as follows.
Actions Taken – I used the help of project management software in order to determine a
proper schedule for the project. Although I could have done the same manually, it would have
taken a lot of time and would have resulted in many errors during the estimation. Hence, I
avoided any chances of error. Another action I took during the research was to conduct a
literature review in order to gather sufficient amount of data as well as knowledge. This action
helped me get a better insight into the subject and develop a suitable project plan. The literature
review process also helped me understand some important theories that were useful in
implementing my own project management skills in solving complex problems.
Actions Not Taken – One of the actions that I did not take was copying someone else’s
content and using it as my own work. Whenever I took the help the others’ works, I properly
acknowledged them with suitable references.
7. Learning from the Project
This project has provided me a lot of knowledge in the field of project management as
well as project design. My learning in the project includes the following.
In-Depth Knowledge – From this project, I gathered some in-depth knowledge in not
only project management but also in the project topic which I was working on. In addition to
personal work, I took the help of literature review that helped me gain a lot of in-depth
knowledge in relevant fields.

12PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
Knowledge Application – During the project, I learnt that simply gathering knowledge is
not enough unless one knows how to apply and implement the same. I learnt using personal
problem solving skills and knowledge gathered during the course of the project in order to
develop proper planning, address issues and problems and others.
8. Conclusion
In this report, a project plan has been discussed regarding the use of crowdfunding for
funding a particular development project. However, the main focus of this report is on personal
learning and skills gained during the course of the project. In addition, a project schedule has
been developed using all the different phases of the project that constitute its entire lifecycle. The
entire report, in addition to the presentation of crowdfunding concept and development of the
system using crowdfunding, reflects the learning and skills developed by me. I have also
expressed the actions that were taken or not taken by me during the course of the project. I
understood that there are some risky actions that may cause issues later and I generally avoided
taking these actions. On the other hand, I took the help of different resources that assisted me
during the course of the project.

13PROJECT PLACEMENT DESIGN
References
Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T. and Schwienbacher, A., 2014. Crowdfunding: Tapping the right
crowd. Journal of business venturing, 29(5), pp.585-609.
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt
Assn.
Horvát, E.Á., Uparna, J. and Uzzi, B., 2015, August. Network vs market relations: The effect of
friends in crowdfunding. In Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), 2015
IEEE/ACM International Conference on (pp. 226-233). IEEE.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kuppuswamy, V. and Bayus, B.L., 2018. Crowdfunding creative ideas: The dynamics of project
backers. In The Economics of Crowdfunding (pp. 151-182). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Mollick, E., 2014. The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study. Journal of business
venturing, 29(1), pp.1-16.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

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Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
Appendix
Task Name Duration Start Finish Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21
System Development Using
Crowdfunding 98 days
Mon
4/23/18
Wed
9/5/18
Discussion 8 days
Mon
4/23/18
Wed
5/2/18
Identify Funding Requirements for Autism
Patients 4 days
Mon
4/23/18
Thu
4/26/18
Discussion of Possible Solutions Regarding
Funding 2 days
Fri
4/27/18
Mon
4/30/18
Reach Agreement on Hosting a
Crowdfunding Event 1 day
Tue
5/1/18
Tue
5/1/18
Make Final Agreement Regarding the
Event 1 day
Wed
5/2/18
Wed
5/2/18
Gain Approval from the Project Manager 0 days
Wed
5/2/18
Wed
5/2/18
Planning 12 days
Thu
5/3/18
Fri
5/18/18
Identify Scope of the Project 2 days
Thu
5/3/18 Fri 5/4/18
Develop Project Plan Document 4 days
Mon
5/7/18
Thu
5/10/18
Estimate a Schedule 1 day
Fri
5/11/18
Fri
5/11/18
Estimate Project Budget 2 days
Mon
5/14/18
Tue
5/15/18
Risk Idenfication and Management 1 day
Wed
5/16/18
Wed
5/16/18
Communication Plan and Allocation of
Duties 2 days
Thu
5/17/18
Fri
5/18/18
Initiation 14 days
Mon
5/21/18
Thu
6/7/18
Procure Initial Budget and Resources 2 days
Mon
5/21/18
Tue
5/22/18
Assign Roles to Project Team Members 2 days
Wed
5/23/18
Thu
5/24/18
Allocation Budget and Resources 2 days
Fri
5/25/18
Mon
5/28/18
Call Team Meeting 1 day
Tue
5/29/18
Tue
5/29/18
Analyze Expeses and Possible Amount of
Funds to be Generated 2 days
Wed
5/30/18
Thu
5/31/18
Develop Crowdfunding Advert 4 days Fri 6/1/18
Wed
6/6/18
Post Advert in Crowdfunding Sites 1 day
Thu
6/7/18
Thu
6/7/18
Request for Investors 0 days
Thu
6/7/18
Thu
6/7/18
Execution 57 days Fri 6/8/18
Mon
8/27/18
Set Event Date 3 days Fri 6/8/18
Tue
6/12/18
Monitor Interest in Funding 2 days
Wed
6/13/18
Thu
6/14/18
Contact with the Investors 15 days
Fri
6/15/18
Thu
7/5/18
Finalize the Event 5 days Fri 7/6/18
Thu
7/12/18
Contact Autism Treatment Homes and Autistic
patients that Require Funding 2 days
Fri
7/13/18
Mon
7/16/18
Collect all Event Budget and Start Event 2 days
Tue
7/17/18
Wed
7/18/18
Collect Funds from the Event 1 day
Thu
7/19/18
Thu
7/19/18
Donate All Funds for Autism Treatment 5 days
Thu
8/16/18
Wed
8/22/18
Monitor the Progress of the Treatments 3 days
Thu
8/23/18
Mon
8/27/18
Return Benefits to Investors 0 days
Mon
8/27/18
Mon
8/27/18
Closing 7 days
Tue
8/28/18
Wed
9/5/18
Documentation of the Project 4 days
Tue
8/28/18
Fri
8/31/18
Review Entire Project 2 days
Mon
9/3/18
Tue
9/4/18
Stakeholder Signoff 1 day
Wed
9/5/18
Wed
9/5/18
Offi cial Closing 0 days
Wed
9/5/18
Wed
9/5/18
Figure: Gantt Chart of the Project
(Source: Created by Author)