Crowdfunding: A short history

Tapping small-time investors is nothing new — it’s older than the Statue of Liberty

A cover of Joseph Pulitzer's The New York World newspaper
A cover of Joseph Pulitzer's The New York World newspaper

From the July issue: In the summer of 1885, readers of the New York World saw an unusual offering on the newspaper’s front page: its publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, asked them to donate a small sum to a “pedestal fund” that was to help finance the base of a new statue. “Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us money,” he wrote. [more]

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