Young People Without Technology, Young People Without Access to Education: Experience of a Social Reward-Based Crowdfunding Campaign in Chile

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many university students did not have access to a personal computer, which was a fundamental tool for participating in courses and studying during the health contingency. In response to this issue, a group of students from the Entrepreneurship Seminar set the goal of launching a reward-based crowdfunding campaign to purchase computers for students at the Universidad Católica del Norte in Antofagasta, Chile. They managed to raise 26% of the total goal through the Idea.me crowdfunding platform, and an additional 12% through contributions from a strategic partner. The campaign successfully provided 11 university students with new computers and one with a refurbished computer. Other results showed that 52% of the population who contributed to the campaign were not familiar with this type of financing, 81% found the page secure, and 90% were very likely to contribute to similar initiatives in the future. Through this initiative, the students learned about the dynamics of crowdfunding through hands-on experience.