What Is Crowdfunding?

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --  What's all this talk of crowdfunding, and what does it have to do with potato salad?

And you thought your Aunt Minnie's potato salad was something to crow about. Your Aunt Minnie could probably pay for her own potatoes, though.  When Columbus, Ohio resident Zach Brown wanted to make potato salad, he posted a request for the $10 worth of ingredients he'd need on crowdfunding site kickstarter.   Within six days, he'd raised more than $35,000. That's a lot of potatoes, and a lot of questions.  Like, what's kickstarter? Is it like hamburger helper's equivalent? Actually, it's got nothing to do with potato salad, but is instead what's called a crowdfunding platform. That's a website where people with a project in mind post their endeavor to get the community to put in money to help it come to fruition. It's perfectly legal. You want to give money? Ok, I'll take it. The donors get no money in return although they may be promised a gift, like a copy of the book the fund-seeker is trying to write or tickets to the show he's producing, or a taste of the potato salad that Brown has promised to such a large crowd that the Idaho potato market may rebound on the strength of his project.