Crowdfunding appears, at its core, to be about asking people for money. And extracting dollars from some wallets is as delicate an operation as… the game Operation. There are many reasons why people back a campaign, even some less than altruistic (as outlined in my previous article How to Get Money From People Like a Machiavellian).

Some of the commonly assumed reasons people support a campaign are:

1. They are passionate supportive people with pockets full of money ready to throw a chunk of change your way FOR REASONS.

2. They like you and want to see you succeed.

3. They want your fine selection of perks! Yes! Even that jar of Howard Hughes’s toenail clippings for the low low price of $250.

All of these presumed motives have a ring of truth in them. Yes there are patrons of the arts! Yes there are underserved niche communities rabid to support content that speaks to them! Yes there are people devoted to supporting worthy causes!…

Earlier in 2014, Carrie wrote a series of articles for the platform New Hive. The first, Are Bitcoins the New Pogs, went viral and was featured on the front page of HackerNews. File that under things she never expected to happen in her career. New Hive commissioned three more articles: A Year in Review of 2014 from the Future and two on crowdfunding: How to Get Money From People like a Machiavellian and Run a Crowdfund Campaign Like a Horse Race (And Why You Should).