Kickstarter has been used to raise money for everything from a Zach Braff film to smart light bulbs. How much money? More than $1 billion, the company announced on Monday.
It looks like the crowd-funding trend is only growing. More than half of that money was raised in the last 12 months alone. A little more than one year ago, on March 13, 2013, the company had its best day ever, with more than $4 million pledged in 24 hours.
Kickstarter put together some fun, interactive graphics to mark the occasion, including a map where you can explore the 224 countries where the 5.7 million donors came from. The United States leads the way with more than $663 million donated, followed by the U.K. and Canada, who raised more than $54 million and $44 million, respectively.
While plenty of small, one-time donors gave money, more than half of the $1 billion raised came from people who had already pledged money to other Kickstarter projects. That includes "Sandman" and "Coraline" author Neil Gaiman, who was named Kickstarter’s "most influential" donor. (His wife, Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer, is also active on the site. She raised $1.2 million for a new record in 2012 — which landed her in hot water after she then asked musicians to play on her tour for free.)
"There's a sort of weird and lovely magic of, I'm part of this, I helped create this, this thing exists because of me, isn't this fun!” Gaiman told Kickstarter.
