Work cat: U.S. Cong. House. Comm. on Oversight and Government Reform. Subcomm. on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs. Crowdfunding, 2012: p. 2 (crowdfunding is ... the ability of individuals to pool their money in support of a common cause, traditionally in the realm of charity and the arts, but also online communities and social networking)

CrowdFunding Bank website, Aug. 29, 2012: (crowdfunding)

Wikipedia, Aug. 29, 2012: (crowd funding or crowdfunding (alternately crowd financing, equity crowdfunding or hyper funding) describes the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their resources, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations; also, the funding of a company by selling small amounts of equity to many investors)

Google, Aug. 29, 2012: (hit results in millions: crowd funding: 50.5, crowdfunding: 2.1)

Forbes website, Aug. 29, 2012: (article: Be wary of crowd funding start-ups, 4/09/2012: also called crowd financing)