When invited to speak to entrepreneurs and developers about crowdfunding, I often open with a little-known story about a 130-year-old example: the Statue of Liberty. Construction of Lady Liberty was funded largely by contributions from French citizens. However, funding for the pedestal was left to New York. When the state came up short, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer came to the rescue. Pulitzer placed a full-page ad in his newspaper, the New York World, in 1884, urging the public to contribute funds toward the pedestal.
“We must raise the money!” the ad read. “The World is the people’s paper, and now it appeals to the people to come forward and raise the money. The $250,000 that the making of the statue cost was paid in by the masses of the French people—by the working men, the tradesmen, the shop girls, the artisans, by all, irrespective of class or condition. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.”
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