Crowdsourcing has become a common term already. While "crowd" probably had a bad connotation in the past,it becomes more and more attractive today. The main purpose is to utilize the collective wisdom of more than one to achieve a given goal. In contrast to cooperations, crowds can assemble and disassemble at any time. The same with crowdfunding, which describes "the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money together, usually via the Internet, in order to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowdfunding occurs for any variety of purposes, from disaster relief to citizen journalism to artists seeking support from fans, to political campaigns."(1)
What makes crowdfunding so powerful?It is a casual approach to funding and not as formal as traditional fundraising or specialized grant applicatios. It indicates direct support for a matter of interest. It supports financial aid at the low end, as you can donate little money as well. It requires an online community or social network. It allows support even in long distance relationships.
(1) Found that definition: http://crowdfunding.pbworks.com/
(2) Crowd psychology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_psychology
(3) More about reciprocity (cultural anthropology): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_cultural_anthropology
(4) Literature: The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki