A Framework for Sustainable Non-Profit Crowdsourcing Applications

Due to the nature of the crowdsourcing applications that relies on the crowd participation to be successful, sustaining the volume of participating crowd is imperative. This is of particular concern in non-profit crowdsourcing applications where monetary rewards are not usually offered. To ensure this, factors that influence crowd to participate in non-profit crowdsourcing application need to be identified and means to address these factors when developing the crowdsourcing applications need to be devised. While existing work on the influencing factors are seen, the means to address the factors when developing the crowdsourcing applications are still absent. This research therefore extends the existing work on factors that influence the crowd participation in non-profit crowdsourcing applications by coming out with the framework containing the components that address the identified factors. A total of 11 components were included in the framework as a result of the analysis made on the identified influencing factors, which are divided into process and entity components. Preliminary evaluation performed by identifying the presence of the components in two selected nonprofit crowdsourcing applications known to be successful shows the relevance of the components in addressing the factors that influence crowd participation. The presence of the framework will be able to serve as a guide for the non-profit crowdsourcing application developers to develop applications that would be able to sustain crowd participation and hence, contributing to the survival of the applications.