Crowdfunding social projects is an innovative and inspiring way to foster cooperation and collaboration within our society. By democratizing access to funds, it ensures that any entrepreneur has the support needed to implement a project. These projects often work on a "all or nothing" basis, where the project only gets funded if the initial funding target is met. The project in question aims to determine the key factors that influence the success of a crowdfunding campaign, helping fundraisers improve the quality of their campaigns and, as a consequence, increase the chance of hitting the funding targets of their projects.

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The project, developed in partnership between the multidisciplinary team of Nova SBE Data Science Knowledge Center and PPL Crowdfunding, has developed a predictive model that estimates the likelihood of a campaign reaching its crowdfunding goal. In addition to informing the predicted probability of success throughout the campaign, the tool also points out the main factors responsible for the forecast. This information will support PPL in providing timely feedback to fundraisers on how to best set up their campaigns, as well as proactively react to ongoing ones, in order to maximise the chance of raising the capital required for their projects.