America’s heartthrob Brad Pitt travels extensively to different parts of the country working with local officials to raise awareness about charities such as Make Poverty History, Cure Autism Now, and Global Green, to name a few.  He has even met with President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Representative Nancy Pelosi to promote "green housing" as a national model.  

Quite frankly, celebrities don’t just influence us to go out and buy their favorite Chanel cologne (a product that Pitt seems to have no qualms endorsing either).

In fact, three years ago, Alicia Keys along with a host of other celebrities like Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian and Serena Williams, participated in bringing awareness to the Keep a Child Alive charity on World AIDS Day. The celebrities all signed off their social media platforms for the day, only returning when the charity raised $1 million.  While the celebrities were offline, their fans took to the internet and donated to Keep a Child Alive. The donations were raised online, using a method called crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding. It’s a collaborative funding effort via the web.  Essentially, a "crowd" of people aid in funding a particular venture: whether it is someone's dream, a charitable cause, or even a business start-up.  The crowdfunding industry is a billion dollar industry projected to make $5.1 billion in 2013, according to Forbes Magazine.

The two main types of crowdfunding are donation-based funding and investment crowdfunding.  The first type is where funders donate with a collaborative goal in mind, in return for various rewards or incentives.  The second form of crowdfunding allows businesses seeking capital to sell ownership stakes online in the form of equity or debt.  The individuals who fund this type of initiative become owners or shareholders of the company.  

The top three crowdfunding sites to date are Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowdfunder.  

Kickstarter mainly focuses on creative art-driven projects, not businesses.  Indiegogo services donation-based fundraising for almost anything, minus investments.  Crowdfunder caters to businesses with a growing social network of investors; it blends donation-based and investment crowdfunding.  

"Our campaign allowed us to share an idea and product with the world. Thousands of dollars later it birthed our company- one created to outfit and encourage the bold, wild stallion-riding, unicorn-taming, and world-changing adventures!" said fashion designers, The Calabash, from Chicago, Illinois.

Just as Keys and her motley crew did, celebrities have begun to harness this collaborative power to fund film projects and charities they are most passionate about.

In roughly 40 days, actor Shemar Moore raised $600,000 for a movie he wanted to produce called The Bounce Back this past August.

Luis Sevilla is the head and visionary of a new crowdfunding website called Celebrity Crowdfunding, which launched on July 15, 2013.

"I want Celebrity Crowdfunding to be the 'Official Home of Celebrity Crowdfunding,'  the website where celebrities can come to raise funds for their needs and good causes.  The place where fans can connect with their favorite celebrity,” said Sevilla.

The company synthesizes crowdfunding and the influential power of a celebrity.  As seen through examples like Keys and Moore, Sevilla believes, the two components working hand in hand can truly benefit fundraising campaigns.  

As noted in the name, Sevilla's main target is celebrities who look to connect with their fan base. Celebrity Crowdfunding differentiates itself from other crowdfunding companies by offering unique features for their campaigners.

Unlike rival sites, Celebrity Crowdfunding offers in-house management services for all campaign owners.  The in-house management allows the campaign page to be particularly manipulated and tailored for each campaign by part of the Celebrity Crowdfunding staff.  Therefore, the campaigner does not have to stress about the design of the page and other technical aspects.

Other features include:

• Celebrities can interact with their fans.  The functionality allows celebrities to offer additional rewards, which are not found on any other sites.  Thus, the return for funders can vary in different ways, so that the fan base truly feels like a part of the campaign.
• Functionality includes: chat and video chat rooms on-site, on-site auction feature for auction products and goods, classified section
• Celebrities can hold off-line events for their campaigns.  Funds raised in all off-line events are added to the campaign's goal amount.  The service also offers celebrities the option of holding private crowdfunding campaigns, not open to the public.
• Celebrity Crowdfunding also differs from other services in how they conduct business with the campaign backers aka the “crowd funders.”  The company allows backers to pay by credit card and check.

As with most crowdfunding sites, Celebrity Crowdfunding collects money from the funds raised and 10 percent commission is paid out to Celebrity Crowdfunding.

The big difference from IndieGoGo or Kickstarter is that Celebrity Crowdfunding  has implemented a  'Pay It Back' program. The company pays back 5 percent: that’s 2.5 percent to a Disaster Relief Fund and the other 2.5 percent to the campaign backers.

"All celebrity-led disaster relief campaigns are complimentary,” said Sevilla.

Celebrity Crowdfunding makes connecting with a celebrity face to face more attainable for fans. Fans can event crowdfund for a celebrity to attend their next event. An incentive for a celebrity-led campaign could be to have a small role in a celebrity's upcoming movie.

Sevilla admits it is a tough niche to stake a claim and get a new website off the ground, especially in a new industry like crowdfunding.

"Believe it or not, the masses don't even know about crowdfunding, though they have been involved in it,” said Sevilla. "President Barack Obama's first run for the White House, when droves of donations were given online, was crowdfunding.  Crowdfunding is evolving everyday. You can even purchase a car by crowdfunding.  Everyone pitches in and pays for the car part by part. Crowdfunding has no limits."

Celebrity Crowdfunding has also partnered with Full 5 Media Group, a full-service marketing company. The partnership with Full 5 Media Group helps the campaign owners drive more traffic to their project site than other crowdfunding sites.

Celebrity Crowdfunding welcomes all fundraising projects, but each project must have a celebrity tied to it.  

The company’s first celebrity crowdfunding campaign is the movie Brazilian Rules, slated for release in 2014.

The movie is a love story revolving around Brazilian street football. The FIFA World Cup is taking place in Brazil next year, which coincides perfectly.

"My team, the Full 5 Media Group, and I are very proud to be involved in the campaign,” said Sevilla.  

The action-packed movie will resonate with a wide cross-section of viewers.  Rebecca Da Costa, the lead actress and love interest in the film, is a well-known Brazilian native. She has begun partnering with Celebrity Crowdfunding to raise awareness and funds for the film.  

Luis Sevilla and Celebrity Crowdfunding are dedicated to making the site the "go to" place for fundraising campaigns for years to come.