I don't like use of the term "crowdfunding" to mean charity drives or group buying. Those already have perfectly good phrases to refer to them. Crowdfunding, that is, initial equity funding of a company by a large number of small shareholders, does not have any other handy linguistic handle, and it is the term used in the US law that this article is talking about.

TITLE III—CROWDFUNDING SEC. 301. SHORT TITLE. This title may be cited as the ‘‘Capital Raising Online While Deterring Fraud and Unethical Non-Disclosure Act of 2012’’ or the ‘‘CROWDFUND Act’’.