Staut noted local businesses contribute in the area of two to four times the economic development benefit for its local community. "Those statistics sounded like it had so much in common with what credit unions are all about," he said. That is, a focus on community development and growth.

"This partnership is a natural evolution of what a credit union is, and that's people helping people. We are taking it to the next level," DCU Marketing Manager John LaHair explained. "We have been crowdfunding since the inception of credit unions; members indirectly helping each other out."

Working with GrowthFountain, DCU receives a white-label platform built specifically for the Massachusetts credit union. There, anyone in its community, as well as nationwide through GrowthFountain's rebroadcast, can log in and see who is raising money and help that local business receive the funding it needs.

Staut explained they set out to have the GrowthFountain platform automate processes for the small business.

"In the simplest sense we're a bulletin board," Staut said. But they are more than that because it is tremendously complicated for small businesses to raise money. They help startups by providing tools to run campaigns and obtain the necessary documents. In addition, there are a variety of calculators and questionnaires that create legal documents for companies so they focus on telling their story to potential investors the best way they can.

"Crowdfunding is mostly an emotional connection to that company that makes them want to invest," Staut explained. GrowthFountain sees its job as trying to bring as many users to the platform as possible through partnerships with credit unions, tech incubators, and university entrepreneurship programs and alumni; as well as PR campaigns, social media and digital marketing. "We have to be part of this new wave of educating America as to what this opportunity is. It is really revolutionary, we've never been able to issue securities online before."

Staut observed America's small business entrepreneurs comprise half of the nation's economy and more than 60% of new job growth. Yet, they've become the forgotten asset class because they could not advertise their fundraising campaign before.

"It's word of mouth, it's that social engagement," LaHair said. "It actually serves two purposes: It's allowing our members the opportunity to invest back in the community and vice versa, we're going to expose small businesses to potentially 600,000 plus members."

LaHair added, "We're going to integrate, incorporate GrowthFountain into our marketing and public relations efforts so people coming to the credit union know this is something else that DCU brings to the table."

This crowdfunding platform also plays to DCU's wheelhouse in another way. The credit union's kinship with the fintech startup community takes place regularly at the DCU FinTech Innovation Center, a dedicated resource providing seed-stage fintech startups with everything they need for success: Mentorship, a workspace, a professional network and community. "At some point in time we're going to expose these local fintech startups to GrowthFountain," LaHair said.

GrowthFountain insisted there are many crowdfunding benefits:

• Equity-based crowdfunding companies increased revenue by 351%.

• Thirty-nine percent of companies hired an average of 2.2 new employees post-crowdfunding.

• Within three months of a crowdfunding campaign, 28% of the companies had closed an angel or venture-capital investor.

• Every hour invested in a campaign returned $813.

Any company in America that's not a public reporting company can raise up to $1 million per year from accredited and nonaccredited investors using crowdfunding. "So, what you'll end up with is very early-stage tech companies and local businesses," Staut said. "Social media is so important to the success of a crowdfunding campaign and we make that easy on the platforms, if you see that it is a really cool idea you can share it through your social media links."

Staut commented, "We started GrowthFountain to level the playing field for small businesses. Currently small business finance options are cost prohibitive and inefficient. As a result, small organizations have difficulty attracting the right talent, getting the right advice and connecting with the right people. "We believe that crowdfunding will be a complete game changer, and we're convinced that credit unions, not banks or investment shops, are the best bridge connecting people with these opportunities."

According to GrowthFountain, the crowdfunding model has three components:

1. The project initiator or issuer, who proposes the idea/project needing funding.

2. Individuals who support the idea, the investors.

3. A moderating organization or platform that brings the parties together to launch the campaign.

There are also three types of crowdfunding initiatives: Reward-based crowdfunding, P2P credit-based crowdfunding and equity-based crowdfunding.

The old funding landscape, per GrowthFountain, included a bank/SBA loan model, which required tangible assets as collateral, did not green light many of today's service oriented business, and was paper intensive and time consuming; the angel investor/venture capitalist route that nascent businesses found difficult to locate, was limited to accredited investors and required a high return; the family/friends appeal, which produced imperfect resources for assistance and often created friction; and credit cards/P2P, which provided an expensive vehicle, limited availability and an out of mainstream investment vehicle.

The new landscape, thanks to the JOBS act, represents a transformative methodology with general solicitations now being allowed. That means business owners can make their case to the masses on their merits. In addition, non-accredited investors can now invest. Therefore, businesses can access investor capital from anyone.

GrowthFountain maintained its process lowers risk, while keeping friction as limited as possible for entrepreneurs. Its platform makes it easy to submit, by obtaining team member details, product and service information, a business plan, financial history and projections, and the elevator pitch/video.

The firm also qualifies businesses by running background checks, reviewing the business plan, assisting with valuation, developing deal terms, and providing template docs and API.

GrowthFountain has also partnered with Callahan & Associates to facilitate local and regional connections. Jon Jeffreys, managing partner of Callahan & Associates, said in a statement, "Before this partnership, the 100 million credit union members did not have a reliable way to invest in small businesses, which are the backbone of the communities in which they reside. We are confident credit union members will relish the new investment opportunities as much as the entrepreneurs within their communities appreciate gaining access to capital, connections and support never before seen."