Dive brief: 

• Indiegogo, a crowdsourcing site, is now being used by brands to market themselves by aligning with popular causes. 
• Examples include DC's We Can Be Heroes campaign that raised $150,000 to help combat hunger in the Horn of Africa. Donors received perks like collector's edition comic books and meet-and-greets at Comic-Con International in San Diego. 
• In addition to supporting charitable causes, many brands are using Indiegogo to help support innovation—for example, Domino's Powered by Pizza initiative supported a comic book aimed at promoting literacy by offering gift cards to donors. 

Dive insight: 

Using crowdsourcing sites like Indiegogo plays on a classic tactic of aligning with charitable and popular causes to bring attention to a brand. Rather than just donating a sum of money to a cause and then bragging about it, brands can be more interactive with consumers and add value with their support. The causes also benefit from the brand support by being able to offer more incentive for people to become donors.