by 2011, from crowd (n.) + fund (v.). Related: Crowdfunded; crowdfunding.
Entries linking to crowdfund
crowd n.
1560s, "large group of persons, multitude," from crowd (v.). The earlier word was press (n.). Crowd (n.) was used earlier in the now-archaic sense of "act of pressing or shoving" (c. 1300). From 1650s as "any group or company of persons contemplated in a mass." Crowd-pleaser is by 1924; crowd-control is by 1915; crowd-surf (v.) is by 1995; crowdsourcing (n.) is from 2006.
fund v.
1776, "convert (a debt) into capital or stock represented by interest-bearing bonds," from fund (n.). Meaning "supply (someone or something) with money, to finance" is from 1900.