CROWDFUNDING is a wonderful idea.

Charities, organisations and individuals can’t always afford to pay for, say, a new scanner for a hospice, and the rate of interest charged by banks often makes borrowing the money an unrealistic idea.

One of the most common forms of crowdfunding is Kickstarter. It’s quite a neat idea – the person in charge of the campaign sets up a website and a funding goal, and supporters are invited to pledge as much as they want towards it. No money is taken unless the campaign reaches its goal and supporters are often given special incentives.

But the growing popularity of this kind of fundraising platform has inevitably brought with it interest from big businesses.

A few years ago actor Zach Braff – you might remember him as JD in early 2000s hospital sitcom Scrubs – turned to Kickstarter to raise money to produce a film he had written, which raised $2 million in just three days and ended a month later with more than $3 million.

While he’s not quite at a Tom Cruise level of bankability, surely there must have been a movie studio somewhere in Hollywood that would have given him the cash? $3 million is very, very small in filmmaking terms so asking people to put their hands in their pockets when cash was almost certainly available elsewhere seemed somewhat unfair.

And just last week Sony – one of the biggest tech companies in the world – launched a Kickstarter to pay for a video game in the Shenmue series. It set a goal of $2 million and has raised almost twice this with three weeks to go.

Sony’s argument for doing this was that the previous two instalments in the early 2000s series, while very well regarded, sold pretty poorly, so a new version was far from a safe bet.

But while Sony’s finances may not be in as good a shape as they once were, surely such a large corporation could afford to take a punt? Asking customers to chip in now, while also paying for a copy of the game when it comes out as well, is deeply unfair.

While I’m not about to say companies or more wealthy people should be blocked from crowdfunding, surely they should take a look at themselves before they decide to hold their hands out.