At only three years old, Kickstarter has changed the face of fundraising. “The Year in Kickstarter: the Trends, the Stats, the Moments, and the Videos” recaps the past years’ fundraising, and the findings are inspiring and informative.

The founders reflect on dreaming big: “This year we saw those sorts of ambitious projects pop up on Kickstarter. Whether the ideas were genuinely world-changing or just genuinely awesome, backers came together to make them a reality.” Those ideas raised close to $100 million in pledges in 2011. Design saw the biggest growth in launched projects, with 235 in 2010 versus 1,060 in 2011, and design projects raised $9.2 million dollars with close to 100,000 backers.

Kickstarter allows dreamers to turn dreams into reality, and do so quickly. Craig Mod, is a writer, designer, and publisher who found success on the platform self-publishing his book, Art Space Tokyo. His project raised “$24,000 in three days, produced a room full of books in 60, and a new way of publishing in 90.”

His essay “Kickstartup” “outlines what we did and why we did it, with the hope of inspiring anyone with an itch, gumption and a good narrative, to do the same. To bring beautiful, well-considered things into the world.” His insights on listing the right amount of pledge tiers, donation amounts, and crafting a promotion strategy are well-written and definitely worth a read.

“The Year in Kickstarter” and “Kickstartup” are great resources for those looking to launch projects and tap into a community of supporters and crowd funding.