alternative funding models for civic projects- rodrigo davies
DESCRIPTION
When a community needs to reinvent itself, who funds the transformation? Are the established tools— municipal bonds, CDFIs, and foundations among them— working in the new era of lean urbanism? Learn about innovative financing mechanisms— like social impact bonds and crowdfunding— that can help drive civic innovation at scale. Rodrigo Davies, Center for Work, Technology and Organizations, Stanford University Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6roHOXEjtc&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq&index=6 Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/actionTRANSCRIPT
Civic Crowdfunding: Four Things We Know, Two Things We Don’t
RODRIGO DAVIES Center for Work, Technology and Organizations Stanford University @rodrigodavies civiccrowdfunding.com
The Field
Four Things We Know
Two Things We Don’t
Four Models of Engagement
$1.2M $1.4M
$10M
Crowdfunding is Everywhere.
Donation platforms: $1.2 billion
Crowdfunding raised $6 billion globally in 2013
(Deloitte)
Civic Crowdfunding = crowdfunding projects that produce public or quasi-public goods
Crowdfunding + civic projects =
Crowdfunding platform
Community groups
Local business
Individuals
Foundations
Corporates
Government
Campaign manager
Community service
Public Entrepreneurship
Studies have “repeatedly found communities of individuals in urban and rural areas who have self-organized to provide and co-produce surprisingly good local services given the constraints that they face.”
!Ostrom, Unlocking Public Entrepreneurship
March-August 1885 !Raised $100,000 !120,000 donors !Central collection point !Daily accounts !Populist rhetoric
Pulitzer
The Field
Project Case Studies
$40k $99k
$314k
2000
2008
2009
2011
2012
2010
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
PayPal IPO
PayPal launches Merchant Services
Donors Choose becomes self-financing
Amazon Payments launches
WePay founded
Elevation Dock raises $1M
Avaaz, change.org founded
Facebook exceeds 300M users
Model convergence
4-5% platform fee 3-5% payment processing Time Limited All or Nothing / Flexible
1,224 project campaigns 2010 – 03/2014 771 successfully funded projects $10.74 million raised (completed projects) 113,468 pledges recorded (for all projects) Median pledge to all projects is $62 Median fundraising goal: $8,000 Median raised by completed projects: $6,357
Civic Platforms (CP)
Citizinvestor IOBY Neighbor.ly Spacehive
Catarse Goteo Kickstarter
Generic Platforms (GP)
CP Platforms are smaller, but growing.
Civic Projects Look Promising.
Civic Success Rate: 81% Average Success Rate: 44%
86% of projects raise less than $20,000
Mill Creek Urban Farm Philadelphia, PA Raised $2,039 45 donors Established 501(c)(3)
civiccrowdfunding.com
bit.ly/civiccrowdfunding-davies
Four Things We Know
Civic Crowdfunding is small-scale, but it has big ambitions. !It started as a hobby for garden / park projects by local non-profits, but larger organizations are getting involved. !It’s concentrated in cities (especially those where platforms are based). !It has the same distributional tendencies as other crowd markets, but possibly with higher success rates.
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Two Things We Don’t
Will Civic Crowdfunding deter investment in the long term? !
As Civic Crowdfunding expands, will richer communities benefit more?
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Where Do We Go From Here?
Better Data
CC @Alonzo
Socially-Grounded Research
CC @Vianz
Four Models of Engagement
Curator
Sponsor
Facilitator
Platform
"How Cities Can Crowdfund: Models of Engagement" in Almirall and Cohen (eds.), Open Innovation as a Driver for Smart Cities. New York: Springer.