The viability of crowdfunding as a method to finance resident initiatives

Bachelor thesis ‘Money is not an issue’ (‘Geld speelt geen rol’ in Dutch) was written for the bachelor Urban Planning at the University of Amsterdam.

The thesis poses the question if crowdfunding is a viable method for residential self employed neighborhood initiatives.

The title ‘Money is not an issue’ refers to the relative small part the actual financing has in this particular crowdfunding. The most import finding was that people become committed to the project to the initiative they donate to and share a certain bond with the project. For neighborhood initiatives this social connection and commitment is more important than the financial aspect. Furthermore is was shown that launching a successful crowdfunding campaign is time intensive. For example the method is not very efficient for the money you return.

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Date: July 2013
Project type: Bachelor thesis
Institute: University of Amsterdam
Link to the publication