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Policy Action proposals to facilitate the use of Crowdfunding for Culture
0 days left (ends 31 Mar)
description
Crowdfunding has been growing substantially and billions of euros have been raised through the crowd. Yet, the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) are not very familiar with this new funding tool. In order to better understand and evaluate the potential of crowdfunding for creatives and cultural organisations, the European Commission launched Crowdfunding4Culture.
What actions should public authorities take in order to raise awareness, create trust, train and link creative communities in using crowdfunding?
Following an expert workshop 23 potential actions have been identified by the crowdfunding4culture team in 5 different areas:
These actions, targeting crowdfunding platforms and cultural organisations as well as local, regional and EU policy makers, aim to improve the understanding and uptake of crowdfunding for cultural projects.
Join the Discussion & Shape European policy on Crowdfunding for Culture
We invite cultural organisations, crowdfunding platforms and backers to have a say in the future of crowdfunding for cultural and creative sectors in Europe:
- Vote for or against each proposed action
- Improve the actions by adding suggestions in the comments
- Propose new actions in the comments
- Sharing means caring. Invite peers to join the public discussion
Sign up now (discussion closes at 31.03.2017) and help shape the future use of Crowdfunding!
Further info
LATEST ACTIVITY
LEVEL OF AGREEMENT
MOST DISCUSSED PARAGRAPHS
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P10 Member states should develop a regulatory fr
14 26
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P12 Government/regional and EC should support in
13 17
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P17 The EC should encourage partnerships between
12 28
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P18 CCS campaigns with potentially high positive
11 26
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P6 The EC should facilitate a European conferen
11 0
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P16 The EC should further develop the Crowdfundi
10 0
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P1 Organisations that support creatives and cul
10 25
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P7 The EC should stimulate the process of setti
10 15
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P4 The EC should further develop the Crowdfundi
9 15
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P23 The EC should incentivize financial institut
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P15 Similar to the Capacity Building programme o
8 12
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P22 The EC should foster the visibility of succe
8 18
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P19 The EC should provide guidelines for local a
7 0
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P20 The EC should identify and tackle the bottle
7 12
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P11 Member States and the EC should provide clea
6 0
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P13 Member States should integrate financial lit
6 25
LATEST COMMENTS
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This is already done, as some commentators mention, at national level by associations in different countries or cities. If there should be a European one, there's no need for a new open competition from scratch - probably some very good campaigns and projects already selected, which could go on to compete for a European prize.
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This is already done, as some commentators mention, at national level by associations in different countries or cities. If there should be a European one, there's no need for a new open competition from scratch - probably some very good campaigns and projects already selected, which could go on to compete for a European prize.
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There are as previously mentioned existing repositories - it real depends on scope and scale of project. Should crowdfunding4culture point to these sites, so people can learn of their existence and go there to find relevant information? I think so. Should a new proprietary digital library or resource be built ? I'm not so sure about that.
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there is a difference in more market-based initiatives that look for finance and the more non-profit initiatives that often combine subsidy, crowdfunding and f.e. loans, and where matchfunding (by governments and regional funds f.e.) is growing. Most small cultural initiatives do not have the resources to develop all necessary knowledge on these sources of finance. An access2finance tool and a directory of further sources for advice could be very helpful.
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In Germany a number of crowdfunding platforms have set transparency rules that go further that the legal obligations, that is one area. A quality label could include ares like information before you start the the crowdfunding campaign on the kind of platform, support to the crowdfunder, costs and risks; on transparency of results and on the financial situation of the platform itself.
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Dear Twintagibles, thank you so much for your interesting and useful input. In most circumstances you remain skeptical of the proposed actions. According to you, while keeping in mind the needs of the CCS sector, is there anything local/regional government and the EC should do in order to better accommodate the use of crowdfunding? Be that in campaign management, awareness raising, skills, matchfunding etc? Please feel free to propose new actions. No-action is always a possibility too :)
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To clarify my comment which is probably not well worded my point is that there are certainly financial institutions and funding bodies already looking more favourably at, and investing in, successfully crowdfunded initiatives so, as I say it is already happening without any incentivisation from Europe. On a broader point - it is very pproblematic for governemtnal and quasi governmental bodies liek EC to intervene direclty in marketplaces through icentivisation "programmes" without falling foul of beinn accused - righty - of market manipulation.
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Not the EC because "crossborder" is global not 28 states, and mostly because of the complexity more is achieved bilaterally anyway. Such pan european initiatives and provisions that exist Mifid, Prospectus Directive etc. are not useful to crowdfunding platforms in large part as there are so many local provisions to deal with which and can enver be harmonsied - nor would you want them to be. However, in the cultural sector it is largely unconstrained and open models of crowdfundig such as Reward which dominate and the EU did its best to mess that up with VATMOSS
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Local authorities I work with on these issues are receiving many enquries from other groups for advice so a network is already emerging. It emerges because a local authority will simply look for examples of where it has been doen before and approach them. In essense the the demand is beign met and beign met by the actors which is the natural emergent model for thsi tyoe of netwrok. The effort required to create and publicise "non local authority" hub is highly unlikley to yield results IMHO. If you feel the need to intervene build on what is already happening. Perhaps more importantly guidelines suggest delivering a prescriptive approach which is higly unlikely to be very effective and counter to innovation - at least in my experience.
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And not all financiers familiar with crowdfunding see it as proof of concept either in my experience. Whilst you and I might have faith in the idea that it can indicate some valifdation of an idea concept it is not a universally shared view nor should we insist that it is as it is not flawless, it is gameable and far from infallible. The fact that some, like us, accept it has some application and have we have recognised this suggests that these things are emerging and will continue to do so organically but to strive to insist on it as for uniformity of view or as an unshakeable truth is just wrong IMHO
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Possibly, but, even then, would it not make more economic sense to add a finance theme into a wider cultural conference? That way you widen it out, expend less resource and enhance the opportunity. I think my biggest issue with this is that there has always been a perception that culture always needs more finance, so this situation is not novel so does not requeire exceptional action IMHO
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Thanks guys. I am not sugggesting that it shouldnt be encouraged I am simply saying that I think its already happening so I am not sure any further encouragement is needed and I cite the Scottish case merely to illustrate the point without any suggestion that it is not happeing elsewhere or should be constrained to Scotland
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Once again this supposes there is a problem with lack of transparency or bad actors here - I see no evidence for it. It also presumes that it is possible to find sufficient consensus about what good practice is, or what is appropriate transparency, IMHO this is unlikely to produce a useful set of metrics which won't militate against innovation
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This is problematic at a supranational level because of the diversity of local circumstance and given the colossal mess that VATMOSS introduced to crowdfunding and many small cultural and creative businesses I doubt that there is sufficient expertise and understanding at EU level to deal with this well
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Interesting idea but this needs to be carefully designed. Potentially a way to facilitate participation to EU programmes from smaller players and SMEs who have practical difficulties to find the right angle to take part in EU projects while their activities are in line with the objectives of the programme.
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Not following this closely but in many Member States you have tax exemptions for many donations depending on their purpose (e.g: social impact). A similar system would be logical for crowdfunding - if it's not the case already. A general exemption for all donations does not sound very reasonable however.
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I feel this could be a bit broader - access to finance remains a key issue for the sector, generally speaking. A yearly meeting reaching out to the different stakeholders involved in access to finance and the CCS would be highly beneficial over the long-run. Including but not limited to crowdfunding. That would also facilitate partnerships across different funding & investment vehicles.
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Perhaps in the MEDIA strand, but for the Culture strand of Creative Europe it would be highly problematic. It would benefit big, stablished operators than can support the investment of a European-wide campaign, both in terms of time and resources, which the majority of the cultural sector do not have in the first place.
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I do think the website could be the right place to show best practices and lessons learned (as suggested in the previous question). Actually I was missing more of that when checking the website. Also, and sorry if this exists already, a peer-to-peer exchange or "mentoring" system might be helpful for those hesitating of embarking a crowdfunding endeavour.
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Could it be useful to insert this as part of an already existing event for the CCS? Not that I think that crowfunding is not important enough to have its own event, but calendar is already packed with events, so it could be useful to join efforts so that cultural and creative people do not have to choose. Just an idea!
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I would broaden the scope to financial literacy, not only crowdfunding, because crowdfunding is often part of a financing strategy that mixes subsidy, crowdfunding and lending. Which steps to follow, what comes first, who has the rights to collateral, these are all questions most crowdfunders have no clue for an answer
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Thank you Karsten! According to you, who is best positioned to clarify how existing schemes for cultural and creative projects can be used to cofinance crowdfunding projects? Is this the responsibility of organisations that support creatives? Or the responsability of the schemes themselves (i.e. Creative Europe)? or any other?
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There are data observatories, such as Crowdsurfer (which has previously received EC money to support their business model) - there is no market failure of providing data. The national Crowdfunding Assocations, research institutions and private intiatives are collecting data. There are probably about 15 EU-funded projects which have gathered data on Crowdfunding or will be gathering data on Crowdfunding, it might be better to use the existing databases and link them, facilitate a common data standard.
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In general, this is a good idea. CF prizes in Berlin (local level) and Slovenia (national level) help to promote the idea of Crowdfunding. Instead of creating a European Crowdfunding prize, an initiative could be to co-fund regional or national Crowdfunding prizes, because in the spirit of subsidiarity, such Crowdfunding prizes can only work if local networks promote the prize as well. A European Crowdfunding prize could be easily distorted because of the different development of Crowdfunding ecosystems across Europe.
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The EC is already active in this sector, by launching the Guarantee Facility in order diminish the risk of loans towards the cultural and creative sectors. Given that many CCS face problems in accessing traditional finance, should their successful crowdfunding campaign act as a 'proof of concept' for further financing opportunities? If so, should the EC incentivise financial institutions to take this on board?
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Actually, I think it is a strong proof of concept to run a successful crowdfunding process that endorses the project to banks, VCs, BAs etc. So I don´t see any necessity for an EC involvement. The people behind the project are obviously able to take care of their project themselves. That´s just fine.
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Not sure exactly, but every year there are thousands of projects that get EU funding for cultural projects that are important for European society. The questions really is: Should the EC look into channeling EU funds (i.e. Creative Europe) to co-finance cultural projects backed by the crowd in the form of matchfunding?
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This seems a little bit over the top. A downside of crowdfunding are to be seen in the rather costs of capital, i.e. you have to be able to run a quite demanding campaign to successfully compete for crowdfunding money. Of course, there are "side effects" but still the costs might be high. Courses on crowdfunding taking place in incubator type of places might be appropriate.
MOST ACTIVE USERS
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Awareness Raising
P1
Organisations that support creatives and cultural entrepreneurs should update their current guidance & toolkits and events to incorporate the topic of crowdfunding, its multifaceted benefits (community building, audience development etc…) and risks.
Add/View comments (10)




P2
In promoting access to finance for the CCS, local, regional and European policy makers should integrate information on crowdfunding (models, VAT, tax, platform costs etc...), its potential and risks.
Add/View comments (5)




P3
The EC should facilitate the exchange of practices and lessons learned on policy initiatives on crowdfunding and matchfunding between local and regional policy makers (e.g. through the Open Method of Coordination mechanism).
Add/View comments (3)



P4
The EC should further develop the Crowdfunding4Culture.eu website as a tool to raise awareness on the potential of crowdfunding in CCS, by sharing examples (both successful and unsuccessful) on 1) the use of crowdfunding and its different models for all CCS, and 2) setting up partnerships to support crowdfunding for CCS.
Add/View comments (9)






P5
The EC should support the launch of an EU wide CCS crowdfunding prize competition to stimulate and showcase innovative and impactful uses of crowdfunding in the CCS.
Add/View comments (4)




P6
The EC should facilitate a European conference on crowdfunding 4 culture on a yearly basis, creating a platform of exchange between cultural organisations, platforms, investors, philanthropy organisations like European Cultural foundation, and policy makers.
Add/View comments (11)




Trust creation
P7
The EC should stimulate the process of setting up a European quality label for crowdfunding platforms to be initiated by the CCS crowdfunding community.
Add/View comments (10)




P8
In order to bring transparency and good code of conduct to the industry, the EC should facilitate the creation of an independent observatory that collects and publishes data on the use of crowdfunding (no. of campaigns, amounts raised per model, costs, success rate per platform etc…)
Add/View comments (4)




P9
The industry should stimulate clear communication by the CF platforms on costs charged to project holders, transparency over the process of due diligence, risks attached to donating or investing through crowdfunding, ownership and partnership structure etc…
Add/View comments (2)


P10
Member states should develop a regulatory framework that stimulates the use of (different types of) crowdfunding such as f. ex. a favourable tax scheme for crowdlending, tax deduction for crowd-donations, etc…
Add/View comments (14)




P11
Member States and the EC should provide clear VAT and Tax guidelines for crowdfunding campaigns in the sector.
Add/View comments (6)
Skills
P12
Government/regional and EC should support incubator type of places where people come together and develop skills on how to get started with crowdfunding.
Add/View comments (13)




P13
Member States should integrate financial literacy at an early stage in curricula during formal education.
Add/View comments (6)
P14
The EC should support the development of an access 2 finance tool (similar to the one aimed at start-ups) that provides an integrated overview for the CCS actors on the various sources of finance and the potential financial mix, including crowdfunding.
Add/View comments (2)


P15
Similar to the Capacity Building programme of the CCS Guarantee Facility, public authorities should facilitate the development of training programmes for financiers and crowdfunding platforms on the specifics of crowdfunding cultural and creative activities.
Add/View comments (8)




P16
The EC should further develop the Crowdfunding4Culture.eu website as a tool for skills developement, through 1) the regular update of the resource repository page and 2) the development of a “How to run a crowdfunding campaign” toolkit tailored to the different creative sectors and crowdfunding models.
Add/View comments (10)






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