Background and issues
In keeping with IDDRI’s work on the opportunities offered by the digital transition for sustainable development, this project focuses on the use of crowdfunding initiatives by local authorities and analyses how it may be useful to local sustainable development policies.
Objectives
This project addresses two main questions:
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How are crowdfunding tools used by local authorities?
From partnering with a web platform to promote participatory funding among economic players and local community groups, to crowdfunding a public institution like a school: the range of uses is quite vast. The goal is to categorise the different types of uses by identifying, for each type, the key characteristics of the projects that are funded (are they funded by community groups or other actors, are the projects for profit or not-for-profit?) and the key players as well as the their interactions (who initiates the project, who funds it, who supports its developers through the course of the project?).
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What are the motives of and issues at stake for local authorities?
Crowdfunding holds promise for several different uses: as a tool for alternative financing but also communication, for identifying a political demand, etc. What are the motives and expectations of local authorities with regard to crowdfunding? To what global issues are these expectations connected (declining public revenue, the transformation of the relationship between governor and governed, the evolving nature of work, etc.)? Does crowdfunding provide alternative or complementary options to existing tools?
