Crowdfunding Sustainability

Another central focus of this blawg will be the role of crowdfunding in creating a more sustainable city.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept of crowdfunding, you can skim the first part of a paper I wrote at the end of law school (Spring 2012) here, in Google Doc form.  The second half relates to the Bloomberg administration's PlaNYC 2030 and how some of its goals could be achieved through the use of crowdfunding.

The concept of crowdfunding is nothing new.  Charities and governments essentially do the same thing; pooling large amounts of money from multiple individuals to complete certain projects or achieve certain objectives.  The major difference with crowdfunding is that the project is in the hands of a talented and motivated person or persons willing to share a concept with the world and ask anyone and everyone for some cash to bring it to life.

The model of crowdfunding addresses the disconnect that can be observed with charity donations and (most certainly) taxes.  Sure, we benefit from the pooling of our collective wealth, from the roads and subways our governments build, to the food drives and low-cost counseling charities provide, but the ends are usually so far from the initial monetary means, we lose interest.  Crowdfunding allows the individual to directly fund the projects he or she approves of, thereby gaining a personal sense of responsibility as well as a shared sense of ownership that creates positive peer pressure on the initial planner to complete said project.

The most high profile crowdfunding site these days is Kickstarter (their blog can be found to the right), though there are many out there which will surely be referenced in this blawg from time to time.  Where Kickstarter broke the mold back in 2009 was by introducing the idea of "rewards".  With their reward system, donors receive a unique token of appreciation from the artist or designer whose project is being funded, commensurate with the amount of the donation made.  Initially, Kickstarter focused mostly on artistic and musical projects, but has expanded to include almost any type of project imaginable.  They recently released their Best of Kickstarter 2012, if you're into reading some stats.  This past year was an impressive one for the young site and with the passage of the JOBS Act last spring (a summary of its passage and contents can be found in the middle part of my aforementioned paper), I believe 2013 will be a blowout year for crowdfunding.

My interest in this rapidly expanding phenomenon is its potential for furthering, you guessed, sustainable urbanity.  This type of crowdfunding is sometimes referred to as "civic crowdfunding" (see Citizinvestor and Neighbor.ly).  Civic crowdfunding uses a platform similar to Kickstarter to fund projects that would usually be left up to government agencies, possibly in partnership with some massive corporate entity looking to polish its image, such as a pocket park or public art project.  Now, the individuals who will have the most to gain or lose from such a project (i.e. those in that live in the surrounding areas) can have a say and buck in what goes on their neighborhoods.  The potential of this form of funding for sustainable urban projects is very exciting and will be discussed on this site very often (seriously, you can read more about it in my paper, though it does get a bit repetitive near the end).

With rising interest in urban renewable energy and sustainable living, and the growing popularity of crowdfunding, we NYCers will become more willing and (maybe more importantly) more able to affect positive environmental change in this beloved city of ours.