Crowdfunding Hub - Metropolitan City of Bologna
About this good practice
The Crowdfunding Hub, promoted by the_Metropolitan City of Bologna and the University of Bologna, was born thanks to the Interreg Central Europe project “Crowd-Fund-Port”. The project launched 10 Crowdfunding Hubs around central Europe. Each of the Hubs of the Countries involved (Austria – 2 Hubs, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland) has its own Hub Strategy, adapted to the situation of each country. The Italian Hub supports startups, SMEs, public administrations and third sector organisations by offering information, consultancy and training on Crowdfunding and on how to developa crowdfunding campaign.
The service is mainly provided through a physical office located in Bologna, at the headquarters of the Metropolitan City of Bologna.
To name some of the activities, the Hub organized 4 training days, totally free of charge for participants: 30 hours in total, a hundred participants and two in-depth modules. The first - aimed primarily at start-ups, consultants, and SMEs - had as its main themes the introduction to entrepreneurial finance, the principles and functioning of crowdfunding and the management of the project after a crowdfunding campaign. The second, designed for Public Administrations and third sector organizations, focused on civic crowdfunding, as well as on definition, actors, models, taxonomies, advantages, and disadvantages of crowdfunding in the broad sense.
Expert opinion
Crowdfunding is an emerging source of financing involving open calls to the public. It enables fundraisers to collect money from a large number of people via online platforms. For small businesses, access to this form of finance represents an alternative (or a complement) to more traditional sources of finance like debt finance.
But crowdfunding is not only about the money, it also works as a way to validate ones idea – a reality check – with potential customers and investors. It can also generate further interaction with experts and be an effective way of marketing one’s company and products.
However, crowdfunding is still not largely identified by traditional SMEs as a realistic alternative for funding and needs to be promoted and explained. This is what the practice is about.
Its relevance might be even higher following the Civd-19 crisis and the increasing need for businesses to find financing sources.
The comprehensive practice from Bologna and the knowledge collected through a previous European project make the practice basically transferable to most regions
Resources needed
The launch of the Hub was financed by European funds, and specifically by the Interreg Central Europe programme – Crowd-Fund-Port project. The project ended on June 2019; the continuation of the activities is ensured by the Metropolitan City of Bologna by using its own financial and human resources.
Evidence of success
The success of the good practice is determined by the hundreds of people who have already followed the free courses made available and connected to the site for information on crowdfunding techniques. This service is completely free of charge, a “helpdesk” for information and training on what crowdfunding is, how it works, its pros and cons and how to face a crowdfunding campaign. This is much appreciated in a time of scarce resources.
Potential for learning or transfer
This good practice can be transferred for the following good reasons: 1) during this current economic and financial crisis businesses need new financial instruments as crowdfunding; 2) crowdfunding is a tool with a high intensity of knowledge and professionalism, not so much of economic resources, therefore it can be activated by SMEs; 3) the European Crowd-Fund-Port project can offer that transversal knowledge on crowdfunding that can make good practice better transferable also in other countries.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Metropolitan City of Bologna