Offline Crowdfunding

             

                     

                      One of the examples of offline crowdfunding that does not use the digital space and use public spaces is UK’s Spacehive. It is the UK's first crowdfunding platform that primary focus if to work on the projects of community using the public spaces. It is found to be a great opportunity toward a fast and rapidly growing help for the community members. Spacehive is a crowdfunding platform that aims to make civic meeting through community projects as easy as possible for as many people as possible. Some of the projects that have been backed and created through their platform include updating playgrounds and parks, renovating old buildings, and creating art hubs in a variety of cities, towns, and villages across the United Kingdom ( davies, R 2012).

Crowdfunding public projects might not be considered as a straight forward money in, good out equation. As compared to the crowdfunding projects that use the digital space Spacehive has several people in the third sector and local government who've been working with public spaces for decades had their reservations. Some of the limitations of this however include

1.      Successful crowdfunding projects will lead governments to pull back from funding projects in the future, in the hope that the crowd will become self-funding.

2.      That crowdfunding will shift the emphasis towards projects that have a visible short-term impact but create very little lasting social capital.

It's fair to assume as Zuckerman does that most of the people starting crowdfunding platforms don't want to shrink government beyond recognition or to produce publicity-heavy white elephants. That doesn't mean that the 4 risks above aren't worth considering.

A crop of civic crowdfunding websites has sprung up in the past year - several of whom have contacted Spacehive to thank the team for inspiring their efforts.

 Crowdfunding platforms need to be clear that they're not attempting to supplant government or plug budget holes. They're also not best placed to build key infrastructure, but they can help realize projects that enrich communities, allowing local government to focus on infrastructure and core services. The rhetoric crowdfunding platforms use need to reflect this.

While most crowdfunding platforms are open and allow any individual to post a project (and that's an essential element of the model), it's critical for platforms to identify individuals who aren't even aware of crowdfunding. That means publicizing the platform to communities that are not already full of digitally literate would-be funders.

Instead of causing a roll-back in government investment, crowdfunding can prompt governments to attempt more ambitious projects. Communities, empowered by the knowledge that they have the potential to raise funds themselves, need to push governments to think in terms of larger budgets that take into account some of the investment that crowdfunding can bring. Government should be emboldened by the opportunity to secure the active support of the community and business at the earliest stage of a project. It should welcome more active citizen participation in planning and the mandate for action such engagement brings with it.