what is live-crowdfunding?

fifty people, three days in an old factory loft. everybody is looking for something. the long dreamt-of guitar for a friend. the latest vision for saving the world. a buisness-idea: portable compost-toilettes for ecological festivals. a teacher requests a 3 month basic income to give free language-courses to refugees. some people come primarily for the process – to meet active people and vibrant projects. what is the drive of the others? where can i join? others are here because they have money and like to see people eye to eye, instead of clicking through kickstarter or setting up the next charitable trust with their lawyers.

people start posting envelopes on a wall. ‹what i want to do – what i need for it – talk with me!› some of the envelopes begin to fill with cash. others exchange their skills. A community-farmproject finds a supportive architect. three people notice that they are carrying the same idea – the course for refugees is growing into a free language-school. and an old guitar changes its owner. the discussions carry on: why am i so shy to ask for money? what is the difficulty in having money and to give it freely? all the social problems of neediness and patronage are right here – in the same room. but still. something seems to work: a glimpse of free cultural life is tangible and some projects become reality because of individual perception.

our way to live-crowdfunding

we have experienced two problems. one is the nightlong writing of grant applications to get maybe 1.000 € for a cultural-project in which you gave half a year of your life. the other problem starts if you are becoming a trustee yourself – and after a few years of scrolling through too many applications you might realize that a neat design can influence a group decision a lot.
these experiences lead to the wish to make funding-decisions more accesable and transparent. The exclusive circle of a foundation may generate qualitative aspects, but often builds a barrier to the real people asking for the funding. Even in cases where money does not reach a project, also the valuable feedback stays backdoors, because most foundations don´t justify their decision. Therefore culural activists suffer quite ofen from the complicated application bureaucracy, but also from the missing learning-transfer.

again – what are you doing?

participants of a live-crowdfunding-process are invited to bring old or new born initiatives. the perception of all these intentions creates new relationships. as one result money can flow. the undertakings of some will be weighed, strengthened or questioned by the eyes of many. in banks and foundations the judging is mostly happening behind closed doors. the crowdfunding web-plattforms open this process to the masses, but the digital also brings in anonymity. we want to unite both qualities – the grinding of estimation in intensive group-processes and the broad overview of projects and intelligence of the crowd. therefore live-crowdfunding may bring some uncomfortable questions to the surface, but also the joyfull excitement of giving and receiving in the here and now.

what does it cost ?

at the moment we carry the project in honorary office – just without honour and office 😉
therefore to join a live-crowdfunding-process does not cost any money
because we want to build this work fully on the trust of the people
so feel free to donate and liberate our work!