Crowdfunding Services for Cooperatives

Looks like it was built using this proprietary low-code platform https://www.outsystems.com/

Why not work on developing the solidarity fund concept further in partnership with P6, this generates debt free working capital in a steady flow, for priming funds, to initiate democratic enterprise of various types fit for the given task. In addition work with investment coop like Rootstock, Community Capital ICOF, or a P6 variant if resources allow, these can vet applicant enterprise plans. Perhaps consider a micro pension, to generate patient capital. All this would need an incubatory process to have investment ready proposed enterprises. Co budgeting/investment processes can be incorporated . OK ideas are easy doing a challenge.

Yeah, it's a shame Emily who started Microgenius sold/ gave it to CUK instead of to me! :P

But it was only ever an expensive white label of the crowdcube platform anyway.

And yes, it's a bit bonkers really that there is no co-operatively owned crowdfunding platform. Most people seem to just use Crowdfunder.co.uk these days (or Ethex).

In Spain they have http://en.goteo.org/ for funding open projects. It's open source, so could conceivably be forked into a crowdfunding site for co-ops.

Also in Spain they have https://coopfunding.net/ (a project of the Catalan Integral Co-op, I think) which is just a WordPress site with a (now defunct) plugin and theme.

I was explaining to a community shares client the other day why so many share offers have used Ethex or Crowdfunder. These are the benefits users would seek and a co-op version should seek to offer. An additional benefit a co-operatively owned crowdfunder could provide would be either cheaper fees or perhaps similar fees but an annual profit share dividend and/or say in where profits are spent - or even invested! Member users then have a natural incentive to "sell" the platform to other similar projects. I'm convinced crowdfunder's success is partly based on cheerleaders within the movement who earn fees as "coaches".

• a public face which will be seen by other users of their platform not just people you promote your offer to

• a progress indicator which shows how much you have raised so far - can be useful for encouraging others to invest as the "herding" factor is well established contributor to successful offers.  You can update this on your own website of course

• ability for investors to easily share "I've invested in...." on social media

• management and processing of application data: who has applied for shares - effectively your member/share register

• Escrow - they only release the funds if the offer is successful i.e. reaches its minimum

• You don't have to set everything up for a one-off share offer

Thanks Nathan. Really useful list of must-haves.

Cheers @nathan I think that an embed code widget for client sites would be good for the progress against target indicator. I'm not sure what you mean in the last bullet point.

Widgets-are-us. In the last point I think Nathan is talking about the benefit of using a pre-existing platform/service and not having to build it yourself on your own co-op's website.

Yes, @Graham that is exactly what it means. Hosting on your own site also means you miss out on the first bullet point, accessing a wider audience. As @Alex Lawrie has pointed out on numerous times, the advantage of going to Ethex or Crowdfunder is that they have a massive mailing list of existing sympathetic investors.

I'd love to see some data about this crowd of sympathetic investors.

me too - I always here this argument: "use a crowd funding platform because they have thousands of members just waiting to back your project" .... but in reality, I'm not sure that's true, or whether most crowdfunding platforms make any effort to support more than a TINY percentage of projects... so I'm with Graham here - I will struggle to believe it until I see some data

Genuinely true. When we list on Ethex (I've been involved in Somerset CCLT and ELC offers, and recently observed Co-Cars raising £600k) it is very evident that after Ethex mailshot their 11,000 subscribers there is a surge in new investment. The number of local people we successfully signpost to Ethex is not nothing, but it is small beer by comparison.
Our own list - Co-op Angels - works in a similar way, but it is only 6,000 people and mostly snailmail. Of course the response rate for physical mailshots is much better, so you might actually prefer those; but we do want to convert to email where possible.

How can I join and get involved with the Co-op Angels?

@Alex Lawrie same question as Leo: can people join Co-op Angels and is it open to those outside Europe? Thanks!

In regard to worker (and possibly worker-led community) coops, I would see Solidfund as a potential base for simple donation crowdfunding/distributions, but that will take an expansion of Solidfund and improvements in its technical architecture. I'm probably going to propose an in-depth Solidfund symposium over a day or two preceding the next Worker Coop Weekend in May, possibly at Selgars Mill.

P6 has been involved in interesting conversations with Development Co-op and others around this over the last few days - will update at the CD Forum tomorrow.

Hi all, I'm new to the group so apologies if I do a little bit of digital blundering around. I work for Repowering London, the Community Energy organisation that CoEnergy (https://www.coenergy.app/) was developed in mind of. We really love CoEnergy but unfortunately the platform as it currently exists is going to be retired next year for a few different reasons.

Rather than losing the amazing work that Andre has put in creating the platform we're planning to develop CoShares, based on Andre's research and code. The aims are to create a platform that:

1. Is simple to use for the end user

2. Reduces and removes administration tasks for co-ops

3. Is an affordable option for small co-ops

4. Can become financially sustainable

Repowering isn't interested in owning a platform, so I was excited to learn about this group as it seems like we may have similar aims.

We've got a tight timeline, we dont' want to be without our share register so hope to have a new platform in place by summer 2021.

I'd be really interested in the thoughts of this group. I don't want to recreate the wheel, so if anyone's already doing something like this I'd love to get involved (yes, I know about Crowdfunder and Ethex, and while both platforms have lots of positives they don't do what we want, happy to have that discussion off-list). Alternatively, I've got to make something happen so would anyone like to get invovled?

cheers

Dave

Hi @Dave Fuller and thanks for joining in. I had a call with Andre a year ro more ago now, and I agree the work that he has done on the Coenergy app is impressive. My concern with it is that from what I understand it is built on and is dependent on a low-code proprietary platform. That will most likely mean cost and potential risk issues for the future, though you may have these issues well in hand. I think it's fair to say that my preference is for open source, and ideally free/libre open source, as it provides transparency and tends to better quality. That said, we are also very keen to collaborate rather than compete.

Hey @Graham, this is one of the reasons we're looking at redeveloping what's been done. Happy to discuss doing something that's open source, tbh I don't know what the pros/cons are in terms of cost but from our point of view we're less interested in IP than we are something that's great and works for as many people as possible

Sorry I'm late to this discussion but this approach is one I am trying to promote for small-scale housing co-ops in Ireland. as far as I can see it does not involve any special mechanism if it is within the same Credit Union. Am I correct? Credit Unions in Ireland are sitting on millions which thay are unable to lend, while there is a housing crisis.

Hi Norman. Not sure what you mean when you say "if it is within the same Credit Union"?

Hi Graham, I meant that if all the savers, guarantors and the co-op itself are members of the same Credit Union it is easily arranged. Between different Credit Unions may be harder?