Crowdfunding : reshaping the crowd’s engagement in culture : executive summary.
Date: 2017-07-12
Institutions: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture
Subjects: Internet site, artistic creation, cultural organisation, cultural policy, culture industry, financing, financing method, supplementary financing

Crowdfunding  
Reshaping the crowd’s engagement in culture 

Executive summary  

 
 
 
Crowdfunding 

Reshaping the crowd’s engagement in culture 

AUTHORS OF THE STUDY 

Isabelle De Voldere, IDEA Consult (Project coordinator)  

Kleitia Zeqo, IDEA Consult  

PROJECT TEAM  

Eveline Durinck, IDEA Consult  

Pierre Padilla, IDEA Consult  

Kathrin Kohl, ECN  

Oliver Gajda, ECN  

Markus Chandler, Ecorys  

Jakub Gloser, Ecorys  

Tim Fox, Ecorys  

Joost Heinsius, Values of Culture  

Sylvia Amann, Inforelais  

The  research team  would like to  thank  all the  stakeholders that  have  contributed to the  research  by 
sharing  their  valuable  expertise  and  insights  during  the  interviews,  workshops  and  online  DISCUTO 
process. 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Directorate-General for Education and Culture 
Directorate D – Culture and Creativity 
Unit D.1 – Cultural Policy 
Contact: DG EAC Unit D.1 
E-mail: EAC-UNITE-D1@ec.europa.eu  
European Commission  
B-1049 Brussels

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Disclaimer  

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Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2017 

ISBN 978-92-79-67973-5 

doi: 10.2766/3413 

© European Union, 2017 

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Image(s) © image #298767080. Source: shutterstock.com 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Crowdfunding: reshaping the crowd’s engagement in culture 

The impact of  digitisation - lowering communication costs and outreach -  as well  as the  cultural shift of people 
wanting to connect more meaningfully with things they do, has made crowdfunding an increasingly popular method 
of fundraising and community building. Crowdfunding has witnessed a significant increase in Europe in recent years. 

At the same time, in the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) the funding appetite has been growing – also as an 
aftermath  of  post  financial  crisis  budgetary  cuts.  However,  traditional  finance  institutions,  such  as  banks,  have 
remained sceptical towards the CCS and access to finance remains a core barrier to the further development of 
many professionals and organisations in the CCS.  

At the crossroads of these developments, crowdfunding emerged as an innovative method of finance for CCS actors, 
changing the traditional lender-borrower relationship and opening new ways for donating, investing and lending. 
In fact, the CCS have been among the early adopters of crowdfunding. This can be seen by the numerous platforms 
dedicated to cultural and creative projects that have emerged since 2009. 

75,000 CCS crowdfunding campaigns launched since 2013 

European creatives and cultural organisations have launched around 75,000 campaigns since 2013. 

According to our data, half of the CCS crowdfunding campaigns were successful in reaching their goal. In total, 
some €247 million has been raised by the crowd for CCS activities. However, the funding appetite appears to be 
way bigger. The €247 million represents only 7% of the total amount pledged (around €3.4 billion), leaving a gap 
of more than €3 billion of funding needs. 

In terms of financing volume, looking at the uptake of crowdfunding in the different subsectors of the CCS, Film & 
Audiovisual (33% of campaigns and 29% of transaction volume), together with Music (22% of campaigns and 17% 
of  transaction  volume),  account  for  more  than  half  of  the  campaigns.  Only  a  minority  of  CCS  crowdfunding 
campaigns come from the Gaming sector (2%), Architecture (2%) or Heritage (less than 1%)1. 

Although creatives all over Europe are using crowdfunding as an alternative method of finance, 66% of all CCS 
campaigns and 63% of the total transaction volume in the period 2013-October 2016 originate in two countries: 
the UK (36% of campaigns and 41% of transaction volume) and France (30% of campaigns and 22% of transaction 
volume). 

Despite  Europe  being  home  to  around  600  crowdfunding  platforms,  almost  half  of  the  CCS  campaigns  (47%) 
initiated by a European project holder were hosted on global US-based platforms, in particular on Kickstarter and 
Indiegogo that have a global outreach. 

1 The Crowdsurfer dataset lacks data about a number of crowdfunding campaigns such as the ones run on the French platform 
Dartagnan that specialises in cultural heritage projects, as well as from the serial crowdfunding campaigns by the Louvre, 
f.ex.. Correcting for this data gap however, we assume that the uptake of crowdfunding in the domain of cultural heritage 
is still much lower than in other CCS-subsectors. 

 
 
                                                      
Source: IDEA Consult, based on Crowdsurfer data 

Great majority of campaigns use reward- or donation-based models 

The majority of the CCS use crowdfunding to (co-)finance a specific creative project. Crowdfunding is used to a 
lesser extent to (co-)finance the development of an organisation (structural finance). This is also translated in the 
types of crowdfunding being used and amounts raised. Contrary to the general trend in crowdfunding where peer-
to-peer lending has become the leading model, the majority (88%) of CCS projects use the rewards model for their 
campaigns in the period covered in this study. Donation crowdfunding is the second most popular model, accounting 
for 8% of projects launched.  Crowdfunding for peer-to-peer lending, as well  as  equity crowdfunding, have only 
been used marginally (with the UK being the frontrunner).  

The average  amounts raised  with donation-based or reward-based crowdfunding campaigns are, however,  very 
modest, reaching around €4,200 and €6,200 per campaign respectively in 2016. This is far less than the average 
amounts raised in successful loan (approx. €45,400) and especially equity campaigns (approx. €170,700). 

Crowdfunding is about more than just funding 

Setting  up  and  managing  a  good  crowdfunding  campaign  is  a  demanding  process  which  requires  numerous 
resources  from  creatives  and  cultural  organisations  (communication,  business  plan,  storytelling,  marketing, 
community building, etc.). With the average amounts raised being around €6,200, one is left to ponder about the 
cost-benefit balance of CCS crowdfunding and its role in supporting the sustainable development of professionals 
and organisations in the CCS.  

But the study shows that crowdfunding has a leverage effect that can go beyond the funding of one project. 80% 
of the CCS actors surveyed in the study, highlight that they experienced at least one other benefit from running a 
crowdfunding campaign beyond the finance. CCS actors use crowdfunding as a tool for: 

(co-)financing a specific creative project, in the absence of other available finance, 

- 
-  matching other types of finance, 
- 
- 
- 
- 
-  market research.  

audience development, 
community building,  
internal strategy and skills development, 
communication and marketing, and 

Publicly-owned  cultural  institutions  particularly  use  crowdfunding  for  audience  development  and  crowd 
engagement. Crowdfunding is important both for creative industries, cultural actors as well as for publicly-owned 
and  -funded  cultural  institutions  such  as  museums,  opera  houses  and  other  cultural  institutions.  Especially  in 

 
 
 
heritage, publicly-owned institutions often have a unique mix of assets to use in crowdfunding campaigns: a strong 
story, an emotional connection with their audience and a sense of urgency to buy or restore a specific piece of 
heritage that is worth safeguarding for society at large. Numerous successful campaigns set up by museums across 
Europe illustrate the potential of crowdfunding in this context and the power of crowdfunding to create benefits 
beyond funding. Publicly-owned institutions, however, still make less use of crowdfunding compared to their private 
counterparts. On the other hand, there are interesting examples of public sector support and cooperation with CCS 
crowdfunding  platforms,  in  terms  of  financing  training  sessions  and  coaching  for  CCS  for  their  crowdfunding 
campaign, as can be seen in examples2 presented in this study. 

In order to better support creatives and cultural organisations with their campaigns, platforms increasingly build 
partnerships with third parties to provide training on fan base engagement, audience development, etc. 

A new tool for policy makers 

Policy makers across Europe indicate that they have taken (or plan to do so in the next two years) policy initiatives 
to support crowdfunding for the benefit of the CCS, with a primary focus on policy initiatives for adapting/improving 
crowdfunding regulation and public awareness raising initiatives on crowdfunding for the CCS. 

An interesting phenomenon in Europe is the development of partnerships between crowdfunding platforms on the 
one hand and public and private funders (including traditional banks, private investors, philanthropic organisations, 
foundations, etc.) on the other hand to set up matchfunding schemes and other types of partnerships. Through 
matchfunding  public  authorities  can  work  with  the  crowd  to  determine  which  projects  are  worth  funding,  thus 
introducing  more  direct  democratic  decision  making with  respect  to  culture  spending  through  crowdfunding.  By 
backing a crowdfunding campaign which has been selected for public matchfunding, local communities also become 
more engaged with the production process of cultural content. At the same time, the study highlights that policy 
makers should pay attention to set clear selection criteria for matchfunding that reflect the policy priorities with 
respect to culture and that ensure a level playing field in the competition for matching funds based on an equitable 
set of criteria. 

Policy  makers  across  Europe  are  only  starting  to  explore  the  possibilities  of  matchfunding.  Many  matchfunding 
initiatives are still at the experimental learning stage. It is important that policy makers are knowledgeable about 
the potential benefits and limitations of crowdfunding to provide the appropriate support framework for the further 
development of the CCS, and to think beyond traditional funding silos, also when it comes to the funding of cultural 
institutions that are publicly governed.  

Information  asymmetries  and  fragmentation  hampering  the  further  uptake  of 
crowdfunding  

Based on our analysis, we can say that in the last five years the use of crowdfunding in the CCS has been growing 
significantly and the crowdfunding landscape has evolved rapidly, with many (small) platforms popping up across 
Europe alongside the strong US-based global platform Kickstarter to host CCS crowdfunding projects.  

At  the  same  time,  we  observe  interesting  partnerships  being  set  up  between  platforms  and  public  and  private 
partners to match crowdfunding with other types of funding, or to support the professionalisation of the use of 
crowdfunding by CCS actors. 

But although crowdfunding is slowly introducing itself as an alternative means of financing in European CCS, its 
adoption is still rather modest, and even minimal, in a number of European countries. The uptake is not equally 
spread across Europe, with only a few countries accounting for a large part of the activities. Moreover, the uptake 
of crowdfunding is not equally spread across the different cultural and creative sectors either. If we were to evaluate 
crowdfunding according to Rogers’ framework on ‘diffusion of innovation’3 (2003), we can say that the adoption of 
crowdfunding in the CCS is still in an early stage.  

CCS  actors  are  in  general  aware  about  the  existence  of  crowdfunding.  However,  further  knowledge  about 
crowdfunding (models, platforms, costs, etc.) and its implementation is still limited on the side of both CCS actors, 
(potential) backers and policy makers. This lack of knowledge in combination with unsuccessful experiences with 
crowdfunding (due to a lack of skills) leads to a lack of trust to make good use of crowdfunding. For backers, this 

2  See  examples  presented  in  this  study  such  as  Voordekunst  or  Nordstarter.  See  https://www.crowdfunding4culture.eu/case-

studies 

3 Rogers, E. (2003) (first edition: 1962), The diffusion of innovation. He distinguishes the following groups of adopters: innovators, 
early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The criterion for the adopter categorisation is innovativeness, 
defined as the degree to which an individual adopts a new idea. 

 
                                                      
lack of trust is further deepened by a lack of transparency on the side of project holders about their competences 
and intentions, as well as about the potential risks related to crowdfunding. Lack of transparency about existing tax 
regimes and payment systems further fuels the lack of trust in crowdfunding. 

Also concerning the crowdfunding platforms, the landscape is highly fragmented. Most platforms specialise in niche 
markets and operate only in specific regions or cities. This structure is reflective of the cultural diversity in Europe, 
and allows the platforms to develop a strategy and business model tailored to the local needs of CCS actors, backers 
and policy makers (in terms of network of contacts, familiarity with the ecosystem and relevant policy framework, 
language, payment systems, etc.). Operating in niche markets can have complementary effects to global markets, 
but can on the other hand also limit opportunities for crowdfunding platforms to scale up.  

There  is  a  wide  spectrum  of  different  crowdfunding  platforms  working  with  different  business  models,  fee 
structures, different degrees of public sector involvement, different geographical coverage, different sectors and 
different services offered. It is also interesting to note that crowdfunding campaigns can also happen without a 
third party platform, where CCS collect funding directly from their own online channels. 

From the market analysis, we find that although crowdfunding provides opportunities for CCS practices, there are 
still important barriers that currently hinder its further adoption: 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

uncertainties about the cost-benefit balance of crowdfunding makes the evaluation of the relative advantage 
of crowdfunding as a financing tool unclear; 

running a crowdfunding campaign successfully requires a specific set of skills that CCS actors have to develop 
(or insource), despite the fact that - with the exception of equity crowdfunding4 – crowdfunding is a fairly 
accessible tool to test compared to other types of market finance, where often business and financial plans 
are required, next to collateral; 

although crowdfunding is recognised as an interesting tool for community building and audience development, 
it requires upfront investments to experiment with it and the impact is uncertain; 

the compatibility of crowdfunding with public funding appears to be a pre-condition for the further adoption 
of crowdfunding, but policy makers’ experiments with matchfunding in the CCS are still very limited;  

uncertainties about the fiscal treatment of money collected through crowdfunding adds to the hesitance to 
adopt crowdfunding; 

the majority of CCS platforms in Europe operate in very small niche markets, thus hindering them to upscale 
to  a  cost-efficient  size  and  benefit  from  economies  of  scale.  This  leaves  many  European  platforms  in  a 
vulnerable economic situation; and 

although crowdfunding has the possibility to serve as a tool for market research or as a market signal (e.g. 
proof of concept) towards other financiers, it is currently rarely considered - in the first place by CCS actors 
themselves  -  as  a  stepping  stone  from  project-based  finance  (e.g.  through  reward-based  crowdfunding) 
towards more longer term organisation finance (e.g. through loans or equity). For crowdfunding to become 
an  integral  part  of  the  CCS  financing  mix,  it  would  need  to  link  project-related  finance  to  longer  term 
organisation-related finance (e.g. through lending or equity finance). However, evolving from more ad hoc 
project  finance  to  longer  term  organisation-related  finance  remains  challenging  for  many  CCS  actors,  and 
would require a better ‘financial literacy’ of CCS actors and better business plans. This is also reflected by the 
small number of platforms that specialise in supporting the upscaling of CCS organisations through crowd-
lending and crowd–equity in Europe. 

Recommendations for action 

To support the further diffusion of crowdfunding in the CCS in Europe, five areas have been identified that would 
benefit from policy actions at the local, regional national or European level:  awareness raising, trust creation, skills 
development, matchfunding and connecting (international) financial communities. 

(cid:1)  Raise awareness about crowdfunding  

Access to crowdfunding per se still remains a barrier for the CCS, who are not very well aware of what crowdfunding 
is, how it works, what the key success factors are and who the platforms are. Also, intermediary organisations and 
policy makers should be more aware of how to treat crowdfunding in their communication, policy development and 

4 for equity crowdfunding, the barriers to make use of it do not appear to be substantially lower compared to attracting equity 
finance from the traditional investors community, as similar screening mechanisms are being used before a project can go 
online. 

 
 
                                                      
guidance towards CCS. Also traditional investors should be more aware of the potential of crowdfunding as a market 
signal for further investments. The ‘lack of information on crowdfunding’ with the potential adopters is highlighted 
as a main barrier for the uptake of crowdfunding and the up-scaling of platforms. 

We recommend that actions at the EU level with respect to awareness raising focus primarily on: 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

supporting the continuation and further expansion of a European information portal on CCS crowdfunding 
(e.g.  the  crowdfunding4culture  portal),  that  centralises  information  on  everything  related  to 
crowdfunding in the CCS and presents it in a coherent manner. The information should highlight both 
the financial and other benefits of crowdfunding for CCS actors and policy makers; 

supporting  the  development  of  a  European  access2finance  portal  for  CCS  that  is  an  information  hub 
raising awareness on all types of finance that can be relevant in the financing mix of CCS actors, and 
make crowdfunding (and thus the European information portal on CCS crowdfunding) an integral part 
of it;  

supporting the organisation of events on crowdfunding and access2finance for CCS, or the organisation 
of  prizes  to  facilitate  exchange  of  experiences  and  networking  among  CCS  actors,  crowdfunding 
platforms, public policy makers and private foundations/investors, with special attention to actors from 
countries and sub-sectors that lag behind in terms of the uptake of crowdfunding. In the exchange of 
experiences, it is recommended that there is sufficient focus on the benefits of crowdfunding beyond 
finance as well as on the better integration of (crowd-)lending and (crowd-)equity in the ecosystem; 

ensuring that information available at the Creative Europe Desks also includes crowdfunding, pointing at 
both the funding opportunities and opportunities for audience development and community building;  

promoting  the  integration  of  information  at  the  European  level  on  crowdfunding  (VAT,  tax,  model, 
platform costs, benefits beyond finance, etc.) for CSS actors; and 

pro-actively  promoting  knowledge  accumulation  on  crowdfunding  for  the  CCS  at  the  level  of  policy 
makers,  through  communication  and  by  bringing  together  policy  makers  to  stimulate  exchange  of 
experiences and barriers (e.g. through the OMC instrument). The exchange should not only focus on 
knowledge accumulation for better policy development, but also on knowledge accumulation about the 
potential use of crowdfunding for the benefit of publicly-owned cultural institutions and the CCS at large.  

(cid:1)  Create trust  

Beyond raising awareness, as important for the effective diffusion of crowdfunding in the CCS is the issue of trust. 
However, the market analysis and interviews shows that due to a lack of (transparent and comparable) information 
about  crowdfunding  and  the  costs  related  to  it,  there  is  still  a  significant  level  of  mistrust  with  respect  to 
crowdfunding.  

We recommend that EU actions with respect to trust creation focus primarily on: 

o 

o 

promoting more transparency of crowdfunding platform operations and more harmonised reporting of 
campaign and platform performances. We recommend that the EC promotes and facilitates the creation 
of a Code of Conduct that ensures transparent and comparable reporting of key performance indicators 
from platforms; 

encouraging member states to provide clear VAT and tax guidelines for CCS crowdfunding, and this for 
the different types of crowdfunding; 

o  encouraging EU Member States to act as lead adopters of CCS crowdfunding, by stimulating them to 
experiment  with  crowdfunding  in  publicly  governed  cultural  institutions,  but  also  by  promoting  the 
exploration  of  different  possible  public  sector  support  measures  in  collaboration  with  crowdfunding 
platforms (such as setting up a public (or public-private) CCS crowdfunding platforms, financing training 
sessions and coaching for CCS for crowdfunding campaigns, or matchfunding as a tool to leverage public 
spending  in  the  CCS).  To  this  end,  the  active  sharing  of  good  examples  of  public  sector  –  platform 
cooperations, practices and lessons learnt, can work as an important source of inspiration and a basis to 
further explore possible synergies between public authorities, platforms and CCS actors;   

o 

o 

sharing  practices  and  lessons  learnt  (e.g.  through  impact  assessments)  among  policy  makers  about 
potential measures to stimulate the use of different types of crowdfunding such as f.ex. a favourable tax 
scheme for crowdlending, guarantee schemes, tax deduction for crowd-donations, etc.; 

investing  in  independent  data  gathering  –  both  quantitative  and  qualitative  –  to  provide  continues 
information updates on the number of campaigns launched, keeping in mind sectorial differences, the 
number (and characteristics) of backers as well as amounts raised (observatory function); and 

 
 
o 

(financially) supporting the research community to further develop adequate indicators and monitoring 
systems that allow them to further deepen insights on CCS crowdfunding developments.  

(cid:1)  Stimulate skills development  

Many CCS actors – including  publicly-owned cultural institutions - face a gap in competences when it comes to 
accessing crowdfunding, especially with regard to entrepreneurial (including (strategic and financial) management 
and communication) skills and culture, both needed for assessing the organisation’s needs and running a successful 
campaign.  On  the  side  of  policy  makers,  specific  skills  are  needed  to  effectively  adapt  the  policy  framework  to 
support  the  uptake  of  crowdfunding,  to  set  up  new  types  of  partnerships  that  might  benefit  the  uptake  of 
crowdfunding in the CCS and to rethink the funding system for CCS activities.  

In  order  to  encourage  skills  development  for  CCS  crowdfunding  (beyond  the  awareness  raising  efforts),  we 
recommend that EU actions focus primarily on: 

o 

o 

o 

o 

stimulating intermediary organisations to develop adequate material and training  about crowdfunding 
(what, opportunities and challenges) for their relevant target group(s); 

supporting intermediary CCS organisations to further promote entrepreneurial and business skills as an 
integral part of CCS actors’ curriculum in general, as well as non-formal skills development specifically 
targeted  at  CCS  (such  as  the  peer-to-peer  exchange  programme5  under  the  European  creative  hubs 
programme), including the promotion of crowdfunding as a tool for entrepreneurial and business skills 
development; 

encouraging the integration of financial and business literacy in CCS education or training channels, such 
as incubators, to strengthen the financial capacity of CCS actors to enable the sector to also better tap 
into the possibilities of (crowd-)lending and (crowd-)equity where relevant and suitable for the sector 
and attract larger amounts and more longer term finance; and 

providing specific grants and coaching for CCS actors to develop (European) crowdfunding campaigns. 

(cid:1)  Support matchfunding  

Although  matchfunding  -  where  public  funding  is  matched  with  online  crowdfunding  -  is  attracting  increasing 
interest  from  public  and  private  institutions,  policy  makers  across  Europe,  as  well  as  private  fund  organisations 
should be made more aware of the possibilities (and limitations) to match their funding with crowdfunded projects. 

In order to encourage matchfunding schemes, we recommend that EU actions focus primarily on: 

o 

o 

o 

o 

information  gathering  and  online  sharing  on  the  characteristics  of  matchfunding  (different  models, 
guidelines for application, etc.) and on existing initiatives across countries, to raise awareness; 

facilitating interaction and cooperation between relevant actors for partnerships, including local/regional 
authorities  and  relevant  government  agencies,  private  funding  organisations,  and  crowdfunding 
platforms; 

initiating  exchange  of  policy  practices  to  stimulate  policy  learning  with  local  and  regional  authorities 
across Europe about the use of matchfunding (different models, importance of clear selection criteria, 
limitations,  etc.),  with  particular  attention  to  involve  policy  makers  from  regions/countries  where 
crowdfunding’s potential remains to be explored; and 

launching  a  European  matchfunding  initiative  to  match  EU  funding  with  crowdfunding.  The  initiative 
should  also  be  easily  accessible  for  small  CCS  actors  (i.e.  low  administrative  burden)  and  should  be 
reflective  of  EU  funding  priorities  and  criteria,  where  a  selection  body  is  responsible  for  choosing 
campaigns eligible for matchfunding . Matchfunding can also be used to raise awareness with CCS actors 
about other relevant EU funding schemes. 

(cid:1)  Support the linking of (international) financial communities   

Crowdfunding  has  the  potential  to  lower  the  existing  information  asymmetries  that  have  a  structural  negative 
influence on the access to market finance (lending, equity finance) for CCS actors. However, crowdfunding in the 
CCS  is  currently  insufficiently  integrated  in  the  broader  financing  landscape  (with  the  exception  of  equity 
crowdfunding).  

5 http://creativehubs.eu/news-p2p-round2/  

 
 
 
 
                                                      
In order to encourage the link between the crowdfunding community and other financial communities, EU actions 
should focus primarily on: 

o 

o 

o 

o 

tackling bottlenecks in the regulatory framework that prevent the use of cross border crowdfunding and 
the upscaling of crowdfunding platforms in Europe; 

stimulating the dialogue in the fragmented CCS crowdfunding platform landscape (primarily organised 
at regional/local level and reward-based) to explore possibilities to better link the current donation- and 
reward-based crowdfunding landscape to lending and equity finance (not only crowd-lending and crowd-
equity), and tackle the barriers;  

sharing information about the objectives and goals of Creative Europe's CCS Guarantee Facility among 
crowd–lending  platforms to help them to reach an informed decision on applying for this market-driven 
financial  instrument,  which  is  now  mainly  used  by  more  traditional  financial  intermediaries  (banks  or 
guarantee companies);  

facilitating information sharing and capacity building on CCS finance between different types of financial 
actors (platforms, venture capital, business angels, social impact investors, etc.):  

(cid:1) 

as a minimum, the European Commission/EIF could incorporate information about crowdfunding 
and  its  potential  as  a  matchfunding  tool  in  the  capacity  building  programme  for  financial 
intermediaries that participate in the CCS Guarantee Facility programme;  

(cid:1)  more  generally,  information  about  crowdfunding  could  be  included  in  information  on  access  to 
finance for the CCS entities (e.g. on the above mentioned European access2finance portal); and   

(cid:1) 

towards the equity/high risk finance market, knowledge sharing and accumulation can focus on the 
potential of crowdfunding as a tool to evaluate the market potential of a business concept or more 
general as a tool to lower information asymmetries about the entrepreneurial capabilities of CCS 
actors in need of equity finance, that can positively influence the risk assessment.  

About the study 

The study “Crowdfunding: reshaping the crowd’s engagement in culture” maps and analyses how crowdfunding is 
currently being used for the benefit of cultural and creative activities, and evaluates to what extent barriers hamper 
the further integration of crowdfunding in the financing mix and broader practice of CCS actors.  

The analysis is built on a mixed-method approach. As the topic of crowdfunding for CCS touches upon the interest 
and  activities  of  several  stakeholder  groups  (CCS  actors,  intermediary  organisations  supporting  CCS  actors, 
crowdfunding  platforms,  backers  and  policy  makers),  the  research  combined  the  perspectives  of  each  of  these 
stakeholder groups to come to a 360° analysis. The research involved literature review, stakeholder interviews, 
data  and  case  study  analysis,  surveys,  expert  workshops  and  crowdsourcing  on  barriers  and  options  for  policy 
action. 

is 

study 

accompanied 

The 
– 
www.crowdfunding4culture.eu  –  that  has  been  developed  as  a 
European information hub on everything related to crowdfunding 
for culture. The website contains among others: 

website 

by 

a 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

(cid:1) 

a  map  of  all  crowdfunding  platforms  across  Europe 
(including  comparative  information  on  the  crowdfunding 
models being used, costs of use, etc.) that have a specific 
focus on the Cultural and Creative Sectors; 

a repository of case studies that have been developed in the 
context of this study; and 

an inventory of interesting events, news, tools and studies 
that relate to crowdfunding for the CCS. 

 
 
 
 
 
HOW TO OBTAIN EU PUBLICATIONS 

Free publications: 

•  one copy: 

via EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu); 

•  more than one copy or posters/maps: 

from the European Union’s representations (http://ec.europa.eu/represent_en.htm);  
from  the delegations in non-EU countries (http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/index_en.htm);  
by contacting the Europe Direct service (http://europa.eu/europedirect/index_en.htm) or 
calling 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (freephone number from anywhere in the EU) (*). 

(*)  The information given is free, as are most calls (though some operators, phone boxes or hotels may charge you). 

Priced publications: 

• 

via EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu). 

 
 
 
 
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ISBN: 978-92-79-67973-5