The Geography of Civic Crowdfunding: Implications for Social Inequality and Donor-Project Dynamics

Civic crowdfunding combines the power of private crowdfunding with grassroots organization to directly fund local public projects. This article analyzes fine scale geographic data on 18,000 donations to roughly 800 campaigns from a leading civic crowdfunding platform to examine the implications of civic crowdfunding for inequality and the link between donors and projects. The neighborhood characteristics of projects, including median household income, do not impact the ability to raise capital, which addresses a common concern that civic crowdfunding will exacerbate inequality in neighborhood amenities. The average distance of a donor to a project is over 300 miles and the median distance is 8 miles, indicating that while projects elicit donations from outside their community local donations are very important. Donors' income does not influence whether donors contribute to projects in low income or high income neighborhoods. The findings serve as a guide to future research on civic crowdfunding and inform how the expansion of this new funding mechanism can integrate into local government policy.