Civic Crowdfunding is a growing sector in Belgium. The two major players are currently Growfunding and SoCrowd. Both of these platforms share the same vision:

Social crowdfunding uses participative finance or crowdfunding as a means of bringing about social change. Social crowdfunding means that resources and funding find their way to projects with a positive impact on our society. The crowd is thus mobilised to participate in projects which each offer an answer, in their own way, to contemporary social challenges.

Reward-based through Growfunding

Growfunding is participation-based crowdfunding. In exchange for a contribution you receive an original reward, which involves you in the project in one way or another. Project owners can use the platform to achieve a wide range of objectives. So Growfunding is much more than a financial instrument. It is also...

A networking instrument

As a project owner you not only involve your own supporters, you tap into new networks too. When launching a project through Growfunding, you invite people in your environment and society as a whole to participate. As you develop your campaign, you learn how to target new contacts and organisations at various levels and in different fields.

A participation-based approach

Informing people about your project is a must, and actively involving them in it is even better. It is that additional dimension that Growfunding promotes. Using rewards is vital to raise support. Growfunding helps the project owners devise original rewards, which can bring together growfunders and project owners. That is how growfunders become participants.

A learning process

Launching a Growfunding project involves a fair amount of work. That is why people with an inspiring plan can rely on custom support.

• How to communicate about your project and raise support for it?
• How to target the right people?
• How to activate social networks?
• How to actively involve other people in the implementation of your project?
• Which rewards can you use?
• How to create an online video about your project?
• Project owners and candidate project owners can participate for free in two interactive workshops which discuss all this and more

A positive image of Brussels and the surrounding region

Every Growfunding project is an inspiring story, of people who live in Brussels who are committed to their city and who invite everyone to participate. Growfunding explicitly wants to send out a positive message of Brussels as a creative, social and entrepreneurial city, to the public, to opinion-makers and various Belgian policy-makers on all the government levels. As a communication platform, Growfunding reinforces these messages through various channels.

Interest-free loans through Socrowd

SoCrowd or social crowdfunding is an innovative and creative financing instrument for organisations which offer social added value. SoCrowd provides financial oxygen to sustainable initiatives in the social, cultural and care sectors, by helping them raise capital from private donors.

The platform uses the co-financing model to strengthen the ties between an organisation and its supporters. Socrowd strongly believes in the co-financing model and in the organisations listed on www.socrowd.be: the organisation receives 3 euros, in the form of an interest-free loan, for every euro it is able to raise.