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Community Funding at ImpactFest 2020

On the 28th and 29th of October, I will be hosting a new series of Community Funding roundabouts at ImpactFest. Celebrating their 5th anniversary, ImpactFest invites social entrepreneurs, impact investors and venture philanthropists to the biggest online impact meetup.

In my roundabouts (brief in-depth workshops with a limited number of participants) I will focus on community involved in funding for social and community enterprises.

We’ll discuss issues like:

  • How to engage (members of) communities to invest and stay interested in your impact-oriented business or project.
  • The do’s and don’ts of crowdfunding and other types of community funding.
  • Strengths, limits and expectation management of community involvement.
  • How to balance a community’s appetite for social impact and financial reward.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions ImpactFest will be held entirely online. You can get your tickets here. Looking forward to meeting you!

End of Summer update

Even though COVID-19 is still around very prominently, I am cautiously re-starting group activities and courses:

  • Early next month, I’ll guide a group of local social initiatives from the greater Amsterdam area through their options for promising funding strategies.
  • I’ll also give a masterclass on next level sponsoring for local NGOs and social enterprises.
  • I’m starting up a new project in the southern Dutch province of Brabant, aimed at the development of some sort of standardized funding toolkit for social and community enterprises.
  • And I have good hopes that I’ll be able to deliver the postponed masterclass on participatory grantmaking in October.

Meanwhile, I’ve been doing a lot of online sessions with many great social enterprises from all over Europe within the frameworks of the EaSI TA Program and the European Social Innovation Competition. It was not just great fun to do, but also deeply necessary. Even though there is an abundance of funding opportunities, getting early-stage social enterprises properly financed is still a challenge throughout Europe.

Social economy in the fight against corona. Crowdfunding is finally going online

On 15 April, I gave a brief introduction to alternative finance issues (crowdfunding, in particular) in the fight against corona, for the Social Economy Community of the European Commission.

Here is a quick summary of three of my observations about key developments in crowdfunding in corona times: 

  1. Let’s not panic reaction. Crowdfunding platforms are preparing for hard(er) times ahead, and are taking measures to turn the tide. There is a general fear of loss of appetite among investors and many platforms expect a significant decrease in the number of new projects.
  2. There is shift towards donation-based crowdfunding, especially by crowdfunders from the hardest hit sectors (like events, creative industries).
  3. There is a huge rise in covid19-related social projects that resort to crowdfunding.

If you are interested in hearing my observations and expectations, you’ll find the recordings and notes of the online session right here. The other two speakers in the session were Daniele Calzolari (La Bolsa Social, Spain) and Markus Sauerhammer (Social Entrepreneurship Network, Germany).

Download slides (pdf)Download

Coronamaatregelen

Als gevolg van de snelle verspreiding van het nieuwe coronavirus, en de maatregelen die de Nederlandse overheid heeft afgekondigd, worden alle trainingen en cursussen van Social Finance Matters uitgesteld tot een nog nader vast te stellen datum. Heb je je al aangemeld, dan word je op de hoogte gehouden van nieuwe datumopties.

Onderzoek, advies en andere diensten van Social Finance Matters lopen zoveel als mogelijk door, en ik blijf uiteraard te benaderen voor nieuwe opdrachten. Juist in deze periode is het belangrijk dat nieuwe maatschappelijke initiatieven van de grond kunnen komen.

Hartelijke groet en blijf goed gezond!

Martijn Arnoldus

Opiniestuk innovatiesubsidies meest gelezen van 2019

Het opinie-artikel dat ik eerder dit jaar op Gemeente.nu publiceerde naar aanleiding van mijn onderzoek naar innovatiesubsidies in het sociaal domein, is het best gelezen artikel van 2019 op dat platform. Goed voor een gestreeld ego, maar de grote vraag is natuurlijk of er ook wat gebeurt met de conclusies. Meepraten of meedenken? Mail me!

Lees hier meer over het (inmiddels afgeronde) onderzoek.