Blog crowdfunding webinar

On 25.06.2021, the partners from AT, CZ and HR presented their crowdfunding pilots and lessons learnt within the E-FIX project. Introducing the national context and their respective pilots, CONDA Austria, Ekoport and the North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency took the floor during the webinar, highlighting the similiarities and differences in terms of crowdfunding experiences in the three countries. There were a total of 14 attendees at the webinar.

The event began with an introduction by Andreas Karner from ConPlusUltra during which he explained the key objectives behind  the pilots and the capacity building approach of the project. He also stressed the potential of crowdfunding in CEE and that E-FIX served as a type of test for the instrument in the region. Next, Daniel Horak from CONDA described the situation in Austria, explaining that lots of public funds are available for energy efficiency in Austria so people are not tempted by crowdfunding as it is still considered risky. CONDA then presented its platform crowd17.at for green projects and focused on four pilots in the green sector.

 

 

Subsequently, Tijana Simek from North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency introduced the situation in Croatia where there is no legal framework and limited awareness among the general public regarding this instrument. In addition, Croatia was heavily hit by the Corona pandemic and an earthquake during the pilots. However, she stressed that there is a lot of potential for crowdfunding to develop in Croatia in the next few years and that crowdfunding can be successful with the right contigency plans and strong community involvement.

The final speaker, Jan Jares from Ekoport noted that there is no legal framework for crowdfunding in the Czech Republic either but that this instrument has a lot of potential in the social sector. He then presented two of the campaigns run in the Czech Republic with very strong social elements. The campaigns proved very challenging due to Corona but still crowdfunding is considered a valuable instrument provided small sums of money need to be raised for social projects. 

 

 

The main conclusions are thus:

1. Only Austria has a legal framework for Crowdfunding, the Czech Republic and Croatia are still missing this.

2. The Corona crisis had a negative impact on the pilots but interest in crowdfunding should increase again.

3. The new EU crowdfunding regulation will have a great impact as it will make it possible to crowdfund across borders in the EU.

4. Campaigns with a strong local element that capture people’s hearts have better chances of success.