Matchfunding: public-private crowdfunding based on the principle of shared responsibility
The Goteo Foundation, a pioneer in unique crowdfunding models and features through the Goteo.org platform, launched its matchfunding program in 2013 to promote and increase the impact of crowdfunding both nationally and across Europe.
Matchfunding brings together the community and citizens involved in socially committed crowdfunding projects that aim to benefit as many people as possible, creating a new hybrid model based on the principle of shared responsibility. This new framework of roles and responsibilities among all stakeholders results in the strengthening of public life and governance.
Money Contributed
Successful Projects
Calls for applications
These are the work phases that a crowdfunding campaign goes through:
The service also includes data analysis and visualization of results.
We provide strategic consulting based on a comparative study of matchfunding and participatory budgeting initiatives. Two prime examples of this combination of crowdfunding and participatory budgeting—which we call “Matchfunding”—are the Metakultura call for proposals, which has already had six successful editions (2016–2021) with a total of 94 funded projects and €886,871 distributed, and the program launched by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, which contributes up to €70,000 to support cultural projects in the province, serving as a tool for cultural actors to fund initiatives that enrich and strengthen the local community; as well as “[Conjuntament] (https://www.goteo.org/call/conjuntament)”, which means “in cooperation” in Catalan, carried out by the Barcelona City Council in 2018, together with the Goteo platform and the organization Barcelona Activa, with the goal of funding social projects proposed by citizens, linking deliberative democracy to the public budget—through which 22 initiatives were successfully funded via 2,629 contributions, with a total allocation of 231,336€, comprising citizen donations and the 96,000€ provided through match funding.
We also apply the principles of match funding to promote social causes, as we did with the MatchImpulsa program, a cross-cutting feminist initiative for the digital transformation of Barcelona’s Social, Solidarity, and Collaborative Economy.
This innovative program aimed to strengthen and scale up projects in the Social, Solidarity, and Collaborative Economy; reinforce local collaboration, international outreach, and the integration of a gender perspective, as well as equality measures and plans in the digital environments of companies and organizations; and accelerate the digital economy as a commons, through three strategic lines of action:
Matchfunding represents not only a new way of allocating and distributing funds, but also—and above all—the creation of a new framework of roles and responsibilities among all the stakeholders involved, resulting in the strengthening of public life and governance. Public administrations or organizing entities can embrace these new possibilities, which do not replace previous approaches but rather have a multiplier effect.
Thus, two processes and two methods of funding culture, participation, education, and citizen initiatives are combined into a single tool, transforming the generally restrictive process of awarding grants into an open, participatory, and social phenomenon.
Gipuzkoa Provincial Council. Through an agreement with the Provincial Council, the META! matchfunding call for proposals was launched, which helped develop a total of 94 community projects, contributing 886,871 euros to the region’s cultural fabric. In this way, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council established itself as a resource available to cultural actors to fund initiatives and enrich and strengthen the local cultural fabric.
Arrela’t. The Youth Offices and economic development services of the six counties of Alt Pirineu and Aran, with the support of the Leader groups, the DGJ, the Ateneo Cooperativo del Alt Pirineu, and IDAPA, and in collaboration with the provincial councils of Lleida and Girona, agreed to launch a public-private crowdfunding campaign.
This led to the creation of a crowdfunding channel supported by these institutions, which are contributing 24,000 euros to fund six projects per year with the aim of promoting projects that generate social benefits for the region, thereby helping to implement new strategies to revitalize the socio-economic fabric of the Alt Pirineu.
