Civic Crowdfunding: Analysis of the Motivations that Lead Donors to Support the Projects

Civic crowdfunding (CCF) represents an effective method to raise funds for the creation of public works and projects by citizens but it is even more than that; it appears capable of transforming public administration into what Osborne (2006) defines as the new public governance where multiple actors contribute to the provision of public services and where the emphasis is on the design and evaluation of durable inter-organizational relationships, where trust, relational capital and relational contracts act as fundamental governance mechanisms. However, although CCF has been studied since 2013, knowledge on the topic is limited especially with regard to the motivations that lead donors to select and financially support CCF projects. This analysis for civic projects is of particular interest because donors do not receive monetary rewards for their contributions. In light of the above, the present study aims to understand the motivations that lead individuals to fund CCF projects. To achieve the research objective, in line with what has been done to analyze motivations related to crowdfunding investments (Aitamurto, 2011; Brem et al., 2019; Gerber and Hui, 2013), a qualitative analysis will be carried out through which in-depth interviews (Corbetta, 2014) will be conducted with investors of CCF projects. To conduct the interviews, the authors created a protocol that was divided into three macro sections: the first one based on the interviewee's characteristics and background, the second one concerning the interviewees' knowledge of the CCF platforms and how they became aware of both the platforms and the campaigns they invested in, and the third one concerning the motivations that led to the investment. The average interview period was about 30 minutes, and all interviews were recorded and transcribed to perform the information analysis whereby the authors divided the emerging data into meaningful categories highlighting the parts where participants described what made them decide to fund CCF projects. The use of the qualitative methodology allows for both an understanding of the motivations that lead donors to support CCF projects, as well as a comparison analysis designed to see if there are any relevant differences with the motivations of funders of other crowdfunding projects such as charitable or commercial ones (Jian and Shin, 2015; Mollick, 2014). It is believed that this study can have significant theoretical as well as practical impact as it makes multiple contributions.