Crowdfunding is triggering a new wave of community funding initiatives around the world as investors club together to raise money for local projects.
In The Netherlands, 1,700 households have pooled their resources and raised a record £1 million in only 13 hours to fund a wind turbine to power their homes.
The householders bought 6,648 shares at £168 each to plug into 500 kilowatts of electricity a year to power their properties.
So far, nearly 7,000 Dutch householders have taken the opportunity to Crowdfund similar wind turbine projects.
Harm Reitsma, the man behind Windcentrale, the firm organising the turbine sales, claims several thousand more households are queuing to buy into the opportunity.
The shareholders also pay £20 a year towards turbine maintenance.
Secondhand wind turbines
The firm buys secondhand wind turbines and wires the homes into a power grid, which is based at Culemborg, in the central Netherlands.
“Households really want to buy into renewable energy,” said Reitsma.
In the US, a city that pulled out of bankruptcy is crowdfunding to raise cash for municipal projects.
Central Falls, Rhode Island, is a city of around 20,000 people that cannot raise credit.
To meet bond and pension payments, the city fathers instigated an austerity budget that left no spare money.
The city was so broke; buying litter bins for a park was out of the questions if other bills were to be met.
Plastic bins
The state government offered free plastic bins, but vandals kicked them over and the cost of picking up the rubbish was a burden to the budget.
To solve the problem, the city wants to buy five metal rubbish containers, which cost around £6,000.
The idea was to open a crowdfunding campaign to raise the cash.
So far, 14 investors have put £240 into the fund, which has 50 days still to run.
“The appeal is for more than just garbage cans,” said a city spokesman. “We plan to turn the project into a public art installation that will improve the park as well as solve our garbage problem.”
View the Central Falls Crowdfund appeal
The web site citizinvestor, which is hosting the Central Falls appeal, has many more civic projects across the US pleading for cash help from investors.
Many are for hard-up towns and cities wanting help with small amounts of funding for public art, signage in parks and environmental projects for children and the disadvantaged
