Project GrowthFundMe

The project

Project GrowthFundMe is a 24-month partnership initiative supported by the   Erasmus + Programme of the European Commission (EC) that combines the expertise of a diverse partnership bringing together five organisations from four countries led by Odisee (Belgium).

The GrowthFundMe project offers an innovative approach that brings together community-based entrepreneurship and crowdfunding in a unique programme that will connect entrepreneurial training with social crowdfunding to enforce new forms of self-organisation, urban solidarity and citizenship, with crowd building, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing as social networking tools. Through the development and piloting of the GrowthFundMe Platform and Training, GrowthFundMe strives to build socially engaged communities equipped with an innovative and community-driven approach to attract funding and implement socially important projects and initiatives.
GrowthFundMe will be facilitating the connection between social crowdfunding and business training (i.e. community-based entrepreneurship), with all the bonuses regarding mobilisation of the local resources and networking skills that come along.

This approach is highly interesting and innovative and brings added value to both people and communities. Through this approach, GrowthFundMe seeks to enforce new forms of self-organisation, urban solidarity and citizenship, with crowd building, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing as social networking tools.
Civic or social crowdfunding is a novel and underdeveloped concept in many countries, including Bulgaria and Poland. However, by definition and in practice, such as in Belgium, where civic crowdfunding is a growing sector, it represents a hands-on instrument that facilitates entrepreneurial and social skills. This project aims to reach out specifically to underrepresented groups and to empower and engage them in their community by setting up crowdfunding campaigns.

The GrowthFundMe Partnership

The project has been running since April 2023 with the participation of five organisations from four different countries: Odisee (Belgium), InovaAspire (Netherlands), Arterija (Poland), BICC (Bulgaria), and GrowFunding (Belgium). 

The Results

• Training Programme, "Community-Entrepreneurship for Inclusive Growth“ – it focuses on developing entrepreneurial skills within community members using the ENTRECOMP framework. This initiative not only helps participants identify and bridge their entrepreneurial skill gaps but also prepares them for advanced crowdfunding training, enhancing their project and initiative prospects through essential meta-skills.
  Training Programme "Crowdfund Your Community-based Enterprise / Project" – a training package for communities with fewer opportunities and entrepreneurs to enhance their digital and engagement skills for community-based entrepreneurship. It emphasizes developing specific skills to increase the social impact of campaigns and building resilient networks around projects. This crucial element uses reward-based crowdfunding for sustainable networking, learning, and participation.
• Manual for setting up and managing a social crowdfunding campaign with a detailed step-by-step plan, best practices per phase, concrete tips and examples produced by Growfunding one of the pioneers in civic crowdfunding in Belgium.
• The GrowthFundMe Platform is a community-focused crowdfunding platform, GrowthFundMe, aimed at empowering various regions and communities to fund their local projects and enterprises. This platform integrates a crowdfunding section with an e-learning academy, offering comprehensive support and resources for community-based initiatives, including modules on crowdfunding applications and social entrepreneurship practices. Led by BICC, with insights from GrowFunding, the platform offers immense crowdsourcing and training possibilities allowing for easier customisation and adaptations to specific contexts.