Glossary of terms

Activity: an event or meeting organised as part of a Growfunding campaign whose proceeds go to the campaign. 

Contribution: the amount someone donates to a project. 

Campaign: the period during which the project owner appeals to contribute to the project through various communication channels. 

Civic crowdfunding: "The use of crowdfunding to produce shared goods that have value to communions." (Davies 2014), or (freely translated to the Flemish context): the use of parcipae funding to build social and financial support for start-up projects that have tangible added value for the local communities involved. 

Crowdfunding: "Crowdfunding represents the possibility of gathering a predetermined amount of financial (or other) resources for a given project from an undefined (and large) network of people via an open call - using the internet - in exchange for an intangible, or material, reward." (Van Vliet, 2012). 
Target amount: the amount a project seeks to raise during the campaign. This amount is determined before the campaign starts. 

Ecosystem: a dynamic and transversal network of complementary actors that realises synergies in support of civic crowdfunding campaigns/ projects, the operation of the civic crowdfunding platform and all those involved. 

Successful project: a project that, once online, has achieved at least 100% of the predetermined financial objective [target amount] within the predetermined duration. 

Contributor: any unique person who makes one or more contributions to a civic crowdfunding campaign. 

Civic Crowdfunding Academy: a chain of informal and non-formal educational activities, with two main goals: promoting the self-organising capacity of our society and increasing support for civic crowdfunding. 

Community: the group of people who support at least two projects per year. 

Duration time: the duration of a campaign. It usually varies between 30 and 90 days. The duration is set in advance.

Matching fund: matchfunding enables collaboration between contributors and private and public actors. The latter commits to increasing individual contributors' contributions to projects by a certain percentage. 

Matchfunder: an individual, organisation, company, government or fund that co-finances a project by at least 20%. 

Unsuccessful project: a project that has raised less than 100% of the intended target amount. In the event of an unsuccessful project, all contributions are returned. 

Participant: a person who participates in a project through the participatory reward. 

Partner: an organisation that collaborates with a civic crowdfunding platform to co-create projects from its network. 

Partner page: the webpage where all projects from the partner's network are published. 

Participative reward: the reward a contributor receives after contributing to a project. Depending on the size of the contribution, a contributor receives a different reward that involves him/her and his/her network in the project (multiple parcipae). For example, in exchange for one contribution, you can participate in a workshop with 4 friends.

Participation-driven crowdfunding: the use of rewards that engage and/or allow people to participate in the project they are funding. 

Project owner: initiator of a project that launches a campaign. These can be individuals, organizations, colleges, movements, social start-ups, …

City platform: the webpage where all projects from a given city are published. 

Socio-cultural practices: in principle, these can come about anywhere. They develop in the purposeful action or interaction of people with their environment, embedded in a social and cultural context. Socio-cultural practices are characteristically about processes that shape and renew individuals and society. These processes give direction and meaning to the organisation of society. They promote integration and participation. They aim at a democratic, inclusive and sustainable society with respect for 'being different'.