Crowdfunding for nonprofits, sports clubs, culture and local communities

A new floor for the gym, a pitch to rebuild after a flood, a neighbourhood cinema to reopen, a garden for the children at the local school. In Italy, crowdfunding has found its natural home in communities: associations, sports clubs, parishes, town councils. This guide brings together ten real cases, what they teach, the rewards that work and who can add money to your campaign. The lessons apply wherever you are.

Why it works for communities

An association already has what many project owners lack: a community. Members, families, fans, volunteers, the café downstairs, the local paper. Crowdfunding turns that network into a fundraiser with a clear goal, a deadline and a result everyone can see. And it gives people who cannot volunteer a way to take part: ten euros, a keyring, their name on a wall.

Ten successful campaigns from Italy

Sources: Gavassa^[1], Godo^[2], CAI Barlassina^[3], Zorlesco^[4], CineTeatro Italia^[5], Pedrotti^[6], Rockin'1000^[7], CrashTest^[8], San Luca (press)^[9], Milan^[10]. In brackets, the percentage of the goal reached.

Some of these stories deserve a few lines. In Godo, in Romagna, after the 2023 flood the baseball club asked for €8,000 to rebuild its pitch, with no physical rewards at all: symbolic tiers from €20 to €250, “one less bucket of water”. It raised €29,308.^[2] In Ancona a neighbourhood cinema asked for €5,000 and raised more than €25,000, offering to show backers' names on screen before every film for a year.^[5] In Bologna, between 2013 and 2014, more than 7,000 people came together to restore the portico of San Luca.^[9]

What they teach

1. Cautious goals, then beaten. Almost all these campaigns started with a low goal and beat it two, three or five times over.
2. The right size. Associations, schools and clubs usually raise between €15,000 and €50,000, from 150 to 400 people.
3. A concrete, visible need. A floor, a pitch, a clubhouse, a garden: something everyone can picture, and then see finished.
4. Local, symbolic rewards. A name on the wall and a reward handed over at the party count for more than an expensive object.

A community that can see the result in front of it gives more, and gives again.

Rewards for nonprofits and clubs

The rewards in these campaigns make a small catalogue of ideas that cost little and mean a lot.

• A name: on a wall of the gym, on a plaque in the courtyard, on the cinema screen, in the credits.
• Community items: the club keyring and kit bag, the festival T-shirt, a pebble painted by the children.^[4]
• Experiences: a session at the climbing gym with an instructor, a dessert at the mountain hut during a hike.^[3]
• The local area: a piadina and a beer on the day of the event, a guided tour of the city.^[7][8]
• No reward at all: in an emergency, a symbolic tier and a thank-you can be enough.^[2]

Rewards handed over in person at an event also save on shipping. More ideas, and the sums to do, are in the guide How to choose your rewards.

Councils and foundations that match funds

An opportunity few people know about: in many countries local governments, foundations and banks run matching programmes that add their own money to campaigns that reach a threshold. In Milan, for example, the city's civic crowdfunding programme doubles every euro raised by neighbourhood projects.^[10] Before you launch, check what your council, your region and the foundations in your area offer.

On Campagna Crowdfunding an association, a club or a school can run a campaign with rewards or with free pledges, and keeps everything it raises. The page, the images and the messages for social media and email come ready-made: if you are short of time, like almost every volunteer, you start from there. For fees, VAT and taxes, see the guide How much does a crowdfunding campaign cost.

Frequently asked questions