Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

A grassroots fundraising platform and 550 thousand euros in contributions to finance the social and cultural rebirth in the neighborhoods after the Covid emergency

Milan, May 30 2020 – Financing social and cultural projects in neighborhoods starting from small donations from individual citizens. After the success of the first edition, the Civic Crowdfunding of the Municipality of Milan returns. With this innovative form of "bottom-up" support, over 2016 thousand euros of micro donations were collected in 300, to which another 300 thousand euros of municipal contribution were added which made it possible to finance as many as 16 new projects active in the city. 

From today until July 31st it will be possible to present to the Administration projects useful for the restart of the less central neighborhoods of the city to support their social and cultural rebirth after the Covid19 emergency. Following the evaluation, the proposals will be subjected to scrutiny by the Milanese on 'Produzioni dal Basso', the first Italian crowdfunding and social innovation platform.

“Crowdfunding is an extraordinary tool to give the opportunity to many projects to be realized and to bring concrete help to improving the quality of life of many people, especially in this difficult situation of economic restart for the city and its neighborhoods – he declares the councilor for Labor Policies, Productive Activities and Commerce Cristina Tajani -. It is also a way to broaden the participation of the city in the action of the Administration by directly involving the territory in the creation of that network of attention to the person which guarantees an economic and social intervention useful for improving intelligent, inclusive and sustainable growth of the neighborhoods ”.

The new edition of Civic Crowdfunding was born from the will of the Department of Labor Policies, Productive Activities and Commerce in collaboration with two of the major Italian companies active in this area, Produzioni dal Basso of Milan and Ginger Crowdfunding of Bologna. The project, entirely financed with Pon Metro Milano 2014-2020 funds, will be able to count on a budget of 550 thousand euros.

The projects must operate in the peripheral neighborhoods of the city and must be dedicated to improving the territory and the local community in terms of quality of life and social aggregation, with particular attention to the most vulnerable subjects and the new fragilities generated by the Covid emergency. There will also be room for projects to reconvert spaces and digitalize existing services which will have to adapt to the new rules of social distancing.

Non-profit organizations and Third Sector entities based in Milan (social enterprises, associations, social cooperatives, voluntary organizations and foundations) will be able to participate in the tender and will be able to present projects with a maximum cost of 100 thousand euros.
Starting next September, the projects selected by the Administration will be presented on the Produzioni dal Basso platform and will have approximately 60 days available to raise their funds. The projects that reach 40% of the overall budget thanks to fundraising will obtain a non-repayable contribution from the Municipality of Milan for the remaining 60%, up to a maximum amount of 60 thousand euros for each individual project.

To help the selected organizations achieve successful fundraising, the Municipality offers an online training course and an accompanying service dedicated to the projects selected by Ginger Crowdfunding, as well as communication interventions to increase the visibility of the proposals presented on the platform.

All the information and forms for the presentation of the projects are available from today on the website of the Municipality of Milan (https://bit.ly/3cjg8FP) in the notices and contributions section and on Produzionidalbasso.com