Community Finance

Creating an Ecosystem for Financing Social and Community Businesses

Community Finance Week – 4th To 8th, October 2021

Virtual Workshop for Representatives of Public Authorities and Public Banks

Our Partners & Projects

AltFinator community finance

Altfinator: Facilitating Access to Alternative Financing

Altfinator project facilitates the transfer of best practices from more advanced to less advanced markets.

Altfinator designs, develops and implements a capacity-building strategy for the financial ecosystem and its participants in South, Central and Eastern European countries to improve the provision and absorption of Alternative Finance.

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CrowdThermal community finance

CROWDTHERMAL: Development Schemes for Geothermal Energy

CROWDTHERMAL project aims to empower the European public to directly participate in the development of geothermal projects with the help of alternative financing schemes (crowdfunding) and social engagement tools.

CROWDTHERMAL creates a social acceptance model for geothermal energy that will be used as baseline in subsequent actions for inspiring public support for geothermal energy.

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UU ECAF community finance

Utrecht University – European Centre for Alternative Finance

The European Centre for Alternative Finance (ECAF) is a research centre within Utrecht University. It has a central role in guiding the international research agenda on alternative finance, supporting financial inclusion and access to finance.

ECAF is a joint initiative of Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.), CrowdfundingHub and Sustainable Finance Lab.

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CrowdfundingHub community finance

CrowdfundingHub: Building the Alternative Finance Ecosystem

CrowdfundingHub is initiated in 2015 by Ronald Kleverlaan, advisor to the European Commission and co-founder of the European Crowdfunding Network. CrowdfundingHub has a strong network of 100+ legal, tax and campaign specialists in Europe and enlists their assistance in collecting data about the current state of alternative finance in Europe.

CrowdfundingHub actively participates in several projects that are funded by European Commission, with the objective of promoting alternative finance and crowdfunding services.

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Stichtng MKB Financiering

Stichting MKB Financiering

Stichting MKB Financiering (SME Financing Foundation) is an independent organization established to contribute to the professionalization of the alternative financing sector and increase access to customer-oriented and appropriate financing and financing advice for entrepreneurs.

Stichting MKB Financiering stimulates the continuous knowledge development of entrepreneurs in the field of alternative finance so that more SMEs can benefit from it.

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HUB-IN community finance

HUB-IN: Hubs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of Historic Urban Areas

HUB-IN promotes urban transformation and regeneration of historic urban areas (HUA) using as main catalyst the innovation and entrepreneurship, while preserving the unique identity of the historic areas regarding their cultural and social values.

HUB-IN expects to contribute to reverse trends of abandonment and neglect of historic heritage in a systemic way through the creation of networks of Hubs where innovation will be the main driver.

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Events

The Community Finance Week organizes numerous events, gathering European experts to carry out research activities and discussions on community finance and drives the development of community finance

Agenda

  • Tuesday, 5th October

    ECAF CONFERENCE

    From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the European Centre for Alternative Finance (ECAF) held the 2021 conference at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. This year’s conference features the special topic on the role of community finance in the landscape of financial innovation.

  • Wednesday, 6th October

    CROWDTHERMAL WORKSHOP

    Wednesday 10 a.m. -12:30 a.m. : Technical session implementing of community funding meeting CROWDTHERMAL partners and Crowdfunding platform

    Wednesday 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. : CROWDTHRMAL Consortium meeting to prepare the general assembly

  • Thursday, 7th October

    CROWDTHERMAL WORKSHOP

    Thursday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. : The Second CROWDTHERMAL General Assembly

    Thursday 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. : Diner

  • Friday, 8th October

    CROWDTHERMAL WORKSHOP

    Friday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Crowdthermal Workshop: International Conference on New Financial Mechanisms for Geothermal Energy (risk mitigation, social, financial), with AB Participation

  • To Be Continued...

    MORE EVENTS ON COMMUNITY FINANCE

    We frequently organize events, learning sessions and info-sharing conferences on community finance.

    Follow us on social media to get noticed and obtain more information!

Our Team

Experts and Researchers of Community Finance

Ronald Kleverlaan

Ronald Kleverlaan

Director of European Centre of Alternative Finance at Utrecht University, Chairman of CrowfundingHub and Stichting MKF Financiering

Ronald Kleverlaan is a thought leader on Community and Alternative Finance in Europe. He is the founder and senior partner at CrowdfundingHub. He is appointed as Director of the European Centre for Alternative Finance, an academic research centre of Utrecht University with a multi-disciplinary approach (finance, entrepreneurship, law, sociology) to research the potential of Alternative Finance. His speciality and academic interest is in community finance and community ownership. He is involved in a number of European consulting projects, was co-founder of the European Crowdfunding Network and member of the advisory board of several industry associations in Europe, China, Africa and USA.

Karsten Wenzlaff

Karsten Wenzlaff

Senior Advisor at CrowdfundingHub, Research Affliliate at Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Founder of Ikosom

Karsten Wenzlaff is Secretary-General of the German Crowdfunding Association and co-founded the AltFinator Policy Network together with Ronald Kleverlaan. He was a member of the European Crowdfunding Stakeholder Forum of the European Commission and has collaborated closely with Crowdfunding Associations all over Europe to shape the new European Crowdfunding Regulation. He is Researcher at the University of Hamburg, Research Affiliate at the European Alternative Finance Center at the University of Utrecht and Research Affiliate at the Centre for Alternative Finance at the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge. He has been asked several times to comment on Crowdfunding and Fintech Legislation in the Finance and Digital Affairs committee of the German Parliament. He owns the Crowdfunding Consultant Firm ikosom.

Georgie Friederichs

Senior Researcher at CrowdfundingHub, Board Member of Stichting MKB Financiering

Georgie Friederichs is a senior consultant of alternative finance at CrowdfundingHub and board member of Stichting MKB Financiering, the Dutch association for the alternative finance industry.. She is an expert in crowdfunding and alternative finance solutions and has contributed to the European CrowdThermal
project. She is also a research partner for community finance options in Geothermal projects. She actively participates in the development of policy for alternative financing in the Netherlands, building a
partnership between alternative financers, the government and entrepreneurs- associations.

Pieter van de Glind

Pieter van de Glind

Senior Advisor at CrowdfundingHub, Co-Founder of Sharing Cities Alliance, Active entrepreneur

Pieter van de Glind is a senior advisor at CrowdfundingHub and co-founder of the Sharing Cities Alliance. He has a decade of professional experience in the sharing economy and urban development. Pieter authored several publications and gave more than 250 keynotes in more than 25 countries. His deep knowledge on sharing, digital platforms and new financial models empowers communities, business and governments to move forward on their goals. Currently he is applying community finance models to a dozen cities from around the world to boost sustainable and inclusive urban regeneration and to Europe’s transportation and mobility sector, to accelerate the uptake of sustainable solutions.

Yunuo Zhao

Research and Development Specialist at CrowdfundingHub

Yunuo Zhao is a research and communication specialist at CrowdfundingHub. She has a unique perspective in international finance, financial services and alternative finance and works closely with European AltFin experts.

She is in charge of CrowdfundingHub’s website and social media network and actively participates in communication activities of numerous European Commission projects such as HUB-IN, ENTRANCE, Altfinator and DivAirCity. She is also in charge of the community.finance website maintenance.

Blog Articles

HUB-IN Interview | Talking about Financing the Urban Commons

LabGov – the LABoratory for the GOVernance of the City as a Commons – is an international network of theoretical, empirical and applied research platforms engaged in exploring and developing methods, policies, and projects focused on the shared and collaborative management of urban spaces and resources.
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HUB-IN Interview | Value, Finance and Ownership of Heritage-led Regeneration by the Citymaker-Fund

Citymaker-Fund recognises the difficulties that non-conventional place making projects encounter with securing finance from traditional sources e.g. banks. The fund acts as a ‘matchmaker’ between citymakers/placemakers and investors with an emphasis on projects that contribute to creating a lively and inclusive city by investing in initiatives with a clear social as well as economic return.
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HUB-IN Interview | Talking Regenerative Financing at the Triodos Bank

The mission of Triodos Regenerative Money Centre reaches beyond the limits of the current banking system. It operates from a belief that money has three important qualities: to buy, to lend/ invest, and to donate. The centre encourages the things money can do to benefit society and our planet.
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CrowdThermal International Conference_Introducing our services for community_funded feothermal projects - Community Finance

CROWDTHERMAL Conference | Introducing Our Services for Community-Funded Geothermal Projects

CROWDTHERMAL is organising a first international conference on 7 April 2022 in a hybrid format, on-site in Madrid and online.
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HUB-IN | Financing Model Catalogue for Heritage-Led Regeneration of Historic Urban Areas

HUB-IN Places dare to experiment with new financial structures, combining traditional public funding streams with other (private) sources of funding. In creating novel financial structures, HUB-IN cities carefully balance potential shifts in the distribution of power and influence, contributing to their city’s inclusive and sustainable development.
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HUB-IN: Business, financing & governance models for Heritage-Led Regeneration

HUB-IN | Business, Financing & Governance Models for Heritage-Led Regeneration

Heritage-led regeneration requires financing, suitable business models and good governance. Published in February, 2022, this guide provides readers with business, financing and governance models across Europe. The road ahead lead to HUB-IN places that have ignited innovation and entrepreneurship, while preserving their unique cultural, social and environmental identities and values.
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CrowdThermal webinar Community Finance

CrowdThermal Webinar | Targeting Accessibility and Co-ownership for Geothermal Projects

This webinar has three focuses: sharing information about local geothermal projects, introducing the alternative ways (crowdfunding) for financing geothermal projects, establishing public participation throughout Europe.
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CrowdThermal team community finance

CrowdThermal Project: Concept, Objective and Consortium

The CrowdThermal Project aims to empower the European public to directly participate in the development of geothermal projects with the help of alternative financing schemes (crowdfunding) and social engagement tools.
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Contact

We would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us!

TEL: +31 850 640 972
Email: info@community.finance

OFFICE LOCATION:
Keizersgracht 264
1016 EV Amsterdam
THE NETHERLANDS