Oihane and Denis: a match story

Oihane Pardo is the creator of Amarenak, a project that recovers Basque coats, promoting local products as well as the use of natural and artisan fabrics. Denis Itxaso is a regional deputy of Culture in Gipuzkoa. What do they have in common?

Oihane looked for "a viable initiative to work with natural fabrics, respectful with the environment and production of km0, being in contact with local museums, to be able to continue recovering other traditional garments".

Denis, "a new policy for financing cultural projects based on greater transparency in the granting of aid and social involvement, which ultimately determines which cultural projects are, in his opinion, more interesting".

In Goteo they found a common denominator and in the Matchfunding the ideal tool. Specifically, in the first edition of the program Meta!Kultura, where the Diputación of Gipuzkoa made available a fund of 70,000 euros to co-finance 20 projects of cultural agents in its territory, and where we managed to raise a total of 151,024 euros, thanks to 1,320 citizens, who contributed 84,452 euros, and the County Council, which provided another 66,572, also complemented with training, advice and communication actions.

That first edition of Meta! Kultura worked so well that soon we will launch ... the fourth call!
Enjoy the video and keep reading to discover more details about this new model of public-private collaboration.

What is Matchfunding?

In Goteo Foundation we select and accompany civic projects that seek funding and Matchfunding is an innovative co-financing model developed by Goteo. Said in the shortest time, for every euro that a person contributes to your project, there is an organization behind that double that amount. How do we do it?

We investigate, we get in touch and we associate with an institution, public or private, which we will call Matcher, which has a budget (a deposit of money) to develop or support a specific sector of its interest or territory (social innovation, health , culture, education ...). Then, we propose to open a call where projects that promote and introduce improvements in any of these areas of interest can participate.

We have not only worked with public institutions, like the previous example of the Diputación de Gipuzkoa, but also with the Ayuntamiento de Barcelona and Zaragoza. Matchfunding has been successfully tested in 16 different calls, with organizations such as Fundacion Bofill, Universidad Internacional de Andalucía and Ahora Madrid

Why is it so interesting for project developers?

It's a great idea because, as project driver, you access:

• 👉Informative and Training Sessions: to obtain personalized advice and knowledge related to crowdfunding, as well as to receive feedback and improvement proposals from the rest of the participants
• 👉Greater Visibility than any other project on other platforms: you receive active support from an institution and access to the Goteo community, with more than 140,000 users
• 👉More Donation: for each euro contributed by the citizens, the institution contributes doubling that same amount. Our internal statistics show that the contributions of citizens to matchfunding projects are above average.
• 👉Match Effect/Multiplier: the selected projects end up being supported "from below" and "from above", gaining greater visibility and recognition

And for Matchers?

For public institutions, companies and organizations, it is an opportunity to:

• Collaborate with communities and new audiences and involve them in their mission. Thanks to the tour of the Goteo Foundation supporting civic projects and social ventures, we come to an ecosystem of civil society that companies or public institutions do not reach so easily.
• Position itself in innovative models of public-private collaboration, using the potential of technology and with the backing of a public utility foundation with a long history.
• Distribute funds through a model that promotes "efficient excellence" thanks to citizen participation, agility, transparency and capacity building.

Tell me more!

Of course! Access at any time to our section of Pitch&Match to get in touch. If you prefer, you can also take advantage of the fact that we are touring the Spanish geography and meet us in person at any of our FundLabs.

A FundLab is a workshop open to innovative entities that proposes different collaborative scenarios through hybrid financing. Of course, always based on social values and people in the center. A "mobile laboratory" in the form of face-to-face meetings where you can try different forms of collaboration around new ideas around social entrepreneurship.

Through Goteo, projects not only access funds but, through crowdfunding and matchfunding, generate a community around their initiative that improves sustainability expectations once funding has been achieved. Many of these initiatives have access to other financial services, such as those of the ethical and solidarity institutions, or to social investors who bet on their initiative.

With FundLabs we want to answer the question: how can we transform the financing mechanisms and how can we open them up to society? How can we move from the crowdfunding to the crowdanthropy?

With these questions in mind, we will be next March 19 in Madrid, with [Culture Fundlab] (https://www.goteo.org/workshop/29), where we will put in common with all the attendees (culture, companies and/or foundations and public institutions) the objectives and requirements of this sector in particular to co-create and adapt in a versatile way Goteo's tools, according to the needs, methodologies and processes of distribution of resources of each . Consult and download the Entities Dossier and Collective's Dossier to know more.

We also worked on these issues with ethical finance actors last October in FundLab Barcelona, here you can check the chronicle, and in the January FundLab Asturias where we focus on the theme of rural development and social entrepreneurship. What do we do in each of these FundLabs? We try to detect common scenarios from the initiatives and share experiences in the journey towards financing after crowdfunding, identifying new mechanisms with participating institutions that contribute to their sustainability.

These FundLabs are part of the European project Empowering Early State Investors, whose objective is to train investors from all over Europe, facilitating their connection with other entities. This stimulates a social fabric composed of different agents: crowdfunding experts, foundations, philanthropers, ethical banking, social investment and legislators.

In addition, with the creation, development and implementation of these new hybrid models, we contribute directly to the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 17, to promote and promote the establishment of effective partnerships in the public, public-private and civil society spheres, taking advantage of the experience and strategies for obtaining resources from alliances.

(If you are interested as much as we are, you lucky! soon we will tell you a lot and you will see everything that Goteo Foundation is generating to achieve those goals)

Cool! I wanna be a Matcher!

Perfect. In addition to the FundLabs, as we said, you can access at any time the new section of Pitch&Match

There you will find not only some projects presented, but other organizations that have already supported the driving people, contributing their resources as well as their knowledge.

As you will see, it is not just a history of successful projects ... it is an invitation to participate! An opportunity to take action.

📑Do you want to launch a project with social impact and you are looking for funding? Make your declaration of intentions, or Pitch, and meet people like Lluís, Denis and Pau who are part of institutions, organizations or companies that multiply the donations and amplify the impact of crowdfunding projects.

📋Do you have a budget in your organization and want to support a social entrepreneurship project? You are Matcher! Discover how your organization can help project ptomotors improve society.

In Goteo we have already published more than 1150 projects with a 76% success in its financing and more than 7,400.00 euros collected.

We will be delighted that you are part of this substantial and visible improvement of society, expanding a sustainable legacy and promoting the values of the social, solidarity and cooperative economy. Here we are and we want to meet you!