Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW
Initial situation
At the outset there were more than 80 different crowdfunding platforms in the German market, whereby the bulk of the projects is concentrated outside sport. A few platforms target sport-related projects, facilitating, for example, investments in young talent, supporting amateur associations at regional levels or offering sport fans the opportunity to support their favourite club with fan loans. As part of the pilot campaign “crowdFANding - Südkurve bleibt!” a platform was created in close collaboration with the active football fan scene.
Objective
The financing expertsat Fraunhofer IMW conducted the second “crowdFANding – Ein Fanhaus für Mainz” campaign on behalf of crowdFANding e. V. in Jena and the Fanprojekt Mainz e. V. Besides evaluating the relevant success factors in sport crowdfunding, the research focused on investigating current forms of participation. The research has led to contributions at European research conferences (e.g. European Crowdfunding Network, Crowd Dialog) and has provided a basis for a number of bachelor and master theses. The technical infrastructure was developed in close co-operation with the crowdFANding e. V. and aimed to make preparations for experiments (e.g. A/B tests) for addressing users, with the objective of acquiring a better understanding of how supporters lend their support. Further research regarding experimental design is foreseen for the third crowdFANding project with an international partner. The “crowdFANding - Ein Fanhaus für Mainz” campaign ran from 13 August up until 10 September 2017.