Long live the Queen! And the crowdsourcing model for civic projects.

A few weeks ago, we introduced you to an interesting crowdfunding project in the Netherlands to build a bridge. Today, we would like to introduce you to another crowdfunding initiative from across the pond - this time, a giant floating replica of the Queen of England’s head.

Yes, you read that right. This odd and interesting project was successfully crowdfunded on Spacehive.com - a “funding platform for neighbourhood improvement projects” in the UK.

We are big fans of what Spacehive is doing. In fact, it’s very similar to what we are building here in the US with Citizinvestor. However, there is one fundamental and significant difference between Spacehive’s model and what we are building with Citizinvestor.

We believe that having citizens crowdfund civic projects will work best when projects have already been scored and approved by a government entity. We believe the best approach is to ensure that there is government buy-in for a project before citizens invest, that way they can be confident that if the project meets its funding goal, it will be built.

That said, we also believe that there must be a place for citizens to come to organize projects that municipalities either haven’t approved or haven’t thought of yet. Citizinvestor will give citizens the ability to propose the projects they want with petitions that, once reaching a certain number of signatures, we will help usher through the proper government channels.

Using crowdfunding to fund civic projects is a new and innovative idea. We are not saying there’s a right or wrong way to do it, but this is our way. We would love to hear what you think!