Citizinvestor

George Costanza, Liz Lemon, Scrooge McDuck and Citizinvestor

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:21:04 -0400

Citizinvestor Co-founder Jordan Raynor recently presented at Ignite Tampa Bay where he presented Citizinvestor in a very entertaining way. George Costanza, Liz Lemon and Scrooge McDuck all make appearances.

Look what you did!

Tue, 14 May 2013 06:59:00 -0400

Last fall, Citizinvestors across the country rallied together to fund a class to train 10 blind students in Boston on how to use an iPad and other technology. Your donations made this class possible and allowed these 10 students to take their iPads home with them forever!

The class took place last week, and the team at Tech Goes Home (the organization which administered the class) was kind enough to share some photos and stories from the class with us! To see more photos from the class, head over to our Facebook page.

Here are some reflections on the class from Tech Goes Home:

All of the students/parents were thrilled and send their heartfelt thanks to the Citizinvestors who helped them connect with family and friends and with the information and opportunity that being connected provides. They now have email accounts, can obtain a Facebook account, and can share in the tech related social opportunities along with their sighted peers. They can read books, order books from the library, enlarge print when needed, go to websites, and download and use relevant apps. A whole new world has been opened for them!

Sitting in the class, it was amazing to listen to ten students’ iPads speaking out loud at the same time. While it might be a little distracting to me, none of them seemed at all distracted! They were quite intent on their own device.

One student presented her final project during the class we visited. She shared how she uses her technology to read books. Some of the students talked of how they can “speed read” since the device allows them to turn up the speed of the reader!

We had a set of sisters in the class, both blind. They each got an iPad and are being assisted by both a parent and a teacher from their school. The teacher is volunteering as each child needed an adult to assist.

Look what you did! Thank you for investing in the Boston community and the lives of these children.

Welcome, Story Bellows!

Mon, 13 May 2013 06:30:00 -0400

We could not be more excited to welcome Story Bellows to the Citizinvestor Board of Advisors!

When we began working on Citizinvestor a little over a year ago, we put out an open invitation for any U.S. city to join us in our quest to empower citizens to invest in their community. Story and her Co-Chair Jeff Friedman in the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Philadelphia were among the first to answer the call. Since launching in Philly last year, Story’s advice has been invaluable. We are honored that she has agreed to formalize this advisory role!

Here’s a bit more of what you need to know about Story:

Story Bellows joined the City of Philadelphia in April of 2012 as Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics. The new office is a civic idea and innovation incubator, which develops innovative approaches and processes to solving complex problems in the public arena. Prior to coming to Philadelphia, Story served as Director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the US Conference of Mayors. An urban designer by training, Story spent four years in a private design practice Chicago, where she founded a research group and worked with leaders in the public, private and non-profit sectors on urban, education, healthcare and environmental design projects and initiatives. She holds an undergraduate degree from Colgate University and a Masters degree in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Story joins Marci Harris of POPVOX, Steve Ressler of GovLoop, Patrick Ruffini of Engage and Russell Wallace formerly of CivicSponsor on the Board.

High school students crowdfund new bike racks for school in 3 days

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:08:59 -0400

A few weeks ago, we received an email from Isaac Meyer, the president of the Green Club at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon. Isaac was contacting us to ask if his school district could post a project to Citizinvestor to crowdfund new bike racks that he and his fellow students badly needed for all the reasons outlined in this video they created:

We had to do a double-take when we read the email. We can’t think of many high school students who are as engaged and civicly minded as Isaac is. Needless to say, we were thrilled that Isaac came to Citizinvestor to get the tools he needed to create change on his campus.

One week ago today, the school district posted the project to Citizinvestor. Immediately, donations started pouring in. In just over 3 days, the project was successfully funded, making it the fastest project ever funded on Citizinvestor by a long shot! 23 Citizinvestors donated a total of $1,080 to help Isaac and his fellow students fund 17 new bike racks for their campus.

Now, Isaac and company are on to Phase 2 of their project, which will allow them to fund an additional 18 bike racks on campus. Help these amazing students reach their goal here: http://www.citizinvestor.com/project/sheldon-bike-parking-phase-two

Crowdfunding in 1926

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:06:12 -0400

“Crowdfunding” is unquestionably the buzzword of 2013. But is it really all that new?

You may have noticed that Citizinvestors are currently crowdfunding the restorations of the historics Hacienda Hotel in New Port Richey, Florida. But as our partners at the City point out, the hotel was originally “crowdfunded” in 1926! Check out the front page of the New Port Richey Press from March 5 of that same year:

It’s somewhat poetic that 87 years later, citizens are again rallying together to help restore this historic landmark. Be sure to follow the progress of this intriguing project at Citizinvestor.com. And while you are there, be sure to check out the first Citizinvestor project in the great State of Texas!

Your impact in Hillsborough County

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:01:00 -0400

A few months ago, you the Citizinvestor community crowdfunded the prizes for the first-ever hackathon sponsored by Hillsborough County - the third largest county in the State of Florida. A few weeks ago, Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, spoke about the significance of this project. Check it out!

Philadelphians crowdfund community garden

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:13:00 -0400

This afternoon, Philadelphians reached their goal of raising $2,163 to crowdfund a new community garden at the Rivera Recreation Center!

As Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate points out, “Kids in North Philadelphia will learn about gardening, composting and the eye-popping deliciousness of freshly harvested food this summer at the Rivera Recreation Center at Fifth Street and Allegheny Avenue.”

With the funds in hand, Philadelphia’s Department of Parks and Recreation will now be able to build this garden in one of Philly’s poorest neighborhoods. You can read the details of this amazing project here.

Help Rita plant daisies in Philly

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:45:45 -0400

Meet Rita.

Rita has volunteered to work as a gardener and mentor for children at a new intergenerational community garden in one of Philadelphia’s most depressed neighborhoods. “I intend to plant daisies,” Rita says. “It’s good to see flowers instead of weeds. It makes the community bright.” There’s only one problem: the garden hasn’t been built yet.

The City of Philadelphia is raising the $2,100 necessary to bring this community garden to life on Citizinvestor. With just a couple of weeks until the funding deadline, Philadelphians have donated 55% of the goal, but they need your help to close the gap.

Will you donate $10, $25 or $50 today to help provide Rita and her friends with the tools to mentor these children in Philly? After you’ve donated, be sure to encourage your friends on Facebook and your followers on Twitter to do the same.

Working hand-in-hand with our city partners

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:53:00 -0400

With most fundraising platforms, you as the project creator post the project and then you are on your own to get it funded. That is not our approach at Citizinvestor. We work hand-in-hand with our municipal partners to help get their projects funded.

This past Friday, our Co-founders Tony DeSisto and Jordan Raynor traveled to New Port Richey, Florida to show what this looks like. Last month the City of New Port Richey posted a great project to Citizinvestor - a $37,800 initiative to help restore a historic hotel in the city’s downtown. Tony and Jordan met with the city and their partners at the Pasco Economic Development Council to help them brainstorm how to get this project funded. The City is well on their way to funding this great initiative!

Following the meeting, our team walked down to the site of the Hacienda Hotel to see first-hand the condition the hotel is in and the dramatic impact citizens will have in this community once they crowdfund this project on Citizinvestor. We love working closely with our municipal partners and citizens who are eager to invest in their communities!

Interested in posting a project in your city? Sign-up now at Citizinvestor.com.

Funding civic innovation in Hillsborough County, Florida

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:51:32 -0400

Today, the Citizinvestor community successfully funded the first-ever County-sponsored hackathon in Hillsborough County, Florida! We couldn’t be more excited to see our growing community of micro-philanthropists investing in civic innovation.

With their successfully funded Citizinvestor project, for the first time ever Hillsborough County will be opening up data from numerous departments to Tampa Bay’s technology community. The money raised for this project will go towards funding the prizes for the competition. For more details on the event visit hackhillsborough.com.

To all of you Citizinvestors who contributed to this project or others on the site, thank you! You are making amazing things happen in your cities that wouldn’t happen without your generosity.

Crowdfund White House tours

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:32:00 -0400

On March 9, The White House announced that it would be suspending public tours of the building until further notice “due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration.” Since the suspension of tours, citizens from across the country have spoken loudly about their desire to see the tours resumed. In the midst of fiscal crisis and angry citizens not getting what they want, Citizinvestor is offering a solution.

Yesterday, we posted a petition on The White House’s We the People platform urging the Administration to create a project on Citizinvestor.com to raise the necessary funds to resume public tours. Once the Administration posts the project, citizens will be asked to pledge to donate tax-deductibly. Citizens’ credit cards will only be charged if the project reaches 100% of its funding goal, ensuring no risk to citizens or the Administration. It truly is a win/win. We are even willing to completely waive our fees if The White House posts this project.

If you would like to see the Administration post a project to Citizinvestor to allow citizens to crowdfund these tours, sign the petition and please share it with your friends: http://wh.gov/sN1c

Pawnee, IN and Citizinvestor

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:44:52 -0500

The following is a guest post from Leslie Knope, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Pawnee, Indiana (as seen on NBC).

Times are tough in the City of Pawnee, Indiana.

As the Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, I see projects every day that the community wants, but the City simply doesn’t have the money for in our budget. Take the Sullivan Street Pit for example. We have been trying to turn that wretched eye-sore into a beautiful community park for years, but we haven’t had a way to fund it. Until now!

I recently discovered Citizinvestor - a crowdfunding platform for local government projects like the Sullivan Street park. My team at the Department of Parks and Recreation and I recorded a short video explaining the problem Citizinvestor is solving in Pawnee and cities across the U.S. Check it out:

Citizinvestor featured in community action toolkit in conjunction with release of Promised Land movie starring Matt Damon

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:44:48 -0500

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Head to the theater to see Promised Land starring Matt Damon and be sure to download the community action toolkit featuring Citizinvestor after the movie!

In conjunction with today’s release of Promised Land, Citizinvestor has partnered with Participant Media to provide citizens with a community action toolkit full of information about and links to all of the digital platforms that exist to heighten community engagement and involvement. Check it out here:

In a press release announcing the partnership, Chad Boettcher, Participant’s Executive Vice President of Social Action & Advocacy, said, “In Promised Land, the arrival of Matt Damon’s salesman character in a small town dramatizes a situation taking place all over America today in which communities, facing difficult decisions, are forced to come together to collectively determine their futures. Yet, through research we know that there’s a large number of Americans who would like to participate in organized community work, but don’t know how or where to start. In an independent study commissioned by TakePart, 84% of cause-interested adults said they wished they could do more, and 69% said that they wish it were easier to get involved. Our Social Action campaign is designed to give people the virtual experience of what it’s like to be a community changemaker, along with the resources they need to get started in their home towns.”

We are thrilled to be included in this initiative along with some of our favorite civic startups like SeeClickFix, MindMixer and POPVOX.

Click here to download your community action toolkit now! And if you haven’t seen a trailer yet for the movie, here you go:

TEDx: Crowdfunding Government

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:33:00 -0500

A few months ago, Citizinvestor Co-founder Jordan Raynor had the privilege of outlining our long-term vision for crowdfunding local government projects at a TEDx event in Tampa, Florida. We are thrilled to be able to share his presentation in its entirety:

Will you take a second to share this video on Facebook and Twitter?

The first Citizinvestor project in the City of Boston has been funded!

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 05:58:31 -0500

We are thrilled to share with you that the first Citizinvestor project in the City of Boston has been funded!

In just 55 days, 47 Citizinvestors stepped up to the plate to donate $6,480 to put iPads and other technology in the hands of 10 blind students in Boston. If you’ve seen this video from one of the students who has gone through the program in the past, you know why these Citizinvestors invested in this worthy cause:

This is a huge milestone for Citizinvestor and the movement for crowdfunding local government and civic projects. Having only launched our pilot program in Philadelphia and Boston less than three months ago, citizens have already proven that they will fund the civic projects they care about most.

We can’t wait to see what projects citizens will fund next in Philadelphia, Boston and other cities across the United States!

Introducing the Citizinvestor Board of Advisors

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 10:39:00 -0400

The problems we are trying to solve at Citizinvestor are big and audacious. While we are brave enough to attack these challenges head on, it’s clear we don’t have all the answers. Today, we are honored to announce that four highly-respected professionals in government and technology will begin advising our team and steering Citizinvestor through some of the company’s most critical decisions. Without further adieu, allow us to introduce you to these amazing people:

Marci Harris is the CEO of POPVOX. POPVOX bridges the gap between the input the public wants to provide and the information Members of Congress want and need to receive. Marci began public service work as Tornado Recovery Coordinator for Jackson, Tenn., working with private and public organizations and state, local and federal agencies to marshall resources and rebuild. In 2007, she became Tax, Trade, and Health Counsel to Pete Stark, then-Chairman of the Health Subcommittee of Ways and Means, and was Committee lead for Medicare Program Integrity and Physician Payments Sunshine provisions of the House health reform bill. She left the Hill in February 2010 to build POPVOX.

Steve Ressler is the Founder and President of GovLoop.com, the “Knowledge Network for Government” which connects and fosters collaboration among over 60,000 members of the government community. Mr. Ressler is a 3rd generation public sector leader and spent 6 years in roles at Social Security Administration, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, and DHS Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Patrick Ruffini is president at Engage, a digital agency with clients including Fortune 500 companies, Presidential and statewide candidates, technology startups, and issue advocacy campaigns. As a leader in digital politics over the last decade, Ruffini’s work has helped elect a President, changed the direction of powerful institutions, and resulted in millions of signups, tens of millions of dollars raised, and thousands of blog and media mentions.

Russell Wallace is a three-time startup founder and a former corporate attorney. Since quitting the law in 2009, he has worked on 5 different consumer-facing web properties and has founded or co-founded 3, including Trendero.com, MomiLoop and CivicSponsor.org, one of the first crowdfunding sites for government projects. His goal is to build big ideas that make the world more friendly, open and adventurous.

In 8 days, we have our first successfully signed Citizinvestor petition!

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:04:11 -0400

It only took 8 days for the bicycle community of St. Petersburg, Florida to rally around this successful petition for the City to install bike pumps and fix stations along the area’s bike lanes!

We wanted to take this moment to celebrate with the 100+ citizens who signed this petition and to explain how the petition process works moving forward. Now that the petition has reached its target number of signatures, we will work with the petition’s creator (Reuben Pressman) to set up a meeting with the appropriate people inside the City of St. Petersburg or Pinellas County. Reuben will then have the ability to pitch his idea to the government entity, with the tangible support of 100 St. Petersburg residents at his back. Citizinvestor will work with the municipality to introduce them to our platform and encourage them to post the project on Citizinvestor where it can raise the funds necessary for these bike pumps to be installed!

To check out this awesome petition, visit http://www.citizinvestor.com/petition/bike-pump-and-fix-stations. To start your own petition, visit http://www.citizinvestor.com/start/petition.

Welcome Matt Morse to the Citizinvestor team!

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:19:52 -0400

We are thrilled to announce that Matt Morse has joined the Citizinvestor team as our lead Community Partner!

For eight years, Matt has worked in the technology management and public policy fields. He served as a federal and state lobbyist at The Pew Charitable Trusts, including advocacy for the passage and implementation of legislation in Congress and 10 states.

Matthew also worked for three years as the project manager for Pew’s Voting Information Project (VIP), where he worked closely with Citizinvestor Co-founder, Jordan Raynor. VIP is a partnership between the Pew Center on the States, state election offices, major technology companies, and voter engagement groups to provide information to help voters navigate the election process by leveraging Internet technologies.

At Citizinvestor, Matt will be leading our efforts to secure projects from municipalities and build relationships with civic leaders. This will culminate in better organized communities unified to fund and support these projects. Matt is incredibly talented and is well respected by leaders in this space. He will be a huge asset to Citizinvestor as we continue to secure partnerships with some of the largest and most innovative cities in the U.S. to crowdfund the projects citizens care about most.

Be sure to follow Matt on Twitter, and if you’re interested in reading about the rest of our team, you can check us out at our new team page: http://citizinvestor.com/about

A community of micro-philanthropists

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 06:39:07 -0400

In grade school, we began learning the word “philanthropist” - a term usually tied to the Carnegies and Rockefellers of the world - the philanthropists who, through their generosity, helped build a nation. We grew up respecting these men and women, admiring them for their investments in their neighborhoods and communities.

So what does a philanthropist look like in the 21st century? There are certainly contemporary examples such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett who give millions of dollars to causes each year. But at Citizinvestor, we don’t believe that you have to have millions of dollars to be a philanthropist in the 21st century. In fact, all you need is a few dollars.

We believe that “philanthropy” differentiates itself from other forms of giving in that it is big, public and tangible.

Big

Traditional philanthropists built big things: libraries, universities and the U.N. Today’s micro-philanthropists are building big things too: bridges, a Nikola Tesla museum and, as Clay Shirky would point out, Wikipedia! Shirky says in his great book, Here Comes Everybody, “We have lived in this world where little things are done for love and big things for money. Now we have Wikipedia. Suddenly big things can be done for love.”

Public

Dictionary.com defines philanthropy as “private initiatives for public good.” Both traditional and micro-philanthropists understand this well. Philanthropic gifts are meant to be for the good of all men, or in the case of Citizinvestor, for the good of all citizens. This is probably why the “city of brotherly love” was the first to post a project on Citizinvestor! The projects posted to Citizinvestor come from local government entities and are inherently public, thus attracting a community of micro-philanthropists who feel compelled to take initiative for public good.

Tangible

In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was near impossible to do anything philanthropic that was truly tangible if you didn’t have millions of dollars. Today that is not the case. Our favorite example of this is Charity Water who does a fantastic job of making big gifts tangible even if you have only donated $5 to build a water well in Africa. With Citizinvestor, tangible outcomes are possible for the micro-philanthropist who only has a few dollars to spare to build a park, playground or plant a tree.

At Citizinvestor, we are creating a community of “micro-phlanthropists” where anyone can choose specific projects to fund in their neighborhoods and see that investment come to life to make their neighborhood a better place. In effect, we are democratizing philanthropy. So what do you say? Want to help us build a community of modern-day Carnegies and Rockefellers with just a few dollars? Check out this great project from Philadelphia or start a petition of your own!

Launched!

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:35:54 -0400

And we’re off!

This morning, we launched Citizinvestor as a pilot program in the City of Philadelphia! We are thrilled to announce that Philly has become one of the first cities in the world to crowdfund city projects, and we’re honored to say they are doing it on Citizinvestor.

This is truly something that has never been done before. For the first time in history, we are giving citizens the ability to tell government precisely where they want their money spent.

Starting today, Philadelphians can visit Citizinvestor.com to find and invest in the local projects they care about most, starting with TreePhilly, a campaign led by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PP&R) in partnership with Wells Fargo and Fairmount Park Conservancy that directly engages Philadelphia property owners, businesses and neighbors to plant and maintain trees. Through Citizinvestor, citizens can now micro-fund the planting of these trees across the city. Citizens’ credit cards will only be charged if the project reaches 100% of its funding goal. At that point, the trees will be disbursed to citizens to plant!

While Philadelphia is the first city to post projects to the site, today we are giving citizens in all U.S. cities the ability to petition their local governments to initiate the projects they care about most. Once a citizen-started petition reaches its target number of signatures, we will work with the citizen who started the petition to introduce the idea to the appropriate individuals in their local government and will work to try to get the petition turned into a project on Citizinvestor.

Mayor Nutter’s office has been a fantastic partner on this project, as have been the dozens other cities we are currently working with to post projects to the site. We can’t wait to launch projects in your city!

With today’s launch, we begin the work of creating a community of micro-philanthropists across America. It’s a monumental task, but one that we believe we are uniquely suited to succeed at. Thank you for taking this journey with us!