Freitag, 22. März 2013

Swiss Funding Craze

“In Switzerland we’re sometimes slow to come on board, but we’re quick to catch up,” Johannes Gees, one of founding partners of the successful donation crowdfunding platform, wemakeit.ch, told swissinfo.ch. Gees is a media artist inspired by technology.

Although exclusively dedicated to art, music, film, design and other creative projects, wemakeit.ch generated CHF1.5 million during its first year in 2012 with a success rate of 65 per cent for its projects. It is just behind the number one European site, startnext.de.

Gees attributes part of the success to the fact that the Swiss have a long tradition of community funding. Choirs, sports clubs and neighbourhood projects are often locally funded. “We are just providing the tools to pool the resources,” he explained.

Rea Eggli, another of the founding partners of the platform, has identified a big shift in arts consumption: “Instead of accessing information when it’s already mainstream, people enjoy discovering projects and helping them happen,” she said.

Sibylle Stoeckli, a young industrial designer from Lausanne, successfully financed her Global Design Research field project thanks to wemakeit.ch. Her target of CHF10,000 was reached within 30 days and she is currently on a mission to compare the criteria of design sustainability from five continents.