As a social innovation lab, we always have the indescribable need to create a solution for every challenge our society is facing. Therefore, within the ‘InnoFinRES – Innovative financial models to support the transition to renewable energy sources’ project, we had an opportunity to work on creating a crowdfunding financing model which would be suitable and applicable to our financial system.
Creating this crowdfunding financial model as the first of its kind in our country also required extensive research to optimize its structure and to actually raise awareness about the transition to renewable energy sources.
First workshop
Starting back in November, together with our project partners KLIK – Krizevacki Laboratorij Inovacija za Klimu, Korimako, Solar Macedonia, Municipality of Ilinden and Consejo Insular de la Energia de Gran Canaria as well as community stakeholders, we held our first workshop in order to develop a collective financial model.
Our project partner KLIK – Krizevacki Laboratorij Inovacija za Klimu, shared their successful experience in creating and implementing this type of crowdfunding model, as well as the challenges they faced during the process and all the positive impact they’ve made in their community. Sharing this experience motivated the workshop attendees and drove our willingness to create an innovative financial crowdfunding model for supporting our country in the transition to mass usage of renewable energy sources.
The outcomes of the economic and legal analysis made within the ‘InnoFinRES’ project, with a focus on the possibilities and challenges of creating, developing and implementing crowdfunding models in a local context, were presented by the economic and legal experts and helped prepare all workshop participants to develop a draft crowdfunding mode.
We finished the first workshop with enriched knowledge from the experience-sharing sessions and awareness of the legal economic framework and numerous crowdfunding model ideas on which we then focused and further developed in the next workshop.
Second workshop
Having shared information, knowledge and experience, together with the workshop participants, we worked in groups to develop more detailed potential crowdfunding models.
The first part of the group work was focused on the process of developing a crowdfunding model and after, we made a simulation to demonstrate its potential effectiveness.
The integration of the outcomes from the legal and economic analysis into the crowdfunding models for the InnoFinRES project not only increased their credibility and feasibility but also ensured transparency and security which will be vital to encourage stakeholders in the community to invest in and transition to renewable energy sources.
Third workshop
After developing and testing the crowdfunding model, we wanted to further analyze and confirm the usability of the tools for developing crowdfunding models, so we held a third workshop.
The attendees worked in groups in order to better analyze the tools and models and suggest possible ways for further development of the financing models, resulting in valuable feedback, meaning it could be implemented in our system.
As part of the ‘InnoFinRES’ project, a kindergarten in the Municipality of Ilinden was retrofitted with PVT hybrid collectors to serve as a showcase for the effectiveness and potential of integrating renewable energy sources in our community.
Learn more here.
Are you ready to be one of the first who will start the transition to renewable energy sources and inspire the other stakeholders in the community to join you on this path toward environmental change?
Feel free to contact us and learn more about the crowdfunding model and its possibilities via [email protected].
