Public Crowdfunding in the Jewish district in Budapest

Target met. The Hungarian foundation Gyökerek és Szárnyak Alapítvány has organized public crowdfunding events for a year and a half. In May 2019, three projects met their funding targets and thus the association Parola (handshake), families in need, and a bakery run by Roma women received funding. (9 July 2019)

The Hungarian foundation Gyökerek és Szárnyak Alapítvány (Roots & Wings) in Budapest is the responsible body for three major projects: KözösALAPON („on a joint basis“) that consults and supports the establishment of community foundations in Hungary, Kisvárosok („small towns“) that supports actors in the non-profit sector in rural areas, and last but not least Élő Adás, in Hungarian a pun that means both live broadcast as well as live donation. Élő Adás is a kind of public crowdfunding, an event with a big group of generous people on an analogue and not a virtual public platform.

The event takes place in a homely saloon on the first floor of the Jewish restaurant Kőleves („soup of stones“, referring to a well-known fairy tale) in the centre of the old Jewish district in Pest. While noisy tourists pass below on the street, on the first floor, after a delicious buffet, donations for the common good are collected. The audience is diverse and seems surprisingly normal: women and men of different age groups and styles, all very casual. The rules are simple: three social projects present themselves, pitch their objectives to the audience, for what they need how much money; the guests can ask questions to the activists.

Reed more in stiftungen.org; the author of the article is our trustee, Axel Halling.

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