Crowdfunding Historic Preservation: Direct Public Offerings and Other Ways to Raise Funds
New financing tools are helping small to mid-size historic preservation projects get off the ground, in spite of their high labor and rehabilitation costs. Our past programs have provided guidance using grants, tax credits, and easements, but this new, two-part webinar will focus on novel financing models for design and construction, including:
- Community Capital: Raising investment capital from community members through Regulation Crowdfunding, Direct Public Offerings, Regulation A, and Real Estate Investment Funds allows developers to involve community members as investors in historic preservation projects. These approaches allow project returns to be shared with community investors and can assist developers in garnering community support.
- Crowdfunding. The popularity of GoFundMe, Indiegogo, and other crowdfunding sites has enabled some preservation projects to get much-needed capital to execute a project or program. This portion of the webinar will look at case examples from various nonprofits and community development projects that have benefited from specific crowdfunding campaigns, including the 10-city initiative spearheaded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Attendees will come away from this webinar with a general understanding of new tools and techniques for project funding. The webinar will close with a 15-20 minute discussion and Question and Answer period.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the newest and most innovative methods for financing rehabilitation projects of existing buildings
- Define and differentiate between "crowdsourcing" and "crowdfunding"
- Understand the benefits and challenges associated with crowdfunding through Direct Public Offerings (DPOs) or other new methods of project financing
- Determine key takeaways from case examples in crowdfunding and DPOs