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The goal of the crowd-financed P3 model is to facilitate involvement of the public, especially local community members, as a major partner in the current P3 model. Investment crowdfunding is a proven model for increasing public engagement and transparency in sophisticated development projects and new ventures.  In addition, aligning the interests of the P3 developer,…

Crowdfunding investment for a P3 can help promote sustainable infrastructure projects. Investors who support sustainable infrastructure can vote with their dollars and choose to invest in projects that have demonstrated a commitment to sustainability by being Envision rated. If sustainable infrastructure projects are shown to be preferred by investors over non-sustainable projects, then infrastructure planners…

A great report from the BPC on the need for private investment in public infrastructure that includes a discussion on the use of crowdfunding.  Here are the highlights: “An emerging discussion among infrastructure practitioners is the potential of crowdfunding to help pay for projects. Crowdfunding, in which individuals throughout the world can contribute to projects…

The recently published New Cities Foundation Handbook on Urban Infrastructure discusses the benefits of crowdfunding private investment for public infrastructure projects and the role of the crowdfunding platform: “There are several other advantages associated with using crowdfunded P3 equity. Because the crowdfunding is provided by investors with social as well as financial motivations, they may…

A great article by Stanford’s Kate Gasparro addressing the opportunities and challenges of crowdfinancing for public infrastructure projects. Read More

There has been a lot of hype around the new Title III crowdfunding regulations, but there are several other crowdfunding mechanisms under the JOBS Act already in place that may be better suited for infrastructure projects.  Here is a review of the other investment crowdfunding regulations enabled by the JOBS Act and how they fit…

Recent changes to securities law (2012 JOBS Act) allows for general solicitation of securities to investors (with certain limitations) through online platforms that offer investment opportunities to individual investors.  Public agencies can now partner with a crowd-financing platform (CFP) to solicit medium-term loans from local and state investors who seek safe medium-term investment opportunities as…

Following up on a paper written by Morteza Farajian with the VDOT P3 office, he and I co-authored a paper that introduces an implication framework for the P3 crowd-financing model. This paper highlights similarities between crowd-financing models being implemented in the real estate industry and applications to P3s, and then describes the current regulatory framework…