2014-09-14 · Facebook (in Russian)

Crowdfunding instead of a general meeting

Many good things for apartment buildings founder on the complicated system of holding general meetings of owners.

These meetings are very hard to hold, nobody comes, there is no quorum. And good decisions, like replacing the doors or putting nice planters in the entrance hall, simply never get a chance, because:

some owners don't live in the building, they rent the apartment out and couldn't care less what doors are at the entrance or whether there are flowers. What matters is that the tenant pays
some don't have the money to chip in. Loans, mortgages... and some are just stingy
some live by the principle "and Baba Yaga is against it" and ideologically oppose any improvement to the building.

But in every entrance there is a group of residents who want to improve their beloved building despite the resistance of owners from the three groups above.

Why shouldn't they use crowdfunding?

Any owner (or the management company) can announce a fundraiser for a project to improve the building or the yard.
Anyone interested in a project votes with money by sending a certain amount toward it. No general meetings: voting with your rubles is the most real vote there is. This way, by the way, we can carry out projects that only some of the residents are interested in. For example, installing a ramp that only parents with small children and strollers need.
Liga ZhKKH will be able to join projects it finds interesting and take part as an interested party alongside the owners. For example, put in 10,000 of the 40,000 needed for the doors.
If an owner sees that a project is 1,000 rubles short, they can add those 1,000 rubles to get the building improved sooner, even if they have already paid.

I think this system is very sound. It just needs software written for it. And some thought about what rewards there could be for those who actively take part in improving their building.

Would you put money into projects like these?

PS: the page structure is based on the planeta.ru crowdfunding platform

Translated from Russian. First published on Facebook on September 14, 2014.