By using information technology, local governments can develop alternative forms of citizen engagement. Civic crowdfunding campaigns supported by online platforms enable citizens to participate financially in social projects and can be matched with government funding. As such, an alternative for subsidies seems to be developing. In this paper, we assess empirically the success of civic crowdfunding campaigns in the Netherlands by using data collected during 2018 from 269 civic crowdfunding projects and local demographic data from the neighborhoods of these projects. The factors—the use of match-funding, the target amount of money, and the theme of the project, as well as the age structure, the province, and the degree of urbanization of the neighborhood of the civic crowdfunding project—turn out to be empirically related to the success of a civic crowdfunding campaign.

Citizen engagement is a key component of democracy, especially in local governments. It is seen as a way to generate input and support, and to find creative solutions to problems and challenges governments face. Currently, Western democracies are witnessing a challenge in which citizens have less trust in their government. This explorative study examines if citizen engagement is a valuable strategy based on citizen panels of three Dutch municipalities. Four different direct forms of citizen engagement are studied: (1) attending a council meeting, (2) an information meeting, (3) conversation with an official, and (4) other forms of citizen engagement (e.g. social media or letter). The regression results indicate that the different forms of direct citizen engagement seem not to contribute to the amount of trust citizen panel members have in their own municipality. Attending a council meeting, a conversation with an official and other forms of engagement seem to have no or a negative effect on trust. In addition, the number of times that citizens engage seems not to or even negatively contributes to the amount of trust that they have in their municipality.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to gain insight in how South African local governments organize citizen engagement. The new South African constitution provides ways to construct and implement citizen engagement at local level. However, understanding citizen engagement at local level is still a challenge and municipalities search for proper structures and mechanisms to organize citizen engagement efficiently. Design/methodology/approach Interviews with different municipal actors were analyzed using a single case study method. As a primary unit of analysis, a specific project in which citizen engagement is organized was used. In addition, document analysis and a focus group were used to deepen understanding. Findings The findings reveal that citizen engagement is a viable strategy to identify the needs of the community if facilitated by a third party and that learning leadership is important when organizing citizen engagement. Originality/value The value of this research is the exploration of the citizen engagement process. It sheds light on the conditions that play a role when a local government organizes citizen engagement. As local governments search for ways to effectively organize and structure citizen engagement, insight into these conditions is helpful.