Goteo is different from other collective financing or crowdfunding platforms due to its emphasis on “open source” projects in a wide sense. That is, the projects will share knowledge, processes, results, responsibilities or benefits, with a philosophy of the common good, and will favor collective empowerment and the generation of shared resources.

Another peculiarity of Goteo is that it allows each project to generate a minimum amount to get started and then later to solicit additional funds for the development phase. It should also be noted that the platform can work and be administered autonomously by thematic or geographic nodes (currently under development) and through a community of project editors who consult on and validate projects.

In addition, Goteo is dedicated to collecting additional contributions of feeder capital in a social fund through private and public entities, in order to distribute these funds through special calls for projects that meet certain thematic or geographic criteria.

Goteo is, in short, crowdfunding for people who are looking for social profitability of initiatives, making projects viable for their promotors as well as offering a collective benefit for the community (in this sense, es, en definitiva, crowdfunding para gente que busque la rentabilidad social de las iniciativas, haciendo viables los proyectos para sus promotores pero también el retorno colectivo para la comunidad (en ese sentido, individual trade-offs in exchange for economic support are recommended but entirely optional).

These collective benefits can be of a wide variety and are based on the principal of sharing knowledge and giving access to open code, products, and resources, manuals and workshops, files and content that can be replicated, reused, and remixed, etc. All with the objective of creating community, social capital and that more people can generate additional opportunities, products and economically sustainable services.

More differences with other platforms? This platform follows its own rules and will also be available as open source software with its own copyleft license, as well as the source code (for whomever wants to improve on it). We are also working on other specifications, like a control panel that details the funds obtained, in order to increase the transparency about where the co-financed funds end up, or with a “flat fee” for compulsive co-financiers and patrons :)