The implementation fund
Some of these only need four thousand euros.
A crossing. Repainted markings at a school gate. Four dropped kerbs on the route to a health center. Small, cheap, obviously worth doing, and stuck — because the municipality that would build them has no line in its budget for them.
Once or twice a year we pick one out of what residents have already designed on this site, raise the money for it in public, and document the whole thing until it exists or until it is clear that it will not. We do not hold the money, we take nothing from it, and every score behind the choice is published — including for the candidates we turned down.
Where the programme is right now
Coming soonComing soon. The programme is being set up and has not run yet — no round is open, nothing is being raised and nothing can be nominated. Everything about how it will work is on this page already, so it can be argued with before the first euro rather than after.
What a project may be
Deliberately small. The scope is the risk control: a project a municipality can absorb inside its existing maintenance powers is a project that can actually be built, and anything larger enters procurement and budgeting processes that take years and that no crowdfunding campaign should be attached to.
Eligible
- Painted or thermoplastic crossings and markings
- Signage and wayfinding
- Bollards, planters, kerb ramps, dropped kerbs
- Tactile paving and accessibility fixes
- Street trees and planting, with a maintenance commitment
- Bike parking, benches, small furniture
- Modal filters and light traffic-calming, where already permitted
Not eligible
- Anything requiring a road closure beyond a day
- Anything touching a signalised junction's control
- Structural works, drainage, utilities
- Anything on a national or regional road
- Anything requiring land acquisition
- Anything requiring a planning permission process
- Anything a municipality has not already agreed it may do
We weight municipal need, and we say plainly that a large well-funded city is unlikely to be selected — not because their streets are fine, but because they can pay for it, and the point of this is the places that cannot.
How a project is chosen
Six axes, scored one to five by named assessors, with written justifications that get published whether or not the candidate wins. Corruption and capture risk is a gate before it is a weight: a candidate that fails one of the nine hard rules is removed, not marked down, and the removal is published.
| Axis | Question | Who answers it | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feasibility | Can this actually be built, by this municipality, within its existing powers and one construction season? | An independent qualified engineer or planner, named and paid a fixed fee | ×2 |
| Cost confidence | Is the estimate credible, and is the ceiling small enough to be safe? | The same assessor, from the same site visit | ×1.5 |
| Impact | How many people, how often, and how much does it reduce a specific harm? | The assessor and the municipality's own officer, separately | ×2 |
| Municipal cooperation | Has the municipality engaged, in writing, with a named responsible officer? | StreetShape, from the correspondence | ×2 |
| Corruption and capture risk | Does anyone stand to gain improperly? | StreetShape, mechanically, against the nine hard rules | gate, then ×1 |
| Maintainability | Who maintains it in year five, and have they agreed? | The assessor and the municipality's own officer, separately | ×1 |
Support from the board is an input — it evidences that residents want it — and never the decision. The final choice is ours, published, with reasons, and it is not a vote.
The nine rules
Written as rules, because principles are what get bent. Version 2026-09, in force from 2026-09-17. Every campaign records the version it was judged under, and changing these does not retroactively change what a past campaign was judged by.
1.No money to an individual
Ever. Funds move to an eligible legal entity whose registration — or equivalent public status, for a public body — is published on the campaign page.
2.No money to a municipal official
In any form, including expenses, honoraria and travel.
3.No project that benefits anyone deciding it
No project on land owned by, adjacent to, or benefiting a business or property owned by the proposal's author, an assessor, a StreetShape employee, or the municipal officer involved. Each of them declares this in writing, and a false declaration ends eligibility.
4.No naming rights and no branding
No plaques with donor names, no branding in the public realm. A single neutral acknowledgement that the work was funded through StreetShape, if the municipality wants one, in their own house style.
5.No political timing
No campaign opens or completes within ninety days of a local election in that municipality.
6.No project a municipality was already obliged to fund
If the works are legally required, the answer is advocacy, not a campaign.
Crowdfunding a legal accessibility obligation lets a council off a duty and turns citizens into a substitute for a budget. The assessment asks the question directly — would this have been funded anyway? — and a “probably” ends the candidacy.
7.No single contributor above 15% of the target
Every contribution above 5% of the target is published with the contributor's identity, under a lawful and clearly disclosed transparency arrangement explained before payment. Anonymous contributions above that threshold are refused.
This is what stops one person buying a street improvement outside a democratic process and calling it a crowdfund. It is enforced in the database rather than in a form, so a large anonymous contribution cannot be recorded at all. Publishing a name is also processing somebody's personal data, which needs a basis and needs saying beforehand — a transparency rule that surprises the person it names is not transparent, it is a disclosure.
8.No contribution from anyone who could be paid by it
No corporate contribution from a firm that could bid for the work, and none from anyone with a live procurement relationship with the municipality, as the campaign's own rules define that relationship.
9.StreetShape takes nothing
Zero platform fee, and no StreetShape employee benefits from any campaign. Payment processing fees are declared as a line on the ledger and are the only deduction these rules permit.
Where the money goes
We never hold it. Contributions go directly to a recipient that is already legally able to receive them — the municipality where its law permits that, a registered local association, or a national road-safety charity hosting the project. They issue the receipts and they are accountable for the funds. We do the selection, the presentation, the verification and the public reporting.
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| Target not reached | All-or-nothing. Nothing is charged, or everything is refunded. No project is half-built. |
| Reached, then the municipality withdraws | Full refund, and a published account of why. |
| Costs come in under estimate | Surplus goes to a named, pre-declared second use — usually maintenance of the same asset, or the next campaign — and never to StreetShape. |
| Costs come in over estimate | The municipality covers it, or the scope is reduced to fit. Both are declared before the campaign opens. |
| Project abandoned mid-delivery | Remaining funds refunded pro rata where possible, published account either way. |
| Platform costs | StreetShape takes zero from campaigns. Payment processing fees are declared as a line and are the only deduction. |
Three things this page is careful to say
StreetShape is not a charity and does not say anything about the tax treatment of your contribution. Whether a receipt can be issued, and what it is worth where you live, is a question for the recipient named on this page — in their words, not ours.
Contributing buys nothing and decides nothing. It does not get you a say in the design, a name on anything in the street, or any standing with the municipality.
Anyone who contributes any amount can ask us for twelve months of Hobby afterwards, as a thank-you. We pay for it out of our own pocket, it is not proportional to what you gave, and it is not part of the offer — contributing buys nothing, including this.
What the municipality signs
A candidate does not enter a campaign without a Municipal Acceptance Agreement. It is short, it is published on the campaign's own page, and a donor can read the actual commitment rather than trust that one exists.
- Who the responsible officer is, and that they have authority
- That the municipality will accept the donation under whatever internal approval its law requires, and which approval that is
- That the municipality will own, maintain and insure the asset
- That the works will be procured under the municipality's own rules, and that StreetShape has no role in choosing a contractor
- What the municipality will contribute — usually design time, permits and supervision — so donors see the real total cost
- The target date, and what happens if it slips
- That the municipality consents to public documentation and to independent verification
- That either party may withdraw before delivery, with the refund consequence
- Who actually performs a refund, out of which account, and within what time — because the party that holds the money is the party that can return it, and StreetShape cannot promise a refund on somebody else's behalf without the authority to make them do it
What has to be true before a campaign opens
A campaign page existing is not the same as a campaign being able to take money. None of these is optional, and a campaign that is missing one of them cannot accept a contribution.
- The recipient entity, named, with its registration or equivalent public status published
- The signed Municipal Acceptance Agreement, published in full
- The budget, the target, the closing date and the processing fees
- The internal authorisation the municipality needs in order to receive the funds
- The refund contact, the refund procedure and who performs it
- What happens to a surplus, and who covers an overrun
- The privacy information for contributors, including anything that will be published about them and the basis for publishing it
- A payment route that actually covers contributions — subscription checkout is a sale of software by a merchant of record, and must not be assumed to cover a donation
No campaign has run yet. This page describes a programme rather than reporting one, and it will say so until the first project is on it. Nothing here is a commitment to fund anything.