Crowdfunding provides deep pools of capital to entrepreneurs and makes high-quality investments available to individuals for the first time. Those things are great, transformative.

But Crowdfunding achieves its greatest potential at the local level, where communities invest in themselves. An entrepreneur needs capital to start a local business. Her customers are her neighbors. They help design her business to respond to their needs, and they invest in her business to share in the financial rewards and to improve their own neighborhood. There’s a lot more going on there than finance.

I once served on a panel with David Paterson, the former Governor of New York. Governor Paterson spoke about the usefulness of Crowdfunding for community development and community redevelopment, and now works as the Director of Community for iFunding, one of the leading portals.

I have spoken with and represent others thinking along the same lines, putting local money back into local economies.

We should think about ways to encourage localized Crowdfunding investment. When we’re talking about revising Title III, or crafting better state Crowdfunding laws, we should include community development folks in the conversation. They’re going to have better ideas than I have, but I can think of one small step in the right direction.

Why not provide some economic incentive? For example, suppose State X allows a $5,000 maximum investment from non-accredited investors. Why not raise that limit to $7,500 or $10,000 if the project is in the same county as the investor?

That works for two reasons. One, it encourages investing locally. Two, the investor is likely to know more about the project in his neighborhood than he knows about a project on the other side of the state, so he can make a more informed decision. For that matter, as a consumer he might be in a position to help the project after it’s built.

It’s a small step. Crowdfunding is global, but it works even better when it’s local.

Questions? Let me know.