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This chapter intends to seize the different economic and financial dimensions of the crowdfunding and shows how this latter contributes to transforming donations through its financialisation. Here, Polanyi's lessons on reciprocity and Keynes's lessons on monetary economics and conventions are enlightening. Indeed, by setting up an intermediary or by putting projects in competition, platforms develop the use of conventions linked to market coordination. By encouraging the monetarisation of expenses and projects and the commodification of donation activities, the crowdfunding not only becomes a tool of financialisation but also modifies social relations. Moreover, it creates new niches of financial exclusion, particularly for projects with a significant social or environmental dimension, and tends to make the financing of certain projects rely on savings rather than on monetary creation. Far from being the alternative and a counter-model to traditional finance, crowdfunding actually reinforces financialisation by introducing a new financial intermediary and contributes to its expansion in hybrid forms.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to show that cooperative banks’ values and finalities are not identical to capitalist banks, which are solely geared toward the maximization of short-term financial returns.

The idea that has been widely trumpeted since the beginning of the cooperative movement is profoundly “democratic” due to the fact that it is based on the idea of one person=one vote and because the concept of “collective property” remains topical to this day.

This raises questions as to the best way of conceptualizing the fact that some executives of banking institutions operating in the social economy have in recent years prioritized the development of growth strategies whose only goal is to constantly increase their power and adopt the same ultimate goals as capitalist banks do.

Results – This chapter highlights the reasons for cooperative banks’ deviations and suggests a return to the original mindset of the social and solidarity ideal. It specifies what the terms “market” and “competition” refer to and also suggests a reshaping of two categories derived from neoclassical thinking: “free and self-determined individuals” and “enterprise.” Lastly, it identifies the institutional conditions underlying the generalization of cooperative finance so this is no longer viewed as something marginal or isolated.