Crowdfunding relies on the spirit of community to push a project forward, but according to a recent paper by MIT researcher Rodgrio Davies, the scale of civic crowdfunding remains small. Davies puts his lens to campaigns directly and indirectly involving civic projects, analyzing the burgeoning subgenre of crowdfunding from different angles.

Davies' research was not limited to Kickstarter. He used a representative sample of several large crowdfunding sites, including U.S. platfofrms IOBY, Neighbor.ly and Citizenvestor, and noted that a new crowdfunding resource pops up every week.

Some of the points Davies highlighted from his 173-page report:

• Civic proposals raise a median of $6,357, but this modest amount still represents great promise for the category: 81% of Kickstarter campaigns with a "civic" tag are successful.

• A majority of the civic crowdfunding projects come from cities, based largely on the home base of the platforms; New York and California are the top two states.

• Campaigns are not limited to smaller community projects, either. Governments and large corporations swarm the arena, and even in civic projects, tend to create a tendency towards unequal financial distribution.

Davies also admits where there areas of uncertainty remain in the field. Two standout questions: Will civic crowdfunding deter public investment or encourage it? And will civic crowdfunding widen wealth gaps?