Belonging drives investment intentions: Emotional attachment in sustainable crowdfunding for community energy projects

Achieving the European Union's ambitious climate change targets will require substantial additional investment, particularly from private citizens. Despite the considerable potential for citizens to participate in sustainable initiatives, there is a significant gap between their expressed interest and actual investment behaviour. Crowdfunding has emerged as a promising method to reduce barriers to citizen participation, but the persistent attitude-behaviour gap remains a critical obstacle. We analyse how emotional attachment can bridge this gap and enhance the success of crowdfunding in community energy projects through an experimental design involving a representative sample of 3562 European citizens. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two sustainable crowdfunding conditions. In the football condition, they were exposed to a campaign aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of a football stadium, while the control group viewed a campaign for a neutral building (school or library). Participants were then asked to indicate both their likelihood to participate (LTP) and their willingness to pay (WTP) for the campaign. Our results show that the interaction between emotional attachment and the football condition significantly increases LTP by around ten percentage points and leads to a higher WTP among fans. Consistent with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, prior knowledge of crowdfunding, environmental awareness, and social norms significantly influence investment decisions. Overall, the findings suggest that communities of interest—formed around shared passions rather than geography—are more effective motivators than communities of place, offering a novel pathway to mobilise citizen finance for the energy transition.