From the lab to action: USI students work on two crowdfunding campaigns

Putting writing at the service of real-world projects is one of the objectives of the Writing Workshop 2 of the Bachelor in Communication at USI. As part of the module on crowdfunding campaigns, two groups of students collaborated with organisations in the Ticino region, helping to produce materials for future fundraising efforts on the Progettiamo.ch platform.

The activity involved second-year Bachelor's students in Communication, who were asked to tackle a concrete communication challenge: designing and creating the content needed to launch a crowdfunding campaign. The two groups worked to support Radio Morcote International and Scuola Circo IRIDE, respectively—two organisations active in the region and committed to development and growth projects.

The process began with a presentation of Progettiamo.ch, the Ticino crowdfunding platform managed by the Regional Development Agencies, which supports initiatives linked to regional development. Moira Morniroli from the Regional Development Agency of the Lugano Region (Ente Regionale di Sviluppo del Luganese) provided an introduction to the platform's functionality. Following this, the students met directly with the promoters of the two projects, visited their premises, and gained a deeper understanding of their activities and goals. In the case of Radio Morcote International, the visit took place at the radio studio in Mendrisio; for Scuola Circo IRIDE, however, students attended a training session of the pupils at the gym in Breganzona.

Drawing on these hands-on experiences, the students developed a storyboard for the campaign's promotional video, a project description sheet for the platform, and a series of promotional texts to support future communication and fundraising efforts. The initiative offered students a valuable opportunity to apply their writing, storytelling, and strategic communication skills within a real professional context, navigating concrete requirements and collaborating with external stakeholders.

Such hands-on experiences are part of a well-established tradition for the course. In previous years, the same exercise was carried out in collaboration with various startups incubated at or linked to the USI Startup Centre, strengthening the bond between academic education, the local region, and innovation.