Crowdfund Shropshire: One week to go for the first round
Shropshire Council is calling for voluntary and community groups and organisations to get their applications in to improve their local area, for a share of a £150,000 fund.
Shropshire Council has been working with Shropshire Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly and key partners including Shropshire Infrastructure Partnership to create a civic crowd funding platform, which was launched in Wem in October.
Crowdfund Shropshire logo
Named Crowdfund Shropshire, the programme, which is being run in partnership with the community fundraising platform, Spacehive, enables local residents across the county to exclusively access funding for community improvement initiatives.
The crowdfunding nature of this programme, in collaboration with council funding, maximises the amount campaigners can raise in order to deliver transformational community projects that matter to them.
Following its launch, there have been a flurry of applications from across the county. These are currently undergoing an approval process and will go live shortly.
There’s still time though to get more applications in, with the deadline for the first tranche of funding being Wednesday 29 November 2023.
Those who don’t have a project ready to go can start working towards the next round early next year and share their project idea here: https://spacehive.activehosted.com/f/1
Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult social care and public health, said:-
“We know how difficult it has become for small groups to access funding opportunities. Opportunities are so often pitched at large organisations with expert bid writers. By making people aware of the ambitions of our local communities, and what communities need, we can encourage local giving and build ‘the crowd’ support from individuals, businesses, funding bodies and many, many more.
“Voluntary and community sector groups and organisations are eligible to apply. This includes community groups, charities, CIOs and CICs with a not for profit ‘asset lock’ clause included in their articles of association.
“If you haven’t already, please get your application in. There’s still time.”
The process
- Groups create a project on the Spacehive platform and pitch to the council fund.
- Projects are checked to make sure they have all the relevant permissions and budget.
- Groups start their crowdfunding campaign, reaching out to the community for pledges.
- The council will assess projects and make pledges during the crowdfunding campaign.
- Campaigns reach their target and the funds are released to the group to deliver the project.
The first fund available is £150,000 (non-capital funding) through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to pledge to projects through this programme. Groups or organisations could receive up to 60% of their crowdfunding target, up to a maximum of £10,000, pledged by Shropshire Council directly into the campaign.
This has been made possible due to funding under the Communities and Place theme of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund managed by Shropshire Council. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the Government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
Crowdfund Shropshire is looking to support projects that can help deliver the following outcomes:
- Enable more community-led projects to share information about their ambitions with residents, businesses and other stakeholders in Shropshire.
- An increase in the number of volunteers supporting community projects and/or and increase in volunteer hours.
- Increased community engagement/involvement, with more people taking an interest in their local area and signing up to find out more about community activity.
- An increase in local charitable giving/donations.
- Increases in the number of beneficiaries reached.
- Increases in the number of community assets supported/improved.
- Enabling support for local arts, cultural, heritage & creative activities.
- Beneficiary and area outcomes (eg reducing social isolation, reducing waste).
Campaigns need to reach their target for any of the funds to be released. If groups do not reach their target, all the of pledges are returned to the backers.
The council will not be the first to pledge to your project and will want to see the support of the community before they pledge.
Find out more information: www.spacehive.com/movement/crowdfund-shropshire
Need more help?
There are some helpful videos to help get a project up and running:
Video – How do I create a project?
Video – How do I cost up my project?
Video – How do I pitch to a fund?
People can also find more tips and tricks visit the Help Centre.
