Cotswold District Council launches ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’ to bring community project ideas to life
Cotswold District Council is launching an exciting new online crowdfunding platform that enables residents to raise money to improve their neighbourhoods.
Working in partnership with the UK’s leading civic crowdfunding platform Spacehive, ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’ aims to give residents with ideas to enhance local places the opportunity to seek financial support.
The aim is simple – to fund and deliver on ideas to improve the Cotswold District put forward by the local community, for the local community. The Council has allocated a total of £140,000pa for the programme, with up to £10,000 available to boost projects towards their funding target.
The deadline to put forward your idea is 21 April 2021. You can get started by simply visiting Spacehive’s website and creating your own project page.
People and organisations can pledge as little as £2 towards a project and contributions are only charged if the campaign hits its target.
Spacehive will also lead a series of events online for anyone who is interested in learning a little bit more or might want to discuss ideas that they have. This includes a launch event taking place at 12:00 pm on 22 February and two project creator workshops taking place in March. Sign up and register your interest for the launch event.
Cllr Jenny Forde, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said: “We’re excited to launch ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’ with Spacehive and I can’t wait to see the range of ideas that our residents put forward. Local people are best placed to understand the challenges and opportunities in their local area and this model puts them and their ideas in the driving seat.
“The Council is also calling on companies and organisations who care about the Cotswolds to join us in offering support, whether funding or in-kind, to project ideas so we can turbocharge the success of locally-led campaigns together. The more people that get involved in ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’, the better.”
Misha Dhanak, CEO of Spacehive, said: "Despite the challenges of the last year, it has been really inspiring to see the way people have reconnected with their local area - and with each other. We all glimpsed how things could be better in our own communities and that we could seize this opportunity to reimagine our local areas. Spacehive is proud to work in partnership with Cotswold District Council and we can't wait to help local people bring their ideas to life."
Contact Information
Cotswold District Council Communications Team
Notes to editors
- To find out more about ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’ - sign up to the launch event here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0uf--hrDMuGt1iyavZygDP-U0OE94c_-LR
- Cotswold District Council is calling for local people and groups with project ideas to post them on Spacehive and pitch to their fund (which they will be matched with automatically after posting their idea).
- Cotswold District Council will pledge up to £10,000 to the best ideas shortly afterwards. The Council will hold two funding rounds per year in Spring and Autumn.
- Spacehive is a specialist funding platform for ideas that bring local civic and community spaces to life. Its vision is a world where anyone can shape their local area to create places that make people happy, proud and prosperous.
- The platform operates a hybrid crowdfunding and grant-making platform that pools funds between councils, businesses, foundations and the local community to pay for projects that improve local places. Projects can range from building a new community centre or improving the local park to improving a playground or putting on a street festival.
- Spacehive is increasingly used by local authorities, companies and foundations, as the default way of financing civic and community facilities, since the model gives large numbers of people the opportunity to shape their area and typically results in projects securing 4x more funding than if they were relying on councils funds alone.
- ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’ builds on the support Cotswold District Council has provided over many years to local community facilities and projects, introducing more flexibility to support a wider range of projects that address local needs and aspirations.
- To post a project idea visit: www.spacehive.com
- Companies, foundations and public bodies interested in supporting projects alongside Cotswold District Council should contact info@spacehive.com