Worcestershire’s largest crowdfunding campaign is about to get underway.
The county council, alongside Malvern Hills and Wychavon district councils, has partnered with crowdfunding platform Spacehive to create Crowdfund Worcestershire.
The scheme gives organisations with ideas to improve their community the opportunity to gain much-needed funding.
So far, Worcestershire County Council has backed 24 successful projects on Spacehive with £97,000.
These community groups raised an additional £258,000 from thousands of backers across the county.
READ MORE: Worcestershire Community Foundation hands out more than £1million in pandemic
This new round of funding will be the largest ever.
The county council has allocated a dedicated fund of £92,000 to encourage local groups to put forward their ideas, with pledges of up to £10,000 available per project.
A launch event for potential project creators and funders is taking place at Whittington Community Hall on Tuesday, June 28 between 10am and 11am.
You can register for your place at www.crowdfundworcs.eventbrite.com.
Crowdfund Worcester sets deadline for ideas
Councillor Marcus Hart, the county council's cabinet member for communities, said: “We want to hear from anyone who has an idea so that our crowdfunding platform can be used to help make it a reality.
“We’re also calling on companies and foundations to join us in offering support - whether funding through cash pledges or in-kind offers of support - to the ideas people post on the platform so we can work together to make them a real success.
“The more people that get involved in Crowdfund Worcestershire, the bigger the difference we can create for people and communities across the county.”
The deadline to submit an idea for the next round of funding is September 28.
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Anyone is welcome to crowdfund on Spacehive, but to pitch for additional funding from the county council, projects should fit one or more of the following themes:
• Food and fuel poverty
• Social isolation and befriending
• Supporting people into employment
• Community capacity building e.g. recruiting volunteers, start up costs for groups, pilot activities etc
• Healthy communities – activities to improve the health and wellbeing of the local community
In addition to the launch event, free online workshops for interested organisations are taking place on July 6 and July 14. There is more information at www.spacehive.com/movement/worcs
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