Crowdfund Lancashire: Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund
29 November 2022 by Ed
A new initiative to support culture and sport in Lancashire delivered through Crowdfund Lancashire and hosted on the Spacehive platform. Crowdfund Lancashire will give local communities a chance to create and support the projects which matter most to them, while enabling everyone to contribute towards their community - chipping in as little as £2 to help bring ideas to life.
Crowdfund Lancashire: Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund
Lancashire County Council (LCC) is launching a new initiative to support culture and sports projects in the community. The initiative aims to improve the health and well-being and cultural experience of local communities.
Lancashire will have a designated online crowdfunding page where projects can raise money through pledges of financial support. This is an opportunity for people to show support for local projects and see great things happen in their community. Projects may also access a top up pledge from Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund to reach their target.
Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund (LCSF) can consider supporting projects to reach their target by topping up the pledges of supporters. To get a pledge from LCSF, projects need to demonstrate broad community support by attracting individual pledges onto their campaign. This follows a community crowdfund model where local pledges are matched or given top-up funding to enable meaningful community projects to take shape.
Crowdfunding is not the same as traditional grant funding. It requires work to set up and successfully run a campaign. Lancashire County Council will provide training and guidance throughout the process. There are additional benefits to running a campaign which connects with your community before your proposed project takes place. There will be workshops run in connection with your district council. Please contact lcsf@lancashire.gov.uk to sign up to a session.
Information on each project and target will be included on Lancashire's crowdfunding webpage. Organisations taking part identify the target amount needed to make their project happen and this can be made up of individual online pledges, offline pledges and a top up pledge from the LCSF.
There will be information sessions held online and face-to-face across Lancashire so any interested communities can find out more. There are currently over 30 local authorities offering similar schemes to match fund projects delivering local community benefit. This scheme is the first of its type in Lancashire to offer financial support for both cultural and sporting activity.
Who can apply?
We can consider applications from not-for-profit organisations, town and parish councils, businesses and individuals that meet our eligibility criteria (which will be published soon). During the process, applicants are called Project Owners. This reflects the responsibility to own, promote and manage your project. There will be 2 funding rounds in each year and Project Owners can fundraise for up to 1 project in each round.
What can you apply for?
Applicants / project owners choose the target amount needed to see their project happen. Projects must deliver public benefit and not be for the purpose of profit-making activity. For those projects demonstrating a strong project with support from the community Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund can consider providing a top up pledge up to the following amounts:
- Not for profit groups and organisations are eligible for a maximum contribution of £20,000.
- Parish/town councils are eligible for a maximum contribution of £5,000.
- Individuals or businesses running not-for-profit projects which provide a cultural/sport activity to a community are eligible for a maximum contribution of up to £1,500.
The fund is to support a wide range of cultural and sporting activity including:
- cultural activity including art, music, literature, poetry, heritage, dance, theatre, craft, photography, film, design, museums, archives, libraries, and community arts festivals
- sporting activity including community-based sports clubs, outdoor pursuits, competitions and events, walking and gentle exercise, health and wellbeing.
Here are some examples of the type of project that might be considered for support:
- A theatre replacing outdated seating to improve the audience experience
- Conservation of artifacts at a heritage centre
- Building of new changing rooms for a local football club
- A community centre improving accessibility through provision of devices to support participants with sensory impairments
- A mela creating an international programme of events which give free access
- A reminiscence project recording memories of past events
- Hiring a public address system to support a band night
- Commissioning a mural to improve the indoor space of a village hall
- A brass band working with a composer for a new piece of music
- A theatre company taking their work on tour across Lancashire
- Building of a new entrance at a community hall to improve access
- A youth theatre working with a writer to create a new show
Training or advice sessions?
We know that many applicants will be new to crowdfunding and may never have applied for any form of grant funding before so there will be opportunities to get more information. There will be other sessions to provide wraparound support such as to help groups in developing their own constitution or understanding the responsibilities of safeguarding. Applications will open on December 1st. Once an application is made there will be regular communication and support, from the crowdfunding process right through to the final project delivery.
Crowdfund Lancashire Launch Event - Thursday 1 December
Join Cllr Peter Buckley, Cabinet member for Community and Cultural Services, and Lancashire County Council's new crowdfunding partner Spacehive for the launch of this exciting new programme.
To find out more please sign up to the launch event on December 1st at 12noon visit the Eventbrite Page here.
Crowdfund Lancashire will give local communities a chance to create and support the projects which matter most to them, while enabling everyone to contribute towards their community - chipping in as little as £2 to help bring ideas to life.
Timeline:
We expect the first round of project campaigns to go live in February. Project owners will then have 3 months to raise their funds, meaning the first round of successful projects will receive their funding around May 2023. Project owners then have up to 12 months to bring their project to life.
More Information:
Contact email: lcsf@lancshire.gov.uk