On 7 December, 15 London local authorities joined London Ventures and Spacehive at a peer learning event at the RSA.
Spacehive is an award-winning crowdfunding platform that has enabled 387 civic projects to be successfully delivered across the UK – over 200 of these are in London. Across these projects, £8.8m was raised by 45,000 different funders; predominantly citizens, but also businesses, government and grant-makers. Spacehive engages strategic partners – who themselves have committed over £2.2m of additional match funding.
Spacehive empowers citizens who have ideas to improve their local area to attract the support and funding they need to bring them to life, enhancing the local economy and creating places people love. The budget committed to civic crowdfunding by councils has increased from £900k in 2016 to £6.1m in 2017 – now is the time to get involved.
We heard from London Boroughs of Barnet, Hounslow and Tower Hamlets about how they have started to meet their strategic objectives through crowdfunding, in some cases utilising their s106 and Community Infrastructure Levy funding to leverage the power of the people, and stimulate grass roots organisations to think creatively about their place.
Some of the successful projects mentioned on the day were:
- A teenage markets project in Barnet: citizens used Spacehive to successfully raise £55,887 from 90 backers. We heard that a key factor to Barnet’s crowdfunding success as a borough is due to working across departments: including public health, and, parks and open spaces to promote the opportunity to their communities.
- A piazza to be built in Hounslow: this project is now in delivery stage and raised £77,284 from 116 backers. The piazza will be an exciting social focus, proving a safer and more pleasant environment.
- A Christmas Day lunch for 350 elderly people who would otherwise be alone in Hammersmith & Fulham: H&F have utilised the neighbourhood social network app Nextdoor – to market the projects and get the necessary pledges.
These go to show the wide variety of projects that include the physical and human aspects of ‘place’ that can be successfully crowdfunded and delivered.
We also heard from the Mayor’s regeneration team about how, building on the success of the first 4 rounds of projects on the ‘Crowdfund London’ page, they are about to launch their biggest fund yet. With the potential to make up to £4 million available to match-fund regeneration projects.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Spacehive and how they can be used to deliver improved outcomes for Londoners, please contact london.ventures@londoncouncils.gov.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter @LdnVentures and LinkedIn ‘London Ventures’.