The North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) is to launch a new crowdfunding site to help communities recover from the Coronavirus pandemic.
‘Crowdfund North of Tyne’ will use the digital fundraising specialists Spacehive to bring the public, businesses, and traditional funders together to support new projects across Newcastle, North Tyneside, and Northumberland.
It will fund projects that aim to bring people together, create or improve green spaces, improve mental health, inspire creativity and opportunity for all, or support social enterprise and co-operative development.
The money raised from crowdfunding could be spent on hosting an event, purchasing new equipment or materials, running training courses, starting new groups, carrying out special repairs or conservation work or covering volunteers’ expenses.
People and organisations can pledge as little as £2 towards a project and contributions are only charged if the fundraising campaign hits its targets.
The new initiative will be unveiled by North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll and Cabinet Member for Employability and Inclusion Cllr Joyce McCarty at an online event on 1 October 2020.
North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll said: “Coronavirus has hit us all hard and it will take time for us all to recover. Crowdfunding can help us get there.
“Improving our communities is not a spectator sport. We all have a role to play.
“Crowdfund North of Tyne matches people with the ideas to people with the money. You don’t have to have a plan to change the world to take part – we are looking to support projects big and small.”
Jamie Driscoll – North of Tyne Mayor
North of Tyne Cabinet Member for Employability and Inclusion Cllr Joyce McCarty said: “We’re excited to launch this partnership with Spacehive and I can’t wait to see the range of ideas that people bring forward.
“Local people are best placed to understand the challenges and opportunities in their local area and our new platform puts them and their ideas in the driving seat. It’s a very creative and innovative project to support communities at an incredibly challenging time.
“People or groups with project ideas are welcome to attend our launch event on 1 October to find out more about how civic crowdfunding works.
“I’m also calling on businesses in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland to join us in offering their support for this initiative.
“The more people that get involved in Crowdfund North of Tyne the more we can achieve together.”
Cllr Joyce McCarty – North of Tyne Cabinet Member for Employability and Inclusion
Fundraising campaigns on Spacehive have the highest success rate of any crowdfunding platform in the UK and the platform has become the default way for many areas and organisations to fund community projects.
Founder & CEO of Spacehive Chris Gourlay said: “The Spacehive team are excited to help launch Crowdfund North of Tyne. The North of Tyne is the first Mayoral Combined Authority in the country to launch such an initiative.
“We encourage anyone with an idea for improving Newcastle, North Tyneside or Northumberland to post it on Crowdfund North of Tyne. We look forward to helping people bring their projects to life.”
Crowdfund North of Tyne aims to support a batch of new projects in its first year of operation. The North of Tyne Combined Authority will invest an initial £50,000 in them.
The launch event is open to all but registration in advance is essential.
Further information:
- Crowdfund North of Tyne will be launched on 1 October 2020. You can register for free here: https://www.spacehive.com/movement/crowdfund-north-of-tyne/news#480/Events
- 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: https://www.spacehive.com/
- The platform operates a hybrid crowdfunding and grant-making platform that pools funds between public authorities, businesses, foundations and the local community to pay for projects that improve local places.
- Spacehive is increasingly used by local authorities, companies and foundations, to give large numbers of people the opportunity to shape their area and typically results in projects securing four times more funding than if they were relying on public authorities’ funds alone.
- Locality, the national network supporting community organisations is Spacehive’s verification partner, empowering communities to bring projects to life: https://www.spacehive.com/movement/locality