Crowdfund Lancashire explainer: what is it, how to access the £500,000 fund, and how does it work?

WHAT IS CROWDFUND LANCASHIRE? 

Crowdfund Lancashire is a development from Lancashire County Council, working in partnership with Spacehive, the UK’s leading fundraising platform. It allows the county council to support grassroot culture and sports projects through crowdfunding.

Individuals who want to make a positive impact to their communities are being encouraged to submit their ideas to Crowdfund Lancashire.

HOW DOES IT WORK? 

Lancashire County Council will support you throughout the process. Once launched, it’s your job to promote the project and if you raise 50% of your funding target, Crowdfund Lancashire will pledge up to £1,500, which they’ll honour if the full funding target is met.

Through the £500,000 Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund, Crowdfund Lancashire is looking to support cultural activity including art, music, literature, theatre, craft, and community arts festivals; and sporting activity including community-based sports clubs, outdoor pursuits, health and wellbeing.

WHO HAS IT HELPED ALREADY?

During a previous application round, Martyn Rawlinson raised £2,147 for his Best of Preston project, a series of summer events held under the Victorian Preston Market canopies.

Martyn said that Crowdfund Lancashire was an “ideal opportunity to gauge interest in the community for the project” and the success of the project now means he can consider developing the idea further making it “bigger and better and even more beneficial to participants and the community."

Elsewhere, Lara Momesso raised £2,548 for her Voices of Lancashire podcast project and said that Crowdfund Lancashire allowed her to “turn an idea into a real project that is meaningful not only to myself but also to the local community.”

HOW DO I APPLY? 

This year, the county council has introduced a step-by-step process specifically for individuals to make the application even easier. To find out more, visit: Crowdfund Lancashire - Lancashire Culture and Sport Fund - Lancashire County Council.

"Crowdfund Lancashire is already making a positive impact on our communities and we want to continue this momentum throughout 2024," said County Councillor Peter Buckley, Lancashire County Council's cabinet member for Community and Cultural Services. "We're really keen for more individuals to come forward and that's why we've launched a separate process for individuals to make the application simpler.

"We can help you through the entire process so if you have a great culture or sport idea, we want to hear from you."

The deadline to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Spacehive for this round of funding is the 14th February 2024.