Free Crowdfunding Workshop Available

A free crowdfunding workshop is being offered by East Devon District Council to help East Devon’s community and voluntary groups and other not for profit organisations access over £90,000 of funding available from the council through Crowdfunder.

Crowdfunding enables community groups and other not for profit organisations, including town and parish councils, to raise money online in one place to help make their project happen.

If you’re involved with a not for profit group and want to find out more, East Devon District Council are running a free Introduction to Crowdfunding session on Monday 2 December from 5pm to 6.30pm at Exmouth Town Hall.

Places on the workshop are limited. If you’d like to book a place please email crowdfund@eastdevon.gov.uk stating which you want to book onto, and how many people you’d be sending along (limited to a maximum of three places per organisation).
Money available is in addition to a large amount of county-wide crowdfunding money available from Devon County Council and Devon and Cornwall Police, as part of the Crowdfund Devon partnership. Crowdfunder, based in Cornwall, is the crowdfunding website chosen by Crowdfund Devon partnership: https://welcome.crowdfunder.co.uk/crowdfund-devon/

Groups can put their project onto the Crowdfunder website and start raising money anytime, including from Crowdfund Devon. These workshops are being offered by the council to help people who may not be as used to using the internet, making videos and / or using social media. The basics of crowdfunding are:
1. A group has an idea for a project. This could be constituted voluntary and community groups, town and parish councils, registered charities, registered community interest companies or constituted not for profit organisations.
2. They fill in a form on the Crowdfunder website and make a simple video giving details about their project. Their idea is published on the online crowdfunding website.
3. They publicise this project and its presence on Crowdfunder as widely as possible; they tell their ‘crowd’. The crowd can include the local community, visitors, businesses, users of the service, local and national organisations and funders, East Devon District Council, Devon County Council and Devon and Cornwall Police.
4. The crowd pledges cash to the project and shares information about the project more widely.
5. If the project reaches its target it receives all the funding that has been pledged to it.