The Shropshire Shared Prosperity Community Fund aims to provide support for voluntary and community sector groups and organisations to deliver projects designed to make a difference for people and spaces. We hope to encourage projects designed to improve our local environment, reduce waste, promote inclusion and overcome inequality, bring people together and reduce isolation, improve health and wellbeing and promote volunteering and skills.

Although we cannot currently support large capital projects you may have a project that offers support for community spaces and venues, a project that encourages pride in place or involvement in the arts, culture and heritage. 

Shropshire's Shared Prosperity Community Fund as £150,000 (non- capital funding) available to pledge to projects over two years, with a maximum of £10,000 available per project (up to 60% of the project costs). 

While this specific fund cannot support the capital elements of your project, you can still have capital elements included in your project but the funding raised by the community through the crowdfunding campaign will need to cover the capital costs. 

These types of projects will align with the Shropshire Plan and deliver healthy people, healthy economy, healthy environment and healthy organisations and partnerships.

We hope by attracting investment we can increase support for community groups and networks, enable increases in volunteering and increase the capacity of community groups and networks to establish or extend projects and engage with beneficiaries.

Outcomes may include the:

• Enabling more community-led projects to sharing information about their ambitions with residents, businesses and other stakeholders in Shropshire.
• An increase in the number of volunteers supporting community projects and/or an increase in volunteer hours.
• Increased community engagement/involvement, with more people taking an interest in their local area and signing up to find out more about community activity.
• An increase in local charitable giving/donations.
• Increases in the number of beneficiaries reached.
• Increases in the number of community assets supported/improved.
• Enabling support for local arts, cultural, heritage & creative activities.
• Beneficiary and area outcomes (e.g. reducing social isolation, reducing waste).

This programme runs funding rounds with deadlines to apply. See this link for more information on the key dates and the process. 

The current deadline to get involved in this round of Crowdfund Shropshire is the 17th of April. You must have completed your pitch by this date and be verified. 

Attend our next workshop on the 20th of February to find out how to get involved. Register for free here. 
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Follow the below steps to get involved. 

Create a project page
Head to spacehive.com/create to get started.

Spacehive will help you develop your project so you are set up for success and ready to crowdfund. If you need some feedback on your idea, tell us about it via this short form and we’ll guide you on how to begin. By filling out the form we can also share information with you on our upcoming events. 

Before your campaign goes live, the project costs and necessary permissions will be checked. This involves checking quotes for all the major items and if you need any landowner permissions for your project. Try to gather any evidence and permissions in advance.

Share and collect pledges
Once your project is up and running, share news of your project via as many means possible, on and off line to start raising funds and boost local support before your pitch for funding is assessed by Shropshire Council. Spacehive offers helpful tips and resources on how to do this along the way.
 

Access Shropshire Council funds
Spacehive will connect you exclusively with Shropshire Council's UK Shared Prosperity Fund on the platform. Work with Spacehive to develop your pitch on the platform and put yourself in the best possible position to secure a contribution. 

Continue securing support from your backers in the form of lots of small pledges to demonstrate local buy-in for your project. That’s what the Council will want to see when they assess your pitch!

Your pitch will be assessed for a pledge at assessments taking place at regular intervals throughout the funding window. If you can demonstrate support from the community and write a good pitch, you could receive up to 60% of your crowdfunding target, up to a maximum of €10,000, pledged by Shropshire Council directly into your campaign.

Shropshire's Shared Prosperity Community Fund as £150,000 (non- capital funding) available to pledge to projects over two years, with a maximum of £10,000 available per project (up to 60% of the project costs). 

Please note this fund cannot be used to support the capital elements of your projects.  You can still have capital elements included in your project but the funding raised by the community through the crowdfunding campaign will need to cover the capital costs. 

Hit your target and deliver your project
Once you hit your crowdfunding target, you’ll receive your funds within a few weeks and you can start delivering your project.

The Shropshire Green Spaces and Active Travel Fund is delivered in partnership with Energize Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire Wildlife Trust.

The funding is for rural communities only. Unfortunately, projects in the Shrewsbury town Council area are considered urban and not eligible to apply.

The fund is for capital projects and cannot support revenue costs.

Who can apply?
Voluntary and community sector groups and organisations are eligible to apply. This includes community groups, charities, CIOs and CICs with a not for profit  'asset lock' clause included in their articles of association.

Projects carried out in partnership with schools or town and parish councils will be considered but these must involve one or more community groups. We cannot support applications from individuals, businesses or public sector organisations. 

The aim is to encourage smaller community groups to work in partnership with local town and parish councils, schools and other community land owners and managers of green spaces and active travel networks, to develop and implement activities designed to improve public green spaces, encourage people to use them and enable active travel through community designed initiatives.

Communities may come forward with ideas for improving community safety. Project ideas may be diverse, but they will each contribute to increased pride in, and use of our rural green spaces and public routes and places. 

Types of projects

Projects should focus on renovating or repairing facilities with the aim of creating better public space.

We hope to encourage projects designed to improve our local environment, promote inclusion and overcome inequality, providing the spaces where people can come together, improve health and wellbeing and promote volunteering and skills. 

Projects can include parks, community gardens, public green spaces, blue spaces (e.g. towpaths alongside canals, rivers and lakes) etc. Active travel projects on footpaths and cycle ways may also be supported such as improving surfaces, extending pathways, adding information/signage to increase use etc. 

These types of projects will align with the Shropshire Plan and deliver healthy people, healthy economy, healthy environment and healthy organisations and partnerships. https://myplan.shropshire.gov.uk/

Outcomes for the groups creating the projects may include:  

• increase support for community groups and networks,
• enable increases in volunteering and
• increase the capacity of community groups and networks to establish or extend projects and engage with beneficiaries.

Outcomes and outputs for he wider community may include the: 

• Improved perception of community green and blue spaces.
• Improved perception of rural active travel routes (footpaths and cycle ways).
•  Greater engagement in the use of community green and blue spaces and active travel routes.
• More people taking an interest in their local area and signing up to find out more about community activity.
• Increases in the number of community assets supported/improved.
•  Increases in the size of space used for community use.
•  Increases in the length of active travel routes being well maintained and accessed.
• Provision of community equipment to support use of green and blue spaces and active travel.
• Increases in the safety and care of public spaces.

This programme runs funding rounds with deadlines to apply. See this link for more information on the key dates and the process. 

The current deadline to get involved in this round of Crowdfund Shropshire is the 17th of April. You must have completed your pitch by this date and be verified. 

Attend our next workshop on the 20th of February to find out how to get involved. Register for free here. 

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Read below to discover how to take part: 
1.    EXPRESSION OF INTEREST/ ATTEND A WORKSHOP

Complete our Expression of Interest Form as soon as possible to inform us of your project idea and knowledge of crowdfunding. The Spacehive team will be in touch to provide you with the necessary information about future workshops and any support you may need to help get your project started. 

2.    PROJECT PAGE AND PITCH

Create your project page on Spacehive which will match you to the Shropshire Green Spaces and Active Travel Fund. We will review your project and see if there are any other funds or funders we can make aware of your project.

3.    VERIFICATION

The project costs and necessary permissions will be checked. This involves checking quotes for all the major items and if you need any landowner permissions for your project. Try to gather any evidence and permissions in advance.

4.    CROWDFUNDING

Start by getting lots of small pledges from the community to show local support for your project. This will help unlock bigger pledges. Run your crowdfunding campaign as early as you can to benefit from available funds. You're welcome to crowdfund on Spacehive at any time, but if you want to access a pledge from the council, there is a limited pot available. We won’t be able to consider new projects for the Shropshire Green Spaces and Active Travel Fund after 30/09/2024. 

5.    PLEDGE

The council will review all project campaigns and successful projects can expect to receive a pledge of up to £20,000 or 70% of your target.

6. HIT YOUR TARGET AND DELIVER YOUR PROJECT

If you are successful in receiving a pledge from Shropshire Green Spaces and Active Travel Fund we will stay in touch and work with you to capture your impact and share the good news.