The Create Church Street fund is a £150,000 fund designed to support creative campaigns within the Church Street area. Organisations and individuals (aged 16 years +) eligible for a pledge. Organisations can receive up to £8,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs and individuals (aged 16 years +) can receive up to £4,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs.

We are interested in funding creative and environmental projects that benefit the residents of the Church Street Ward and Paddington Green estate. Some examples of the types of projects that could be delivered are: craft, sewing, establishing an edible garden, recycle and reuse projects, story writing, storytelling, audio-visual artworks, art, drawing, painting, digital technology, portraiture, literature, drama, film-making, publishing, video, pantomime, spoken word, photography, puppetry, dance, fashion, textiles, jewellery making, music, sculpture, printmaking, pottery, ceramics, graphic design, collage, calligraphy, stained glass, animation, gardening, cookery, floristry, hair and makeup, graffiti, interior design, murals.

Create Church Street is looking to promote community cohesion, reduce social exclusion and isolation, build a sense of belonging to the area, encourage greater local engagement with art or culture and make Church Street Ward a hub of creativity in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s vision is to create a great place where people want to live and where communities will thrive.

There are two rounds a year as part of this programme, in the Spring and in the Autumn. See the About page for an update on the latest deadlines. 

1.    EXPRESSION OF INTEREST/ ATTEND A WORKSHOP

Complete our expression of interest form at your earliest convenience to inform us of your project idea and knowledge of crowdfunding. 

2.    PROJECT PAGE AND PITCH

Create your online project page where your project will be matched to relevant local funds . 

3.    VERIFICATION

The project costs and necessary permissions will be checked and verified. This involves checking quotes for all the major items and if you have land owner permission for your project. 

4.    CROWDFUNDING

Run your crowdfunding campaign. Start by getting lots of small pledges from the community to show local support for your project. This will help unlock bigger pledges.

5.    PLEDGE

Westminster Council will review all project campaigns and successful projects will receieve a pledge. 

6. HIT YOUR TARGET AND DELIVER YOUR PROJECT

Projects which hit their target early can continue to raise money until their original deadline thorugh 'Overfunding'. Pledges will be collected and transfered to the project normally within 10 working days.

Projects must be based in the Church Street ward and/or directly benifit residents from the Church Street ward.

A wide range of organisations can apply but the projects must have social benefit and cannot be purely for starting a new business..

Organisations can receive up to £8,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs and individuals (aged 16 years +) can receive up to £4,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs.

The Create Church Street fund is a £150,000 fund designed to support creative and environmental campaigns within the Church Street area. Organisations and individuals (aged 16 years +) eligible for a pledge. Organisations can receive up to £8,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs and individuals (aged 16 years +) can receive up to £4,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs.

We are interested in funding creative and environmental projects that benefit the residents of the Church Street Ward and Paddington Green estate. Some examples of the types of projects that could be delivered are: craft, sewing, establishing an edible garden, recycle and reuse projects, story writing, storytelling, audio-visual artworks, art, drawing, painting, digital technology, portraiture, literature, drama, film-making, publishing, video, pantomime, spoken word, photography, puppetry, dance, fashion, textiles, jewellery making, music, sculpture, printmaking, pottery, ceramics, graphic design, collage, calligraphy, stained glass, animation, gardening, cookery, floristry, hair and makeup, graffiti, interior design, murals.

Create Church Street is looking to promote community cohesion, reduce social exclusion and isolation, build a sense of belonging to the area, encourage greater local engagement with art or culture and make Church Street Ward a hub of creativity in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s vision is to create a great place where people want to live and where communities will thive.

There are two rounds a year as part of this programme, in the Spring and in the Autumn. See the About page for an update on the latest deadlines. 

1.    EXPRESSION OF INTEREST/ ATTEND A WORKSHOP

Complete our expression of interest form at your earliest convenience to inform us of your project idea and knowledge of crowdfunding. 

2.    PROJECT PAGE AND PITCH

Create your online project page where your project will be matched to relevant local funds . 

3.    VERIFICATION

The project costs and necessary permissions will be checked and verified. This involves checking quotes for all the major items and if you have land owner permission for your project. 

4.    CROWDFUNDING

Run your crowdfunding campaign. Start by getting lots of small pledges from the community to show local support for your project. This will help unlock bigger pledges.

5.    PLEDGE

Westminster Council will review all project campaigns and successful projects will receieve a pledge. 

6. HIT YOUR TARGET AND DELIVER YOUR PROJECT

Projects which hit their target early can continue to raise money until their original deadline thorugh 'Overfunding'. Pledges will be collected and transfered to the project normally within 10 working days.

Projects must be based in the Church Street ward and/or directly benifit residents from the Church Street ward.

Individuals and a wide range of organisations can apply but the projects must have social benefit and cannot be purely for starting a new business.

Projects creators must be over 18. If you are between 16 - 18 you can still get involved but you need to confirm that you will provide a letter from a guarantor who is over 18. If you are under 16, please contact Spacehive directly for more advice as individuals under 16 cannot currently apply.

Organisations can receive up to £8,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs and individuals (aged 16 years +) can receive up to £4,000 and/or 80% of their overall costs.

The Westminster Community Enterprise Fund is a £100,000 capital fund designed to support enterprising campaigns within the borough of Westminster. Community groups, voluntary organisations and individuals who have an idea to support business and enterprise in their community are encouraged to submit projects. Projects can receive pledges of up to £15,000 and/or 50% of the overall costs.

We are interested in funding capital projects that encourage enterprise and support local residents to start up and grow their business. Some examples of projects that could be developed are: bringing a disused space into use to support local entrepeneurs, improving the high street to make it a better place to do business and increase footfall, providing local people the opportunity to trial business ventures, creating the right environment to support the local economy.

The Westminster Community Enterprise Fund is looking to support projects that encourage entrepeneurship. Good projects will create the right environment and support for individuals to start up in business and provide a space for community and social businesses that can positively benefit the local area. We are looking for unique and innovative ideas that will increase local business resilience, empower the community and create a city for all.

1.    EXPRESSION OF INTEREST/ ATTEND A WORKSHOP

Complete our expression of interest form at your earliest convenience to inform us of your project idea and knowledge of crowdfunding. 

2.    PROJECT PAGE AND PITCH

Create your online project page where your project will be matched to relevant local funds .

You need to have pitched by 21st of Oct in order to be part of the Autumn funding round. 

3.    VERIFICATION

The project costs and necessary permissions will be checked and verified. This involves checking quotes for all the major items and if you have land owner permission for your project. 

4.    CROWDFUNDING

Run your crowdfunding campaign from mid October. Start by getting lots of small pledges from the community to show local support for your project. This will help unlock bigger pledges.

5.    PLEDGE

Westminster Council will review all project campaigns and successful projects can expect to receive a pledge in early November.

6. HIT YOUR TARGET AND DELIVER YOUR PROJECT

Projects which hit their target early can continue to raise money until their original deadline thorugh 'Overfunding'. Pledges will be collected and transfered to the project normally within 10 working days.

This is a capital fund meaning this fund can only cover the capital elemets of your project. Projects can receive pledges of up to £15,000 and/or 50% of the overall costs. 

Who can apply?

This fund can be used to pledge towards projects run by community groups, social enterprises, voluntary organisations and individuals.

What types of projects?

We are interested in funding enterprise related capital projects that support local residents to start up and grow their business. Some examples of projects that could be developed are:

1. Bringing a disused space into use to support local entrepreneurs for sharing and developing new skills
2. Improving the high street to make it a better place to do business and increase footfall
3. Providing local people the opportunity to trial business ventures or running new community ventures or community hubs such as an art studio and gallery or theatre space (most have a community benifit and not just purely commerical)
4. Creating the right environment to support the local economy. 

We are interested in funding Smart projects that align with any of the four Smart City themes and find solutions that impact our Westminster community. Whether that be a way to make the city more sustainable, to provide a more inclusive, safer city for all who work, live and play here or finding a way to showcase the diverse heritage of the city. We are looking to support 10 projects, but this can be reviewed and may differ depending on how much funding applicants apply for. The Smart City Themes are:

1. Clean Tech, which focuses on environment and sustainability and looks at ways technology can provide a greener city.
2. Extraordinary Experiences, which focuses on championing our communities and the City’s unique cultural offer, as well as ensuring interactions with our council services enable those we serve and are accessed with ease.
3. Innovative Ecosystem, which focuses on how our City, businesses and communities can thrive by championing creativity and innovation in all sectors that share values and objectives, as well as enabling innovation to thrive within the council.
4. Empowering People, which focuses on using technology to ensure residents can live independently for longer, and takes a central role in engaging with our community to ensure the Smart journey is inclusive and enables and empowers those we serve to drive the change they want to see.

This fund is open to local projects pitched by individuals, community groups, registered charities and private companies

We are looking to fund projects that will have a benefit for the residents of Westminster. There must be a 'smart' element to the projects that we fund and each project must align to one of the four themes of the Smart City, as outlined above. The projects must have a built in way of providing evidence that it will benefit Westminster. Community groups, voluntary groups, businesses, individuals and students will all be encouraged to submit projects.

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.

2. PROJECT PAGE AND PITCH

Create your project page on Spacehive which will match you to the Westminster Smart City Fund.

3. VERIFICATION

The project costs and necessary permissions will be checked by our in-house verification team. This involves checking quotes for all the major items and if you have landowner permission for your project.

4. CROWDFUNDING

Run your crowdfunding campaign between September and December 2022. Start by getting lots of small pledges from the community to show local support for your project. This will help unlock bigger pledges.

5. PLEDGE

The council will review all project campaigns and successful projects can expect to receive a pledge of up to £5,000/50% of your target by December.

6. HIT YOUR TARGET AND DELIVER YOUR PROJECT