Through the Doncaster Movement you'll have the opportunity to ask friends, family and neighbours to back your project with a pledge.  If you can demonstrate community backing your project through support for your campaign, you may also get a pledge of up to £3,000 from the council.

Fill out the expression of interest form to share your idea and get feedback from crowdfunding experts Spacehive. You should also attend our upcoming free workshop: 

This is not a regular grants programme so we have included a brief overview of the process below:

• Complete our short expression of interest form. This will let us know what your project is about and give us an opportunity provide feedback and support as soon as possible. 
• You create a project page on Spacehive outlining what your project is about - www.spacehive.com/create
• You are matched and can pitch to the Doncaster Movement fund - for more information see here.
• Your project is verified - your costs and permissions are checked. 
• You start your campaign - begin by getting lots of small pledges from the community to show community need and support. 
• Assessment: six weeks after the deadline, when you are at around 10% of your target (and/or when you have a good number of backers from the community) the Council will assess your project and the support of the community and decide whether or not to pledge to your projects. 
• The amount of money the council will pledge will depend on the size of your project, the impact your project will have and the community buy in. Please note the maximum pledge is £3,000 or 50% of your target (whichever is lower). 

Is my project eligible for Spacehive?

Projects need to be locally-rooted, tangible, and serve a community purpose.

If you have an idea for a project that can help your local area, then Spacehive is the place to raise funds for it.

It may be something simple and creative such as a street mural, or more ambitious such as repurposing a disused building for community use. 

It could also be for temporary projects, for example if the project is in response to COVID-19 and you are looking to purchase equipment to improve local digital services, set up local food production schemes, or fund emergency response packages for mutual aid groups. 

What's important is that your project is tangible. People who will back your campaign will want to see where their money has gone. 

While it's impossible to cater to all, your project should have local benefit and not just be for a select few to enjoy. Obviously the more people your project appeals to, the more chance you stand of running a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Projects must be in the UK, and can be led by any type of organisation or individual. Please note, being eligible to crowdfund on Spacehive does not necessarily mean your project is eligible for funds available on Spacehive - please check eligibility of the funds you're interested in pitching to. 

Looking for inspiration? Our project archive will give you a flavour of the types of projects that crowdfund with us.

How does the all-or-nothing crowdfunding model work?

You need to hit your target in order to receive the funds you raise. Otherwise you will not receive any.

Spacehive operates an all-or-nothing model, which means that if you don’t hit your target, backers are refunded and you receive no funds. This can seem daunting at first, however we believe that it is to the advantage of project creators.

• It helps you raise more money as backers know you have to hit your target. On platforms where this isn't mandated, there's no urgency and it's common to raise less than the target amount. 

• It’s less risk for everyone. If you need £5,000, it’s not much good having £1,000 and crowd of people expecting you to complete a £5,000 project.

• It encourages people to back you. They know their money will only go towards the project as described on your page, not a half-funded version of it.

• It works. 85% of Spacehive campaigns are successful, which is much higher than the crowdfunding industry standard.

Once the initial funding target has been reached, projects can continue to raise additional funds to make the project even bigger and better. If the project has overfunding enabled, details of how the extra funds will be spent are explained on the project page and backers can choose whether to keep pledging towards those cost items too. Find out more about overfunding here.

What are the fees? Is there a charge?

Anyone can set up a project page for free, and start crowdfunding. We add a 5% success fee to campaigns which is only payable if you reach your funding target.

Anyone can start using Spacehive and create a project for free. To ensure the continuing development and maintenance of our technology platform, the process of verifying projects, and the support that we provide, we apply a 5% success fee to projects* which hit their target with us. 

When you input your project costs, our system will still calculate this fee and it will appear as a cost item in your budget.

For example, if your project costs £100, we will add 5% +VAT to your target, which works out as £106. This will be your crowdfunding target. 

It is important to note that there are transaction fees for accepting electronic pledges which again we calculate for you once you've input your project costs. These are set by Stripe, the external payment provider that you will connect with when you create your project with us. Read our dedicated article on these to find out more. 

What advice do other project creators have for running a successful campaign?

Project creators who have been successful are a rich source of knowledge. Most advise being prepared to sell your idea, having a clear plan to deliver it, going the extra mile to woo big funders, and having a crowd before you crowdfund.

We went out and canvassed project creators who have run successful campaigns, asking them a simple question: what tips would you give to someone who wants to crowdfund a community project on Spacehive? Read their answers here. 

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To learn more about crowdfunding on Spacehive, visit the Help Centre. 

For any additional questions, please contact Spacehive on support@spacehive.com.

Anyone can propose a project, but it must have clear benefits for the community and not profit individuals. We are looking for changes that affect the most people, but this doesn't have to be thousands of residents - we recognise that communities come in all sorts of sizes.

There is no limit financially - the project can be as small or as big as you think it should be, but you must hit your target before you recieve the pledges made to your campaign. Bear in mind that the average Spacehive project is £12,000 and the average campaign lasts for 10 weeks. Remember, the council can only contribute up to a maximum of £3,000, or up to 50% of your target (whichever is lower), and cannot garantee your pitch for funding will be successful or recieve the maximum pledge. 

Be realistic: what do you need to make it happen? The most successful ideas are ones that will attract public attention and investment and commitment from the public: it needs to be something they believe in too - and can believe will happen. Unsuitable projects won't get very far; genuine projects will go as far as people want them to.

The Spacehive team are on hand to provide the tools and tips you need to plan a brilliant crowdfunding campaign. With the highest success rate of any crowfunding platform in the UK, you're in the right place if you want to bring your project idea to life.  

As with any publicly funded project there are legalities and financial procedures to be followed, but let's cross that bridge when we come to it. Anything you need to know you will be told about, and written guidance is available on request.

Good luck!