The deadline for the Spring round has been extended to the 30th of April. This means projects must be fully costed and permissions secured by this date. 

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1.    SHARE YOUR IDEA + ATTEND A WORKSHOP

Complete our Project Idea Form ​​​​as soon as possible to tell us about your idea.

2.    CREATE YOUR PROJECT ON SPACEHIVE

Create your project page on Spacehive which will match you to the funds associated with the programme. You are encouraged to create your project early, to unlock support from the Spacehive team. 

 3.    GET YOUR PROJECT VERIFIED

The project costs and necessary permissions will be checked by Spacehive's verifiers before you begin crowdfunding. Submit early to ensure you’re verified before the deadline. Verification takes an average of four days where project creators have the relevant documents to hand. 

Before you submit for verification, make sure that you have:

• Proof of permission (e.g. event license, council agreement, landowner consent). Read more about permissions.

• Evidence of costs (e.g. building work quotations, links to online shop listings)

• Relevant insurances, policies, or qualifications (e.g. organisation constitution, safeguarding policy, certifications)

• Evidence of any funds that you have received for this project that you would like to have shown on your campaign (e.g. grant agreement, scan of a cheque, bank statement).
   

4.    LAUNCH YOUR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN AND PITCH TO THE FUND

Once verified, launch your crowdfunding campaign, no later than 30th April. Ensure you have submitted your fund pitch by the deadline too, to be considered for a pledge from the council.

Please note: the council will not be the first organisation to pledge to your project and will first want to see community support and backing, in the form of pledges from local people towards your campaign.

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

Please note: a typical crowdfunding campaign should not exceed three months.

 5.    ASSESSMENT AND PLEDGE

The Partnership will review all projects and successful projects can expect to receive a pledge of up to £5,000 (max 50% of target) during their live campaign. For example, a £10,000 campaign could get up to £5,000.  An additional £3,000 can be pledged from the South & East Lincolnshire Shared Prosperity Fund.

Where projects have significant impact across multiple local authority areas, or where multiple funds are pledging to the same project, project creators can receive a combination of pledges with the maximum contribution increased to 65% of the crowdfunding target.

 6. HIT YOUR TARGET AND DELIVER YOUR PROJECT 

You need to hit your target in order to receive the funds you raise. Please allow up to three weeks to receive funds once your campaign ends. Once you deliver your project, you can update your backers by completing a colourful impact report on Spacehive. 

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

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

There are two funds available through this programme:

• Community Fund - £90,000 (£30k available from each Boston, East Lindsey and South Holland) with maximum pledges of £5,000 (up to 50% of target)
• Shared Prosperity Fund - £45,000 with a maximum pledge of £3,000 (up to 50% of target)

Where projects have significant impact across multiple local authority areas, or where multiple funds are pledging to the same project, the maximum contribution increased to 65% of the crowdfunding target.

Who can apply:

• Projects will need to take place within the electoral boundaries of Boston, East Lindsey and South Holland. If you are not sure if your project falls within this area please email support@spacehive.com

The Partnership can support projects pitched by:

• Registered charities

• CICs

• Constituted community groups

• Public bodies such as Parish Councils and schools - if delivery benefits wider community

• Faith groups, if the project pitched features non-religious activities and demonstrate the activity is inclusive and does not promote a religious view

Projects pitched by individuals & privately held companies, or commercial activities & party political promotion, are not eligible to receive funding.

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Eligibility for the Community Fund
Projects should help to achieve at least one of the following desired outcomes:

• Improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of the local community

• Enhance lives through events and activities

• Build stronger communities 

• Help to tackle barriers and challenges many of us experience in life, such as poverty, ill health, distance from services, social isolation/loneliness

• Invest in and maintain facilities we rely on for activities to take place

• Increase Physical activity levels

• Connect and integrate people into their local community

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Eligibility for the South & East Lincolnshire Shared Prosperity Fund
We are particulary keen on projects looking to improve our communities and place and those projects that address challenges of integration and inclusion, support our high street, investment in community facilities or enhance the culture and heritage offer.

Projects should help to achieve at least one of the following desired outcomes:

• Increase in footfall
• Visitor numbers
• Engagement for your attraction or the area as a whole
• Improved perceptions of local facilities
• Increase in access to culture and heritage

Visit the Spacehive Help Desk to get immediate answers to your questions. You will also find lots of articles and resources sharing best practice tips on how to run a crowdfunding campaign. 

If you have a specific question about the South & East Lincolnshire Crowd programme, you can email Spacehive on Support@Spacehive.com.

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Is my project eligible for the Spacehive platform?

Projects need to be locally-rooted, tangible, and serve a community purpose. General charitable giving campaigns or funds to start a new commercial business are not a good fit. 

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

Is my project eligible for funding from South & East Lincolnshire Crowd programme

Please see the fund section for a full breakdown. We have provided a quick overview below. 

• Projects will need to take place within the electoral boundaries of Boston, East Lindsey and South Holland. If you are not sure if your project falls within this area please email support@spacehive.com
• Projects need to be not-for-profit in nature and benifit the local community 
• Individuals and private businiesses cannot apply 

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. 80% of Spacehive campaigns are successful which is much higher than the crowdfunding industry standard. The success rate increases to over 95% when a partners such as the South & East Lincolnshire Partnership pledges

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?

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% + vat success fee to projects which hit their target with us. Is fee is only paid after your corwdfunding campaign is successful and becomes part of your crowdfunding target. Projects which are not successful do not have to pay this fee. 

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.