To get started, create your project on Spacehive and get your project verified. You will then submit your pitch to Stroud Funding fund via the Spacehive platform and launch your campaign.

To be considered by the council for a pledge, you should:

1. Launch your crowdfunding campaign on Spacehive

2. Showcase local support for your project in the form of backers.

3. Evidence that your project meets our fund criteria (see below tab on 'fund overview') 

Pitches to the fund will be considered by the Council’s Panel four weeks after the fund deadline. Successful projects will meet the above points and all the criteria described in our Fund Overview. The Spacehive team is on hand to share lots of advice on how to run a brilliant crowdfunding campaign and will be your main point of contact.

----------

The Process:

1. Create your project page + attend a workshop and/or clinic

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 here and we’ll guide you on how to begin.

Create your project page on Spacehive, and the Spacehive team will match you to the fund . You are encouraged to create your project early, to unlock support from the Spacehive team.  

The Spring 2026 round of this year's programme has now closed. The Autumn round of funding will launch with two online workshops in Early September, with a deadline of the 11th of November to create your project page and be ready to crowdfund on the Spacehive platform. These workshops are a chance to get support and feedback on  project ideas as well as learning more about Stroud Funding. Links to register for the workshops will be available soon.

Stroud District Council also hold Crowdfunding Clinics, which offer you the chance to speak directly with a member of the Stroud Funding team. These sessions are a great opportunity to ask questions, develop your project page and application, and connect with other project creators. We strongly recommend attending at least one clinic to ensure you have all the information and support you need. Links to sign up for a clinic slot will be available soon.

 

2.  Access the Stroud District Council funding

Work with Spacehive to develop your pitch on the platform and you could attract additional funding via a Stroud District Council pledge.  

This programme offers Project Creators the opportunity to receive a donation from Stroud District Council provided the project meets the criteria of the fund, as well as having received enough support from the community. Community support is assessed by the number of pledges (donations) received, such as from individuals, community groups, businesses.

The council’s funding pot needs to be fairly distributed across the district and over the two funding rounds per year. Projects could receive a pledge from Stroud District Council of up to £10,000 (capped at 50% of your target), there is no guarantee that every project will receive a pledge from the council or the maximum pledge amount.

Read more about the fund eligibility and desired outcomes in the 'Fund Overview' section.   

Please note: we recommend that project targets do not exceed £20,000 due to the community nature of Crowdfunding. If you have a large target and would like help breaking it down into smaller ‘phases’, the Spacehive team can help.

3. Get your project Verified

The deadline to complete your project page and submit to verification for this round has now closed. Deadlines for the next round will be availabel soon.  

Your project costs and necessary permissions will be verified by the Spacehive team. This involves checking quotes that you provide and whether you need to secure specific permissions to deliver your project. Gather this information in advance for speedy verification.

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

• Proof of permission (e.g. , council agreement, landowner consent, event license). 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.  Start crowdfunding

Once your project is live, share news of your project via as many platforms as possible. Start raising funds and boost local support before your pitch for funding is assessed by Stroud District Council. Spacehive offers helpful tips, resources and direct user support on how to achieve your crowdfunding goals and the Spacehive team is on hand to share lots of advice as you need it.

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. It’s really important to us that your crowdfunder can demonstrate community support for your project. This shows that there is widespread demand for your idea and that your project has long term sustainability

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

 You can even reach out for support from businesses and larger organisations which will help spread the word and could lead to larger contributions. 

Check out previous projects for campaign ideas and inspiration (here).

 

5. Hit your target and deliver your project

If you receive a pledge from SDC you must hit your target in order to receive the funds. If you have elected to ‘keep what you raise’ and don’t hit your target, our pledge will be removed and you will receive the remaining amount.  Please allow up to two weeks to receive funds once your campaign ends.

 Once you deliver your project, you can update your backers by completing an impact report on Spacehive.  If you have received a pledge by SDC, you will be required to provide this report and update SDC on the progress and outcomes of your project.

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

For any additional questions, please contact Spacehive on [email protected].

Crowdfunding is a great way to raise money in your local community and anyone can do it. StroudFunding provides a platform for community campaigns, and offers projects the opportunity to receive a pledge from the council.

How much is available?

Eligible projects could receive a pledge from SDC of up to 50% of their project target (up to £10,000). Stroud District Councils funding needs to be fairly distributed across the district and over the two funding rounds per year, there is no guarantee that every project will receive a pledge from the council or the maximum pledge amount.

For example, if a project's crowdfunding target is £3000, the council could decide to pledge up to a maximum of £1500 (50% of the target). Alternatively, if a project has a target of £25,000, the council could decide to pledge up to a maximum of £10,000 towards this project.  

Within four weeks of deadline to apply, Stroud District Council will give you an update on the funding you could receive based on how closely your project aligns with the eligibility criteria of the fund and by reviewing the level of community support.  

 

Criteria

• Your project must align to the council priorities which are:
  • a. Environment, Climate & Nature
  • b. Communities & Wellbeing
  • c. Local Economy
• It must benefit the people within the Stroud district
• Your project must be time bound with a clear delivery date (projects must have a contingency plan in case the project does not meet its delivery date)

 

Who can apply

• Public bodies such as town and parish councils
• Schools and educational facilities can apply but the project must be available to the wider community
• A registered charity with a board of trustees
• A registered community interest company, (you must provide copies of your community interest statement, details of the asset lock included in your memorandum and articles of association, and a copy of your latest annual community interest report.
• A constituted group of with a volunteer management committee with a minimum of three unrelated members that meets on a regular basis (at least three times a year)
• Social enterprise
• Community groups
• Sports clubs

To be eligible, your organisation must have a bank account with two signatories.
If you have a project idea but no organisation to partner with, Stroud District Council can help you find one.
If you already have an organisation in mind to partner with, we can assist in explaining the Stroud Funding process to them.

We will not fund

• Commercial activities, organisations, and individual practitioners
• Activities which are a statutory duty
• Party political promotion/activities
• Activities which promote religious worship
• Organisations which aim to make a profit
• Incomplete applications

Phased projects, events and repeat applications

Crowdfunding attracts a lot of event-based projects. Please note, Stroud District Council will not pledge to support events in their entirety but may contribute towards a specific element of an event that has a targeted community impact e.g.:

• Children’s activities
• Making your event more accessible to groups with protected characteristics

This initiative is designed to support projects, not salaries and operational costs. Projects may be broken down into different phases, where each individual phase can be delivered independently of the other.

Stroud District Council has the right to reject applications at its discretion.

 

If you receive a pledge from Stroud District Council, then you must hit your funding target to receive it. Our funding is tied to the specific outcomes of the project so if you do not hit your target, our pledge will be removed, and you will receive the remaining amount if you have elected to ‘keep what you raise’ when setting up your project.

Once you hit your target, funds will take up to 2 weeks to arrive in your bank account. More information can be found regarding fees and funding on the website (including the Spacehive fees which are clearly explained on this link - What are the fees for using Spacehive? ).

All projects seeking support from Stroud District Council will be expected to complete a set of questions when pitching to the fund to determine the eligibility of their projects. These questions help the council to understand how your project meets the funding criteria and  an opportunity for groups to explain why the project is needed in the community.

We strongly encourage you to read all the information available on the Stroud Funding page, attend the associated events,and crowdfunding clinics. These resources are especially valuable if you're new to crowdfunding, as they will help deepen your understanding of the initiative and guide you through the process.

Projects could receive a pledge of up to 50% of their funding target, capped at a maximum of £10,000. To ensure fair distribution across the district and between the two funding rounds held each year, there is no guarantee that every project will receive a pledge from the council or the maximum pledge amount. The Spacehive platform provides groups with the opportunity to raise funds whether the Council decide to pledge or not.

In Round 1, all 17 projects that pledged to the fund received support from Stroud District Council, with the council's contribution averaging 31% of each project's funding target.

Projects will need to evidence both fund eligibility and local support to be considered for a pledge by Stroud District Council.

Project assessment takes place four weeks after the deadline, so early engagement and campaign activity are strongly encouraged.

Projects are also able to upload funds raised offline, in-kind donations and upload funds raised pre-campaign to evidence existing support.

We have included some of the most common questions below.

If you have any other questions, please visit the Spacehive help centre at https://help.spacehive.com/ or email Spacehive on [email protected] and Stroud District Council on [email protected]

 

What is Spacehive?

• Spacehive is a crowdfunding platform for ideas that bring local places to life, support and empower communities: everything from sprucing up an allotment, investing in equipment to run a befriending service, to putting on a street party. Stroud District Council has partnered with Spacehive for this programme because of its expertise in civic crowdfunding. Spacehive will be your primary contact in setting up your project page, verification and troubleshooting the website.

Is this match funding? Will Stroud District Council be match funding?

• No, this is not a match funding initiative. For more information on funding, go to the ‘fund overview’ section.

I do not have two signatories in a bank account, can I still make a project?

• Two signatories are required. If you do not have these, you will need to set up your own CIC or partner with an already established non-profit organisation/ CIC. SDC can provide information on the initiative if you already have a partner in mind. 

How do people pledge to my project? What does pledging mean?

• People can pledge by visiting your project page on Spacehive.com and clicking the “Back this project” button. They will be able to pledge to campaigns via debit/credit card, BACS, or Direct Debit. 
• The more pledges you receive from backers on the spacehive platform, even as little as £2.00, the more evidence that your project will build to show that it is receiving enough support from the community. We encourage you to promote your project though the use of social media, but also by contacting local businesses and engaging with your chosen, and/or wider, audience throughout your campaign. This is a contributing factor for when Stroud District council decide to donate to your project.
• It is important that you spread the word about your project as far and wide as you can.
• The smallest pledge which can be made is £2.00 and there is no maximum pledge. 

What happens if I have already raised funds towards my project?

• If you’ve already begun fundraising for your project before coming to Spacehive, you can show any funds raised or items received as pledges on your project page, if they are for the same project. Showing that you have already raised funds will help get your campaign off to a good start, as it demonstrates that there’s support for the project and this will encourage others to get behind you. See:help centre article for more information.
• Funds or grants received prior to crowdfunding, which are communicated and agreed with Spacehive, do not incur the Spacehive fees on them- for more information on fees have a look  here.

Are there any fees to use Spacehive?

• Anyone can start a project on Spacehive for free. To ensure the continuing development and maintenance of the Spacehive platform, it does charge a success fee if projects successfully reach their fundraising target.
• There are also transactions fees. All fees are included within the project budget and clearly displayed. These can be viewed here.
• The fees for your campaign are set before you launch your campaign and will become a cost item within your overall budget. Please do look at the Help Centre article on what makes up our fees here - What are the fees for using Spacehive? .
• The platform fee is 7.5% (+VAT) of your project target, which is automatically added to your campaign target before you start fundraising. This means that all fees are built into your target from the outset. If you do not hit your target and decide to Keep What You Raise, then the fee will apply to the amount you raised in crowdfunding.  Pre-campaign fundraising and in-kind contributions when agreed prior with Spacehive, do not incur fees as they are raised before the Spacehive campaign begins. Anything else raised on the platform does incur the Spacehive fee.
• Transaction fees, charged by Spacehive’s payment partner Stripe, are approximately 2.9% of the payment value and are separate to the platform fee. It's worth noting the payment processing (Stripe) fee is an estimate as it depends which payment method your backers use, more on this here.
• Spacehive and stripe fees are included in the overall total of your fundraising target.

When will we get the money we raise?

• All the pledges from your campaign will be transferred to you after your campaign ends. If you receive a pledge from Stroud District Council, then you must hit your funding target to receive it. Our funding is tied to the specific outcomes of the project so if you don’t hit your target, our pledge will be removed, and you will receive the remaining amount. Once you hit your target funds will take up to 2 weeks to arrive in your bank account.

Thinking of a project with a high target total?

• Please note, we do not recommend Stroud Funding for projects over £20,000. If you have a project in mind with a target exceeding £20,000, you must be confident that you can fundraise and hit your target. If you have received large, in-kind donations or other funding prior to verification, this can go towards a larger project total but will need to be communicated to Spacehive.
• If you need help breaking your project down into smaller ‘phases’ that are under the £20,000 recommendation, contact the Spacehive team for support.

This programme offers an excellent opportunity for external funders and business to contribute to local projects and connect with their communities alongside the council and other backers.

There are three main reasons why external funders and businesses pledge to projects on Spacehive:

• Spacehive verifies all projects (checks permissions and quotes) before a crowdfunding campaign goes live, which means funders and businesses can have the confidence that relevant due diligance has already been completed.
• By pledging alongside the council, who have their own thorough assessment process, funders and businesses can be confident that the project will make a real difference to the local community. 
• By supporting local projects which are also backed by members of the community, funding can stretch further, meaning that more projects and communities can be supported. 

Pledging to projects could also be an effective way of:

•  creating positive PR through campaign success stories
• delivering your corporate social responsibilities
• demonstrating Social Value
• enabling employee learning, community participation and volunteering

To find out more and discuss your needs, please email: [email protected].