The Spring 2025 funding window is now open. Groups have until the deadline of the 7th of May 2025 to get their projects ready (i.e., ensure costs and permissions in place) before they start crowdfunding in May.

Project workshops
There will  be two online events held by Stroud District Council and Spacehive to launch the Spring funding window, being held on Tuesday the 25th of February 10.30am -11.30am and Wednesday the 26th of February 6.00pm-7.00pm. Please register to attend by clicking on the links below. 

• Stroud Funding workshop - Tuesday, 25 February, 10.30am
• Stroud Funding workshop - Wednesday, 26 February, 6pm

In response to feedback from round one, Stroud District Council will be running two in-person workshops for project groups to offer support on structuring a project page and campaign planning.  These will be drop-in sessions held on Thursday 20th March 10.30am-1.30pm at Under-the-Edge Arts, Wotton-Under-Edge and 5.30pm-7.00pm at the Rest, Kings Stanley. Stroud District council will be on hand to help you with your project. It is recommended you bring your laptop/device to do this work on, or a notepad with questions. Links for registration found below.

• Thursday 20th March 10.30am-1.30pm at Under-the-Edge Arts, Wotton-Under-Edge
• Thursday 20th March 5.30pm-7.00pm at the Rest, Kings Stanley

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1. Create a project page

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

Note: The first step in creating a project on the crowdfunding platform is to choose your contact email address. This will be used for all project updates and notifications from Spacehive so please ensure this email account can be accessed by the relevant people organising your project.  

 

2. Submit your project for verification 

The deadline to submit to verification is Wednesday the 7th May 2025.  

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.

 

3. Share and collect pledges

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.

It's really important to us that you are able to demonstrate community support for projects. This both demonstrates that there is a widespread demand for what you are proposing, and helps to ensure the long term sustainability of projects. 
 

4. 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 based on your project page and the number of pledges (donations) received, such as from individuals, community groups, businesses. There is £135,000 available to support projects across the district in two funding rounds across 2025/2026.  You could receive a pledge from the council of up to £10,000 (capped at 50% of your crowdfunding target). As our funding needs to be fairly distributed across the district, there is no guarantee that your project will receive the maximum pledge. Within four weeks from verification, Stroud District Council will give you an update on the funding you could receive based on how closely your project aligns to the objectives of the fund and your community backing.Read more about the fund eligibility and desired outcomes in the 'fund overview' section.     

                                           

5. Hit your target and deliver your project

If you receive a pledge from Stroud District Council, then you must hit your funding target in order 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 if you have elected to ‘keep what you raise’ when setting up your project. Once you hit your target, funds will take up to two weeks to arrive in your bank account.

Once you have delivered your project, you can update your backers on your successes by completing an impact report on Spacehive. 

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

Through this crowdfunding programme, Stroud District Council (SDC) has a fund of £100,000 available for the year 2025/2026. There is an additional £35,000 available, bringing the total SDC fund to £135,000 to be pledged across both the Spring and the Autumn funding rounds.

Eligible projects could receive a pledge from SDC of up to £10,000 (up to a maximum of 50% of the project’s target).

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. 

As Stroud District Councils funding needs to be fairly distributed across the district, there is no guarantee that your project will receive the maximum pledge. Within four weeks of verification, Stroud District Council will give you an update on the funding you could receive based on how closely your project aligns with the objectives of the fund and your community backing. 

 

Criteria

• Your project must align to the council priorities which are:

  • a. Environment and Climate Change

  • b. Community Resilience and Wellbeing

  • c. Economy, Resilience and Regeneration

• 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 distribute a profit

• Incomplete applications

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? – Spacehive ).

 

In the first round we had a variety of projects, from Stroud Waters Feasibility study to smaller projects including Little Hands on the Land and Silvers and Carers. We recommend smaller targets for projects as they are easier to achieve. 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. 

Other examples of projects could include: 

• Community vegetable patch or allotment projects 

• Community mural or artwork 

• Group programs e.g., art, music, or sport classes  

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. 

Is this match funding? Will Stroud District Council 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, let Stroud District Council know and they will help you find an organisation to partner with. We can also 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.  

Receiving pledges from backers on the spacehive platform, even as little as £2.00, demonstrates evidence that your project is receiving a sufficient amount of 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. 

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, provided that 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 our 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?

Spacehive does NOT charge a fee to register your project, however, Spacehive 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 visible when you are inputting your costs. 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 in order 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 have any other questions, please visit the Spacehive help centre at https://help.spacehive.com/ or email Spacehive on [email protected] or Stroud District Council on [email protected]

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].