Guildford Borough Council

Guildford Borough Council is committed to empowering communities and supporting people who need help.

This fund is set up to support projects and initiatives that:

•    Help vulnerable people, those that are hard-to-reach and ethnic minorities.
•    Deliver rural initiatives including crime reduction and environmental, cultural and leisure projects.
•    Improve existing and create new parks and open spaces and provision of suitable alternative natural greenspace.
•    Improve residents’ access to nature and wildlife.
•    Deliver projects that help implement the play, sports development and arts ambitions of the Council.

We are looking forward to receiving pitches from projects ideas that deliver the following outcomes:

•    Help to tackle inequalities in our borough.
•    Work with communities to support those in need.
•    Support the unemployed back into the workplace and facilitate opportunities for residents to enhance their skills.
•    Prevent homelessness and rough-sleeping in the borough.
•    Develop strong and safe communities.
•    Improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of local communities.
•    Set out to reduce carbon emissions, energy consumption and waste.
•    Revive Guildford town centre to unlock its full potential.
•    Protect and enhance our natural and built environment
•    Invest in and maintain the local facilities we rely on for these activities to take place
•    Promote the borough’s arts, heritage or culture

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 Guildford Community Fund. Pitch by the 28th September deadline.

3.    VERIFICATION

The project costs and necessary permissions will be checked by verifiers. This involves checking quotes for all the major items and if you have necessary permissions for your project.

4.    CROWDFUNDING

Run your crowdfunding campaign between October and December. 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 6 weeks after the deadline, and successful projects could receive a pledge of up to £5,000 or 50% of your target. Please note that the council will not be the first organisation to pledge to your project and will want to see community support and backing, in the form of smaller pledges from local people, before they consider pledging to your campaign. The Spacehive team is on hand to share lots of advice on how to run a brilliant crowdfunding campaign.

6. HIT YOUR TARGET AND DELIVER YOUR PROJECT 

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

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

All projects must be eligible to crowdfund on Spacehive - see Spacehive's eligibility here.

Eligibility for Guildford’s Community Fund depends on the status of the applicant and type of project. 

The following organisations are able to apply:

- Registered charities
- Community groups
- Social enterprises
- Non-profit organisations
- Community Interest Companies

The project must be a discrete, deliverable project that takes place in the borough of Guildford for the benefit of our residents.

Funding is designed to support projects and not solely for ongoing costs. New projects and those with an element of additionality will be looked upon favourably.

Projects contributing significantly to the Council’s priorities and desired outcomes will be looked upon favourably.

Project creators are able to apply more than once a year for funding if they wish, but the total pledges available will remain at £5,000 or 50% of the target across that year.

We cannot fund projects created by:

- Individuals
- Private companies
- Parish councils
- Public bodies

However, these groups may wish to support projects from eligible applicants. 

We encourage individuals with ideas to work with local groups to create their projects and pitch for funding.

For feedback on eligiblity and for support to get your idea ready for crowdfunding, share it with the Spacehive team via our Project Idea Form.