Castle Park Arts Centre runs successful crowdfunding campaign
The Cheshire West Crowd has helped Castle Park Arts Centre successfully crowdfund solar panels, reducing energy costs and helping the environment at the same time.
A crowdfunding initiative run by Cheshire West and Chester Council in partnership with Spacehive, the Cheshire West Crowd allows everyone to put forward community-led projects and attract funding, creating a stronger future where we all play our part in thriving, caring and sustainable communities.
Castle Park Arts Centre crowdfunded in the most recent funding round, raising almost £21,000 from more than 60 backers, including a significant donation of over £14,000 from the Council.
The funding has helped Castle Park Arts Centre install solar panels to help generate power on site and reduce energy costs.
Hugh from Castle Park Arts Centre said: “Energy costs were booming for us after the pandemic and we had to find a way of bring down our overall costs.
“Crowdfunding was completely new to me as, although you’d heard the term, you didn’t really know what was involved.
“Within a few weeks, we had the donation from the Council and other organisations keen on bringing down energy costs so that gave us the impetus for our campaign.
“It spurred us on and the whole community of Castle Park Arts Centre really put their backs into it.
“We had concerts, walking groups going out with buckets and it worked very well.
“The solar panels have been a lifeline for us as we’re self-funded.
“We’ve got a lot going on and it’s a safe space for people, with a lot of people coming on their own to sit in the courtyard or café.
“What’s really surprised me is how they’ve made friends with others so it’s become quite a tight-knit, social community.”
Get involved with the Cheshire West Crowd
The Council has launched a fifth funding round and community projects have an extended deadline of Wednesday 24 July to register their projects on the platform, although projects can begin crowdfunding at any point.
Community projects will be able to pitch to the Council for funding through two pots.
- Community Innovation Fund – £166,902
- Climate Change Emergency Fund – £50,000
Plenty of support is available from both Spacehive and the Council’s Communities team by emailing: chesterlocality@cheshirewest.gov.uk.
Spacehive has also created some handy video tutorials to help potential project creators.
If you’re particularly interested in pitching to the Climate Change Emergency Fund like Castle Park Arts Centre did, please email: george.ablett@cwva.gov.uk to discuss your project idea in more detail and improve your chances of being funded.