Crowdfunding News: SAVE SANTA! COMPANIES BACK CAMPAIGN TO HELP TOWNS CROWD FUND CHRISTMAS LIGHTS Companies, councils, and locals are coming together to Save Santa this Christmas through a national online campaign to raise funding for festive high street decorations. Civic crowd funding website, Spacehive is calling on companies to help cash strapped towns secure the funds needed to bring festive cheer to our high streets – from sparking Christmas lights, to trees and bustling winter markets. A consortium of retail and property chiefs, together with local communities, councils and retailers, backs the push. Data giants Experian are the first to back the campaign, offering a war chest of £100,000 to match-fund yuletide projects. Retail body BCSC has put £10,000 up for grabs. More firms are now being called on to help to fund the festivities by pledging funding direct to local projects on the Save Santa campaign page: https://spacehive/initiatives/savesanta Eight projects have already been uploaded to the Save Santa page by towns across the UK, including Colliers Row Frozen Chistmas and Hornchurch Christmas Cracker. Increased pressure on council budgets means many towns will struggle to pay for Christmas decorations this year. They are a major pull for shoppers and vital to the economic health of Britain’s local high streets. Spacehive has attracted an array of celebrity backers in recent months. Danny Boyle, David Bailey and Suggs backed a campaign to The Line, a sculpture walk along the River Thames in Newham. Kevin McCloud backed a project in Frome, Somerset to turn a public toilet into an art café. A giant 90-metre waterslide along Park Street in Bristol’s town centre was funded this summer together with a New York-style sky park along a disused flyover in Churchill Way, Liverpool. Spacehive, which was set up by former Sunday Times architect correspondent Chris Gourlay, allows anyone to create a civic project and get it funded. Pledges are philanthropic and people are only charged if the funding goal is reached. The model enables towns to quickly secure the money needed from a mix of local businesses, residents and big corporates. In a trial last year Ripon, near Harrogate in Yorkshire, raised £9,600 for its festivities with support from locals and firms such as Costa Coffee and Econ, an engineering firm, chipping in. Stalybridge town centre near Manchester raised £2,600. This year, with 125 days left until Christmas, the Save Santa campaign has been launched to help many more towns to raise the cash by encouraging companies to match-fund projects. Leading retailers including Tesco, Argos and Boots, as well as public bodies like London Councils, the group representing London’s 32 Boroughs, has already backed the campaign. The concept of “civic crowd funding’, where dozens of individuals, companies and councils chip to deliver projects that make our towns and cities nicer, is becoming increasingly popular across the UK. The concept was developed by Spacehive which launched two years ago and has since funded nearly £2million of civic infrastructure. Its 55 successful projects to date also include free Wi-Fi in Mansfield town centre and an old red phone box turned into a micro art gallery near Edinburg. Backers have also included Stephen Fry, Suggs, Lord Rogers and Sir Ian Botham. Launching the Save Santa campaign, Spacehive’s founder urged towns not leave it too late and upload their projects in early to boost chances of securing match funding. Chris Gourlay, Founder of Spacehive said: “We have a saying which is, ‘You Scrooge, you lose.’ Even if people only chip in a few pounds, they’ll see what a massive difference it makes if a great idea is shared. Christmas is an amazing time to build community and remind people of the value of high streets. Save Santa is something we hope will inspire people to come together and ensure that austerity doesn’t prevent high streets having their names up in lights.” Cllr Ken Browse, Chairman of National Association of Local Councils said:“Many local councils are looking to continue Christmas lighting for their community as it brings social and economic benefits for the area. The Save Santa campaign means local residents will not lose out this Christmas, while councils of any description can save some hard-pressed cash for vital frontline services.” Christmas Success Stories Last year, individuals and businesses such as Costa Coffee and Econ, an engineering firm, helped locals raise £9,689 towards a new LED installation at the Ripon City Market Place in North East Yorkshire. The money allowed Ripon City Council to install, remove and store the new Christmas lights for the next four years. Architectural lighting company Lite Ltd provided the display. Alan Weston, City Development Manager at Ripon City Council said: “We wanted to add new Christmas Lights to our Market Place to provide a focal point for our festive events and help create a festive atmosphere for the City to be proud of and that the historic city deserves. “The people and businesses of Ripon got right behind our campaign and we received a fantastic amount of support, which allowed us to not only improve the lights but meant that we also attracted more people to our switch-on event than in recent years. Because of this experience we now want to look at crowd-funding new Christmas Lights to improve other parts of the City. See more here. In Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, local residents pledged £2,604 to provide Christmas lights for the town centre. The ‘Light up Stalybridge’ campaign after council budget cuts limited spending for their annual Christmas display. Following a 28% cut in funding for local authorities, philanthropic donations from firms and individuals are helping keep festive displays switched on. According to a survey carried out by Fox’s Biscuits in 2011, 38% of Englands villages were without decorations due to costs. Elizabeth Hesketh, Treasurer for Stalybridge Town Team said: “Crowd funding helped Stalybridge have a Christmas light display that the town deserves. The limited council budget could only provide a small display but being able to bring everyone together has untold benefits for the community. Thanks to the generosity of residents and local business, we were successful and we now own Christmas Lights that can be used year on year, to create a winter wonderland in our beautiful canal side town.”
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:17:49 +0000
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