Get involved with the autumn 2022 round of the Cheshire West Crowd

Community projects are being encouraged to take part in the upcoming autumn 2022 round of the Cheshire West Crowd, providing an opportunity for them to crowdfund and pitch to Cheshire West and Chester Council for funding.

The Cheshire West Crowd, which is being run by the Council in partnership with Spacehive, is the ideal chance for community-led ideas to be created so the borough can become more vibrant, resilient and connected.

After launching in 2021, the Cheshire West Crowd has already had two funding rounds and, with around £400,000 contributed by the Council and more than £740,000 raised in total by local projects, it is one of the most successful initiatives Spacehive has run.

The following funding pots will be available from the Council in the autumn 2022 round.

• Community Innovation Fund – £250,000
• Youth Fund – £20,000
• Cheshire West Crowd Fund – £90,000
• COVID Recovery and Renewal Fund – £47,885
• Climate Change Emergency Fund – £10,000
• Tackling Poverty Fund – £9,865 

With the Community Innovation Fund, a gold standard project will hit more than one objective in the Council Plan, be an innovative idea and needs to be delivered in a high need area, such as rural communities, tackling poverty, aimed at tackling rural poverty, social isolation or community transport.

Councillor Louise Gittins, Leader of the Council and Champion for the Cheshire West Crowd, said: “We’re delighted with the success that the Cheshire West Crowd has had so far.

“This is such a flexible and accessible way for everyone in Cheshire West and Chester to support local community projects.

“Many of our community projects have had to deal with the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and are now looking to deliver exciting services that will make a real difference in the future so we’re delighted to have contributed such a significant amount of funding from the Council.

“I’d encourage as many local projects as possible to get involved with the Cheshire West Crowd as we once again have a significant amount of funding available in the autumn 2022 round.”

Chapter Mental Health was one of many successful community projects in the spring 2022 round, receiving grants from two different Council funding pots.

Jolene Weaver, Interim Chief Executive of Chapter Mental Health, said: “We were delighted to receive funding from the Council as part of our Cheshire West Crowd crowdfunding campaign.

“We will use the funding to run a series of community-based activities for people living with mental ill health, including wellbeing walks, arts and crafts and coffee mornings.

“As a charity, we’re reliant on donations and funding to run our mental health support programmes so we’re incredibly gratefully to everyone who has pledged.”

Project creator workshops will be run by the Council and Spacehive on Thursday 11 August and Tuesday 6 September to help projects get ready for crowdfunding, with monthly support sessions taking place in local libraries from August to November 2022.

The deadline for projects being added to the Cheshire West Crowd is Wednesday 2 November 2022 as the Council will be allocating funds from the various pots in January 2023.

All projects will need to reach their crowdfunding targets on the Cheshire West Crowd by Tuesday 28 February 2023.

Create your project on the Cheshire West Crowd

Anyone can back projects on the Cheshire West Crowd, whether you’re a resident, business or donor, and whatever contribution you make will go a long way to supporting these community-led ideas.

Organisations wanting to explore supporting multiple local projects can contact: 

info@spacehive.com