Crowdfunder | Stories

The Positivity Project, episode three: hedgerow to bottle

Rebecca Hughes — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 10:07:11 +0100

Written: 14 October 2026

Episode three is about something small, patient and circular, working with nature rather than around it. This time we’re in Glynde, East Sussex, at a brewery smaller than most people knew a brewery could be.

A nanobrewery is even smaller than a microbrewery, and in a world that optimises towards profit and output, what could possibly be the role of such small-scale operations? Old Tree Brewery is a shining example of this scale of production and a blueprint for a better food and drink industry.

Foraging the ingredients

Their small team work harmoniously with nature, sustainably foraging local plants to produce brews that are delicious to drink and slot seamlessly into a circular production model that gives back as much as it takes. The episode follows them from plucking fruit and berries directly off the tree, hedgerow plants and orchard windfalls included, all the way through to a bottled finished product. Nothing is grown to a schedule, the season sets the ingredients list.

Nano, not micro

A nanobrewery and a microbrewery aren’t the same thing, and the difference is the whole point. Old Tree Brewery sit a size down from even the small end of brewing, by design. Staying nano keeps the production circular and the ingredients genuinely local and seasonal, rather than scaling into the volume game that pushed them out of supermarket shelves in the first place.

Inside the brewery: Fermenting, bottling, capping

What makes Old Tree Brewery unusual isn’t the foraging; it’s what happens to everything that doesn’t end up in a bottle. They call it garden to gut and gut to garden: the drinks are fermented the traditional way, live and unpasteurised, kombucha, seasonal wines and botanical elixirs among them, and the leftover organic material goes straight back into the ground. They compost 100% of it. They’re also saving for a bottle-capping machine that would let them swap plastic caps for aluminium and go fully zero waste.

It’s a direct answer to an industry that doesn’t work for small producers. As the team put it when they hit their first crowdfunding milestone: “Supermarkets want products that sit on shelves for months”, and once VAT, duty and distribution are taken out, “we’re left with less than 10p in every pound.” Old Tree Brewery’s answer is to skip that route and sell straight to the community that drinks what they make.

The taste test

The episode ends where it should: tasting what all that foraging and fermenting actually produces, before Old Tree Brewery and The Positivity Project close out what nanobreweries like this one can teach the rest of the food and drink industry.

Drink The Seasons

That’s where Drink The Seasons comes in: a quarterly subscription box of six small-batch, seasonal, botanical drinks, not sold anywhere else. Spring means birch and nettle, summer elderflower and honeysuckle, autumn hedgerow fruit and orchard apples, winter oak, pine, roots and spice. Subscribers get first access to each new brew, and some get to join the harvests that make it.

What’s funding it

Crowdfunding has enabled Old Tree Brewery to launch Drink The Seasons, and their total raised through Crowdfunder is approaching £60,000, £59,781 from 331 supporters on their campaign, Drink the Seasons! Brewing a Biodiversity Revival. Aviva Communities Fund matched donations to help the brewery past its £50,000 milestone, the point the campaign describes as the brewery becoming stable.

“We are a small team of five, rooted in a community of hundreds,” the brewery said when they passed £58,000. “This affirms beyond any doubt that we are a community supported brewery, and we are so, so grateful.”

Watch it, then raise a glass. Cheers to brewing for biodiversity

The Positivity Project exists to show the positive projects people are building when the news and the internet are dominated by negativity. This episode, that’s five people in a Sussex village proving a nanobrewery can be a blueprint, not just a curiosity.

Useful links

Watch The Positivity Project on YouTube
Learn more about Old Tree Brewery
Support Old Tree Brewery on Crowdfunder

Get started

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

October launch notes: a new Payouts page

Rebecca Hughes — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 16:21:21 +0100

This month we’ve rebuilt the Payouts page in your project dashboard. It now shows every pound from pledged to banked, so you can see where your money is and when it will arrive.

A clear view of your money, from pledge to bank

Example payout states, and history page with placeholders.

The old page showed you what has already happened. The new one also gives you a full picture of what’s happening now and what’s coming next with your money. The new one is a full picture of what’s happening with your funds.

Total balance and fees. You can see your overall earnings and the fees taken, laid out clearly in one place.

So what: you know exactly what you’ve raised and what you’ll receive.

Pending and Available. Pending shows pledges still in the seven-day clearing period. Available shows cleared pledges that are ready to be paid out.

So what: if money hasn’t reached you yet, you can see why.

Next payout. You’ll see the amount, the status, the last four digits of the bank account it’s going to and an estimated arrival date.

So what: you can plan your spending around a date, not a guess.

Match funding gets its own card

If your project has match funding, it now has a dedicated card, separate from your crowd pledges. You’ll need an active funding wallet for it to show. If your wallet set up isn’t finished, the card will tell you.

Some match funding is paid by our partners rather than by Crowdfunder, for example, Sport England or a fund you’ve brought yourself. Those payouts appear on the Match Funding card and in your Report History. Every payout shows its source: the fund name for match funding and “The crowd” for crowd pledges. Payouts sent through Stripe, such as Aviva Community Fund, also show the last four digits of the bank account. Payouts from manual wallets show the fund name but leave the bank account field blank, because that money doesn’t come directly from Crowdfunder. Estimated arrival dates depend on the wallet type:

Crowd pledges: the date comes from Stripe
Stripe wallets: three days after the payout starts
Manual wallets: 14 days after the payout starts

So what: you can tell at a glance which money is coming from us and which is coming from a funder.

Offline pledges are kept separate

Offline pledges now sit in an Other funds section, apart from your online balance.

So what: your online and offline totals no longer get mixed up.

Where to find more help

The page has quick links to your reports, our guide on when you’ll receive the money pledged on your project and our guide on setting up your wallet and receiving your match funding.

If your payouts aren’t switched on yet, you’ll see a prompt to start them or complete ID verification. If there’s nothing to pay out, the page will say so.

Coming soon

We’re already working on the next set of improvements:

A Pay out now button, so you can withdraw available funds sooner
Payouts for additional individual fundraising projects set up to raise money for your charity or organisation appear in your main balance cards.
Manual wallet details moved into the Other funds section

Tell us what you think

We’d like to hear how the new page works for you. Take our short survey →

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

How to secure a corporate charity partnership: Lessons from the CCP conference

Rebecca Hughes — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:03:35 +0100

Written: 13 October 2026

Wondering how your charity can secure a corporate partnership? Last week, our team headed to London for the Corporate Charity Partnerships Conference. We spent the day listening to CSR leads, charities and partnership professionals talk about what makes a corporate charity partnership work, and what stops one before it starts. Here is what stayed with us, and what it means if you are hoping to build one.

Prove your cause fits their mission

The first lesson is to read a corporate’s mission properly. Then show, specifically, where your cause and their mission meet.

It is rarely as simple as “we’re a digital inclusion charity and you’re a tech company”. The strongest corporate partnerships for charities have a link that is more specific and harder to argue with.

Crisis and Specsavers are a great example. Specsavers’ mission is eye and ear care for all and Crisis were able to prove how homelessness increases risk of sensory deterioration. Together they have conducted research which found that 50% of people experiencing homelessness reported a reduction in their hearing and sight. Of those, 40% went on to develop a condition. That is an incredibly specific connection. Supporting Crisis directly supports Specsavers’ mission, and nobody has to take that on trust, because the evidence is there.

Research your corporate partner’s priority

Missions are one thing, but priorities are another. One of the corporates at the conference said their CSR priority is employee engagement, and that everything they do is built around it. If a charity partnership does not give their colleagues plenty of ways to get involved, it is a non-starter for them. Other companies will care most about funding, volunteering, or sponsorship. Many make this information public, so do your homework before you reach out. A brilliant pitch aimed at the wrong priority might still fall flat.

How to pitch your cause

One of the best moments of the day was a live demonstration pitch from Trussell, followed by feedback from the corporates in the room. Three lessons came out of it for any charity pitching to a corporate.

Be clear about your ask. Whether you are asking for exposure, money, volunteers or a blend of the three, a corporate shouldn’t have to guess, because the more they have to work out for themselves, the harder you make their decision.

Tell a human story. Many of the charities followed one person’s journey through their work, and it was effective because it humanises what you do and explains why it matters in a way that feels real and grounded.

Don’t cram in the statistics. Statistics are valuable, but telling a clear and gripping story matters more, and if you pack in every number you have, the important ones tend to get lost along the way. The aim is to find a balance where the story does the heavy lifting and a few well-chosen figures back it up.

Top tip

This was one of our favourite takeaways, and it came from Donkey Business Consulting. Once you secure a corporate charity partnership, you will naturally share your impact with the corporation, but you should also ask them for a statistic in return about what the partnership has done for their business. That might be revenue growth, an increase in employee engagement or a greater sense of pride in working for the company. Those corporate stats are invaluable, because it strengthens your case when it is time to renew and it helps you win other corporate partners as well. So when you are negotiating, try to secure at least one statistic for yourself.

How corporate charity partnerships thrive on Crowdfunder

Our co-founder Dawn Bébe spoke at the conference about exactly this. When a charity fundraises on Crowdfunder while its corporate partners provide match funding, employee giving vouchers and/or volunteers, those partnerships really thrive. Colleagues get involved, the community gets behind the project, and the impact is easy to see.

She also introduced Bring Your Own Match, which is worth knowing about even if you don’t have a corporate partner yet. It gives you a way to secure match funding and support from anyone who is willing to offer it. That might be your local solicitor, or a larger organisation that isn’t able to commit to a full partnership right now but can give you something in the meantime.

There is a bonus. Every project you run is a case study. If you secure support from other organisations, you have real proof of community backing to take into your next corporate ask.

Speak to the partner team

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How to run an online raffle legally in the UK

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:53:49 +0100

Written: 8 October 2026

TLDR: Most charities and community groups can run a prize draw (similar to an online raffle) without a gambling licence. Because anyone can enter for free alongside paying supporters. It isn’t classed as a lottery. The free entry route is the key, and Crowdfunder requires every prize draw to include one. A traditional paid raffle is a lottery, so unless it falls within an exemption, such as registering as a small society lottery with your council, running it is a criminal offence.

Quick answer: do you need a gambling licence or registration?

Not if you run a prize draw on Crowdfunder. Here’s what matters:

An online raffle where everyone must pay to enter (i.e. there is no free entry route offered) is legally a lottery under the Gambling Act 2005
Running a lottery is a criminal offence unless you’re registered with your council as a small society lottery or hold a Gambling Commission licence
The simplest legal alternative: a raffle style prize draw that includes a free entry route — anyone can enter by the free entry route (usually postal entries) without paying and with the same chance of winning as paid entries
With a genuine free entry route, the draw isn’t a lottery, so no licence or registration is needed
Crowdfunder requires every prize draw to include a free entry route, making it compliant to run without any registration

If you want to run a traditional paid ticket raffle with no free entry option, you need to register as a small society lottery with your local council first. See the section below.

Is a raffle style prize draw the same as running an online raffle?

Both have one or more prizes, most people pay to enter, and you raise funds for your cause. The difference is that a raffle needs registration or a licence before you start, whereas a raffle style prize draw doesn’t, so you can get going straight away.

A raffle, legally speaking, is a form of lottery. Under the Gambling Act 2005, a lottery exists when three things combine: payment, chance, and a prize. All three together = lottery = needs a licence or registration.

A ‘raffle style prize draw’ removes one of those elements. Because anyone can choose to enter for free, the law treats the draw as not requiring payment, so it isn’t a lottery. The Gambling Commission’s own guidance confirms that prize draws with a genuine free entry route sit outside lottery classification and need no licence to operate.

What this means in practice: your supporters can still pay £5 or £10 to enter, while anyone who wants to enter for free can do so via the free entry route (usually post). Every entry goes into the same draw with equal odds of winning.

You can offer one prize or multiple prizes in a single draw.

The table below sets out the key types:

Type	Payment required to enter	Winner by chance?	Licence/registration needed?	What’s involved
Large society lottery (paid online raffle over £20,000 per draw or £250,000 a year)	Yes	Yes	Yes — Gambling Commission	Licence application and ongoing compliance with the Commission’s licence conditions
Small society lottery (paid online raffle)	Yes	Yes	Yes — Local authority registration (£40)	Register before selling any tickets; every ticket the same price (no bundles); required information on tickets; at least 20% of proceeds to your cause; return to your council within three months of the draw
Raffle style prize draw hosted on Crowdfunder (with free entry route)	Optional	Yes	No	Set up and go live; free entry route included; bundles allowed

Do you need a gambling licence or registration to run a raffle style prize draw?

No. As long as your draw includes a genuine free entry route, you do not need a Gambling Commission licence or registration with your council.

The Gambling Commission confirms that prize draws with a genuine free entry route sit outside the regulatory framework for lotteries. This is the legal basis for Crowdfunder’s prize draws.

The key word is genuine. A free entry route that is buried in the small print, technically available but practically hidden, or that gives free entrants a lower chance of winning than paid entrants, does not satisfy the legal requirement. The free route must be:

Available by post, or another way that costs no more and is no harder than paying to enter (for example, a standard stamp, not special delivery or a premium rate number)
Clearly shown so that anyone entering will see it, not tucked away in the terms
Open for the same period as the paid entry route
Added to the same draw pool as paid entries, with equal odds of winning

Crowdfunder requires every prize draw to include a free entry route, and our terms template shows you how to set it out.

What if I want to run a traditional paid ticket raffle?

An online raffle where everyone pays and there is no free entry route is a lottery. To run one lawfully, you’ll need to register with your council as a small society lottery before you sell a single ticket (or, for very large charities raising more than £20,000 per draw or £250,000 a year, get a Gambling Commission licence, which comes with its own requirements).

Who can register for a small society lottery: Non-commercial societies such as registered charities, community groups, sports clubs, PTAs, village halls, and most voluntary organisations.

Registration is only the start. Small society lotteries have ongoing rules on how tickets are priced and sold, who you can sell to, what tickets must say, how much of the money goes to your cause and how much you can raise and give away in prizes. You must also report to your council after every draw.

The Gambling Commission’s full guidance on small society lotteries is at gamblingcommission.gov.uk.

Examples of raffle style prize draws on Crowdfunder.

Hope Blamire has run a Christmas raffle style prize draw on Crowdfunder every year since 2022, raising £136,504, £138,514, £133,930 and £116,558 across four draws, over £525,000 in total with no gambling licence and no local authority registration.

Nordoff and Robbins, the music therapy charity, ran a raffle style prize draw for a guitar signed by Mark Knopfler, raising £28,035.

Patchwork CIC has run monthly raffle style prize draws on Crowdfunder since 2020, raising £347,066 across 41 consecutive monthly draws.

War Child runs multiple raffle style prize draws each year; Foo Fighters tickets, signed Rega turntables through Record Store Day, and festival ticket bundles, using each draw to reach new supporters as well as raise funds.

What makes a free entry route compliant?

This is the key part to get right. A free entry route that is technically present but hard to use in practice doesn’t meet the Gambling Act 2005 requirements, so it risks being an illegal lottery. The Gambling Commission looks at the substance, not just the form.

The Gambling Commission says a free entry route must meet four requirements:

People can genuinely choose to enter without paying
The free route costs no more and is no less convenient than paying to enter
The free route is publicised so that anyone planning to enter is likely to see it
Free and paid entries are treated the same when the winner is picked

Common pitfalls to avoid:

A free route that costs more than the normal rate, such as requiring special delivery or recorded post, or using a premium rate phone number or text
Free entries not checked or not added to the draw before the winner is picked, even by mistake
Free entry details only in the terms and conditions, where people are unlikely to see them
Unclear instructions, or strict rules that lead to free entries being rejected (for postal entries, asking for a name, contact details, prize draw reference and a standard stamp is usually enough)
Bonus entries, early bird draws or extra prizes only for paying supporters
Free entries limited when paid entries aren’t
The free route closing earlier than paid entries, or not leaving enough time for entries to arrive
Showing the free route so small or out of the way that people are unlikely to notice it
Asking free entrants for anything paid entrants don’t have to do, e.g. account creation or paying to get the free entry details

What compliance looks like:

Free entry route displayed clearly on the prize draw page, not just in the terms
Same closing date for free and paid entries
Free entrants added to the same draw with equal odds
Entry method clearly explained (name, contact details, competition reference, first class stamp)

On Crowdfunder, every prize draw must include a free entry route before it can go live, and our terms and conditions template shows you how to set it out. When the draw closes, you can download your list of entrants, add any free entries, and pick your winner using our number generator.

You can also read Crowdfunder’s prize draw guidelines.

Data protection obligations

Running a prize draw means handling entrants’ personal data, so UK data protection law applies. Only use entrants’ details to run the draw and contact the winner, unless they’ve agreed to hear from you about other things. Tell entrants in your terms how their details will be used, including if you’ll publish the winner’s name, and don’t keep the data longer than you need. When entries come through Crowdfunder, we handle the data under our own privacy notice, and you’re responsible for the entrant details you download.

What your terms and conditions must include

Whether you use Crowdfunder’s template or write your own, your prize draw terms and conditions must include as a minimum:

Promoter details: your name and contact details. You are the promoter, not Crowdfunder
Who can enter: entrants must be 18 or over, where they must live, and anyone excluded (such as employees or family members)
How to enter via Crowdfunder: the cost per entry and any limit on entries per person
How to enter for free: the method, what to include, how multiple or incomplete entries are handled, and confirmation that free entries have the same chance of winning
Entry period: start and end date and time
Prize details: a full description, how many of each, and approximate retail value
Funding model: if you choose All or Nothing, that the draw depends on reaching your target and entries will be refunded if you don’t
How the winner is picked: a statement that winners are selected at random, and the method you’ll use
Awarding prizes: how you’ll verify winners (including that they’re over 18), when and how they’ll be announced, and what happens if a winner can’t be contacted
Prize claims and delivery: how and when prizes will be delivered, and any conditions
Data protection: how you’ll handle personal data, with a link to your privacy policy

How to pick a winner

The winner must be selected fairly. Crowdfunder’s number generator can help with this.

Before you run the draw:

Confirm all free entry route entries have been added to the pool
Record the total number of entries
Run the generator and record the inputs and outputs as evidence of a fair draw
Notify the winner promptly and announce the result publicly (with their permission)

How to promote your raffle style prize draw

Prize draws reach further than standard donation appeals because the entry barrier is lower, supporters give a small amount for a chance to win something meaningful.

Pricing: We recommend £10 or less per ticket entry, with bundle incentives to increase average transaction value. Average entry on a Crowdfunder prize draw is around £18, achieved through bundles like £10 for one ticket and £20 for three. Match the price to the prize, a higher-value, genuinely exclusive prize can justify a higher entry point.

Bundles of tickets are also something only available to prize draws; they are not legally allowed to be an element of lotteries.

Timing: Two to four weeks is the standard campaign window. The closing deadline is your strongest promotional asset, the urgency drives the final surge of entries.

Channel order:

Inner circle first; committee, regular volunteers, your most engaged supporters, before any public launch. Aim for 20–30% of your target from your existing network in the first 48 hours.
Email to your full list once you are live.
Social media, make the prize the hero; show it, describe it, make people want it.
Ask the prize donor to promote it to their own audience, this is often the highest-converting single piece of promotion.

Penalties for running an unlicensed lottery

Under Section 258 of the Gambling Act 2005, operating an unlicensed lottery is a criminal offence. On summary conviction: up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

Practical consequences beyond the criminal exposure include account closure by payment processors, advertising account restriction or permanent ban by Meta, and significant reputational damage in the communities where your organisation operates.

A raffle style prize draw with a properly implemented free entry route avoids all of this.

Key contacts and resources

Gambling Commission — free draws and prize competitions: gamblingcommission.gov.uk
Gambling Commission — small society lotteries: gamblingcommission.gov.uk
Fundraising Regulator — code of practice on lotteries: fundraisingregulator.org.uk
ASA — prize draw advertising rules: asa.org.uk
Find your local council for small society lottery registration: gov.uk/find-local-council

Frequently asked questions

Can I run a raffle online without registering with anyone?
Yes, if you run a raffle style prize draw with a genuine free entry route. It is not a lottery under the Gambling Act 2005 and requires no registration or licence.

Does the free entry route have to be postal?
No. It can be by post, email or an online form, as long as it’s no more expensive or less convenient than paying to enter. Post is the most common choice on Crowdfunder.

Can I cap the number of free entries?
Only if the same limit applies to paid entries. Free entrants must be able to enter as many times as paid entrants.

Do free entries have to have the same chance of winning as paid entries?
Yes. Every valid free entry must go into the same draw as paid entries, with exactly the same chance of winning.

Can I accept entries from under-18s?
On Crowdfunder, prize draws are restricted to entrants aged 18 and over.

What if my draw doesn’t reach its target?
Your terms and conditions should state what happens, whether you extend the campaign, adjust the prize, or refund entries. Be clear about this before you launch.

Is a prize draw on Crowdfunder legal?
Yes, as long as it has a genuine free entry route and follows our guidelines. As the promoter, you’re responsible for making sure it complies, and our guidelines and template help you get it right.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Prize draw law is complex and individual circumstances vary. If you are in any doubt about your specific situation, seek independent legal advice.

Start a prize draw

Pick your winner with our number generator →

Read our prize draw guidelines →

Browse prize draws on Crowdfunder →

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

Save the Traf: The community share offer turning a threatened Wimbledon pub into a community-owned local

Rebecca Hughes — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:02:21 +0100

Written: 2 October 2026

The Trafalgar in South Wimbledon has raised £325,890 from 203 supporters towards saving itself from demolition, with 49 days left to hit its new stretch target of £530,000.

View project on Crowdfunder

Community Benefit Society Cabo Trafalgar Ltd is buying the pub’s freehold outright through a community share offer, the same model that’s kept over 200 pubs across England open under local ownership.

A pub that’s been serving Wimbledon since 1868

The Trafalgar, known locally as the Traf, is Wimbledon’s oldest freehouse. It’s been pulling pints on High Path since at least 1868 and has built the kind of reputation most pubs never get close to: CAMRA South West London Pub of the Year in both 2024 and 2026, and a place on the Telegraph’s Top 500 Pubs in England.

Under current landlord Oli Carter-Esdale, the Traf has re-established itself as an independent freehouse loved by long-time regulars and newer visitors alike.

Three years of fighting off the bulldozers

The Traf sits on the edge of a major regeneration zone in Merton, which has made it a target. Since 2023, the pub’s freeholder, a property developer, has submitted repeated planning applications to demolish it and build housing. Every application has been rejected. When the developer appealed, the Planning Inspectorate dismissed that too, explicitly recognising the pub’s cultural and social value and its right to keep operating.

Winning at planning doesn’t make a pub safe forever though. The Traf’s lease is coming up, and the only way regulars can guarantee no developer gets another shot is to own the building outright.

Community ownership, or nothing

That’s what Save the Traf is about. Supporters formed Cabo Trafalgar Ltd, a Community Benefit Society, to buy the £500,000 freehold and hold it for the community, permanently. As one campaign organiser put it: “The only way to protect the Traf for generations is community ownership.”

“The only way to protect the Traf for generations is community ownership.”

The minimum target is £250,000. The campaign has since set an extended stretch target of £530,000, covering the full purchase and completion costs. £325,890 is in from 203 people so far, 61% of that stretch goal, with 49 days left before the share offer closes on 17 November 2026. Completion is targeted for Christmas Eve.

Investment starts at £250 (250 shares at £1 each), and every member gets one vote regardless of how much they’ve put in, true to the community shares model. Interest accrues at 3.5 to 4% depending on investment tier. Supporters also get a birthday drink each year, their name on the pub’s wall of honour and ongoing drink discounts, with brewery visits for anyone investing £1,000 or more.

Why this one’s different

The crowd really came through for this project and made it one of the fastest-funding pub crowdfunders on the platform. The share offer launched on 9 September, backed by a community meeting that drew nearly 140 people. Within 24 hours, the campaign had already passed 20% of its target. Inside a week, it had cleared 50%. Two weeks after launch, Cabo Trafalgar Ltd had hit its minimum £250,000 target in full, which is what triggered the move to the £530,000 stretch goal that’s still open today.

That’s the kind of local density most fundraisers spend months trying to build, and it’s why this is shaping up to be the biggest pub crowdfunder of the year: not just the size of the target, but the speed the community hit it at. If it succeeds, the Traf becomes Merton’s first community-owned pub, joining a growing list of pubs across England that have swapped a developer’s spreadsheet for a share register.

What it says about community shares

Community shares work because everyone with a stake becomes an advocate. Businesses funded this way have a strong track record: 92% of companies that raise through community shares are still trading, against 55% for the average business. When 203 people each own a piece of the pub, none of them are hoping someone else saves it. They’re the ones saving it.

Regulars and anyone who believes locals deserve a say over their local have 49 days left to add their name to that wall of honour. Invest now at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-the-traf, or look into how a community share offer could protect a place you care about.

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The Positivity Project: Episode 2

Rebecca Hughes — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:25:16 +0100

Written: 29 September 2026

Trees work on timescales we’re not really built to notice. A woodland takes hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years to become what we’d call ancient. Episode two of The Positivity Project follows one reforestation project across that span: from a handful of collected seeds, through a nursery of tens of thousands of saplings, to a fifteen-year-old woodland finding its feet, and on to an ancient woodland that shows where it’s all heading.

The charity behind it is Moor Trees, based in South Brent and restoring native broadleaf woodland across Dartmoor. Episode one took us to Cornwall, where Plant One are linking riverbank forests to the health of the sea below. Episode two stays with that same idea, trees as the start of something much bigger, and moves inland to see what the middle and the end of that story actually look like.

From seed to sapling

Before anything gets planted, someone has to collect the seed. Moor Trees do this themselves, gathering seed from Dartmoor’s remaining broadleaf woodland so that what gets planted back is genuinely native to the place it’s going.

From there it goes to one of the charity’s community tree nurseries, where the film finds tens of thousands of saplings growing on, ready for the next planting season. It’s the least photographed part of reforestation and one of the most important: without it, there’s nothing to plant.

Fifteen years in

The film also visits a woodland Moor Trees planted fifteen years ago. It’s not yet what most people picture when they hear “ancient woodland”, but it’s no longer a plantation either. It’s an adolescent copse, past the fragile early years and starting to behave like a proper woodland: its own understorey, its own wildlife moving in.

Where it’s all heading

The last stop is an ancient woodland, the closest thing Dartmoor has to a finished version of what today’s saplings could become. It’s there to make a point: Moor Trees’ vision is a wilder Dartmoor, with woodlands forming part of a mosaic of restored habitats that do real work against climate change and biodiversity loss, while coexisting with the farming, archaeology and recreation that already shape the moor, and reconnecting people to nature and to their own heritage.

What’s funding it

Crowdfunding has helped Moor Trees make progress towards that vision, raising tens of thousands of pounds on Crowdfunder. One of their campaigns, Breathing more life into Dartmoor: 34000 New Trees, has raised £21,035 from 111 supporters so far, with £10,000 matched by Devon Environment Foundation and £4,731 by Aviva Community Fund. The money goes on the unglamorous things that make the glamorous bit possible: compost, seed trays, staff time and volunteer transport, including a minibus from Plymouth so cost and distance aren’t the reason someone misses planting day.

More recently, at the start of 2026, they ran another project: Plant the Future with Moor Trees, where they raised £25,547 to celebrate their 25th anniversary and continue to fund their efforts and amplify their impact.

Watch it, then help plant it

The Positivity Project exists to show what people are building when nobody’s watching. It’s also about the stories that don’t make mainstream news. This episode, that’s a charity in South Brent growing a rainforest back, one seed at a time, patiently enough to think in centuries.

Get started

Useful links

Support Moor Trees on Crowdfunder

Learn more about Moor Trees

Start crowdfunding

Printed artwork in the film by Mike Langman.

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

10 rugby club fundraising ideas (with real clubs who’ve raised money)

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:41:16 +0100

Written: 24 September 2026

Raising money for your rugby club shouldn’t be hard. Here are 10 ideas that actually work, from online campaigns to a Saturday afternoon in the clubhouse, with real clubs and figures for each.

1. Launch a crowdfunding campaign for your big project

If you’re facing a five or six-figure bill for a clubhouse rebuild, new changing rooms or floodlights, a crowdfunding campaign lets you collect one-off donations from players, parents and the wider community towards a clear target, on a page you can share on WhatsApp, email and social media.

Resources needed:

A clear target figure and a specific project (not just “general funds”)
Photos of the clubhouse, pitch or kit you’re fixing or replacing
A core group of committee members and players to share the page in week one
Your club’s bank details to set up a payout wallet

Cost of setup: Free to launch. Crowdfunder takes a small fee on funds raised.

Could raise: £5,000 to £100,000+, depending on the scale of the project.

Pontefract RUFC raised £83,439 to modernise their clubhouse.

Topsham RFC raised £83,710 to rebuild theirs brick by brick.

Kirkby Lonsdale RUFC raised £42,135 to replace failing floodlights.

Longlevens RFC raised £30,482 towards a clubhouse that works for every age group, from toddlers to the first team.

Tip: Launch with 20 to 30% of your target already pledged by committee members and sponsors. It gives everyone else the confidence to back a project that’s clearly already moving.

2. Apply for match funding to double what your crowd raises

Match funding means a funder, often a national body, a local authority or a corporate community fund, pledges to match what your supporters give, pound for pound, up to an agreed amount. It’s free money that only unlocks if your community backs the project first, so it rewards clubs that do the legwork of rallying their crowd.

Resources needed:

A project that fits a funder’s criteria (facilities, participation, inclusion)
Time to complete a short application before you launch
A campaign page that states the match funding clearly from day one

Cost of setup: Free to apply.

Could raise: Effectively doubles your crowd total. Sport England’s Movement Fund pledges 50% of your project target, and your club raises the other 50% from the crowd. Hit your crowd target and the match funding is yours.

Haywards Heath RFC stacked two funders, Aviva Community and Sport England, to raise £59,809 for a new multi-sport clubhouse.

Eccles RFC stacked Salford City Council and Sport England to raise £36,003 for facilities improvements for their women’s and girls’ sections.

Rushden & Higham RUFC used Sport England funding to reach £34,841. Across every sport on Crowdfunder, Sport England’s £6m in match funding has helped clubs collectively raise £18.9m, a 313% amplification of the original investment.

Tip: Apply for match funding before you launch, not after. Supporters are up to 84% more likely to donate, and give larger amounts, when they can see their money will be matched.

3. Run a raffle style prize draw

A raffle style prize draw is its own product on Crowdfunder: supporters buy an entry for a chance to win a prize, and the proceeds go to your club. It works well for smaller, more frequent asks that don’t need a big capital project behind them, and it’s genuinely repeatable. A free entry route has to be offered alongside paid entries on every prize draw, so build that into your plan from the start.

Resources needed:

A prize, ideally donated by a sponsor, player or local business
A free entry route (required by law on every prize draw)
A ticket price and a promotion plan for socials and matchday

Cost of setup: Free to set up, plus the cost of any prize you buy rather than have donated.

Could raise: £2,000 to £10,000 per draw, more if you repeat it.

Dorking RFC is the best example of the repeat model for a rugby club. They’ve run three separate Christmas prize draws over three different years: Light up DRFC’s Future (£8,053), The Pitch Perfect Christmas Prize Draw (£6,438) and Pad the Paddock (£5,890).

Bishop’s Stortford RFC’s minis section raised £2,965 and, separately, £2,390, with prize draws built around signed England shirts, a good reminder of how far a well-chosen prize goes. A prize draw can’t be combined with match funding on the same project, so treat it as a separate string to your bow.

Tip: Run it annually around the same date; Christmas works well, so supporters come to expect it and it becomes a fixture rather than a one-off ask.

4. Turn supporters into owners with a community shares offer

If your club is looking at a genuinely transformational purchase, buying your ground outright, taking over the freehold, or becoming fully community owned, a community shares offer lets supporters invest rather than just donate. They get a stake in the club’s future, and the club gets patient capital instead of a loan.

Resources needed:

Legal and financial groundwork before you launch
A share offer document setting out the terms
A supporter base large enough to justify the extra setup

Cost of setup: Legal and admin costs, higher than a standard project, so factor this into your target from the start.

Could raise: Six figures for a major ownership transition.

Salford Red Devils used this route in their 150th year to become the only fully community owned elite rugby league club in the country, raising £363,770 from their supporter base.

Tip: This is a bigger undertaking than a standard campaign. Get proper legal and financial advice before you commit to it, but for the right club at the right moment it’s the difference between renting your future and owning it.

5. Host a summer barbecue and end-of-season friendly

Not everything needs a webpage. A summer barbecue paired with a friendly match against a rival club, an old boys’ side or a touring team is one of the oldest tricks in the book for a reason: it brings the whole club together, families included, on a day when nobody’s under match pressure.

Resources needed:

BBQ equipment and food and drink stock
Volunteers to run the grill, the bar and the gate
A pitch booking and an opponent for the friendly

Cost of setup: £100 to £300 for food, drink and any hire costs.

Could raise: £300 to £1,000.

Tip: List the day as a small crowdfunding project too, so people who can’t make it in person can still chip in online, and you can take contactless payments on the gate alongside the cash bucket.

6. Run a quiz night, race night or beer festival

Clubhouse social events are reliable income because people already come to your bar. A quiz night, a race night with sponsored “horses”, or a small beer festival over a weekend all work on the same principle: ticket or table sales cover costs, and the bar takings are the real fundraiser.

Resources needed:

A quiz master or race night kit, and a set of questions or races
Raffle prizes for the interval
Extra bar stock and a few volunteers behind it

Cost of setup: £50 to £150 for prizes, printing and stock.

Could raise: £300 to £1,500 per event.

If you want to combine an event with online reach, Balfour Beatty’s staff Touch Rugby Challenge paired a day of touch rugby with an online prize draw and raised £2,970 for their nominated causes.

Tip: Do the event in person, then give people who can’t attend a way to back it online too, either through a prize draw or a simple donations page.

7. Set up a shirt and pitch-side sponsorship scheme

Local businesses want visibility with a loyal, local audience, and your first team shirt front, your pitch-side boards and your matchday programme are all inventory you’re probably under-using. Package up a few tiers, shirt sponsor, boot sponsor, board sponsor, matchday sponsor, price them for a local plumber or estate agent rather than a national brand, and go and ask.

Resources needed:

A simple sponsorship pack with tiers and prices
A list of local businesses connected to players and parents
Boards, shirt printing or programme space to deliver on the deal

Cost of setup: £50 to £200 for design and printing.

Could raise: £500 to £5,000 per season, and it renews.

Tip: Renew every season rather than treating it as a one-off, and add a “thank you” board of sponsor logos to any bigger campaign you run. It gives local businesses a reason to back the larger project too.

8. Start a 100 club or golden gate lottery

A 100 club (or golden gate, or numbers draw, whatever your club calls it) is a small recurring prize draw among members: everyone pays a set amount in a monthly draw for a chance to win a cash prize, and the club keeps a cut. It’s low-key but dependable, and it turns your existing membership into a steady drip of income rather than a one-off ask.

Resources needed:

A membership list and a way to collect monthly payments
A prize structure and a draw date
A quick check of your registration obligations before you launch

Cost of setup: Free, plus a registration fee with your local authority or the Gambling Commission if your ticket sales are above small-scale limits.

Could raise: £1,000 to £5,000 a year, recurring.

Tip: Do check the current Gambling Commission rules before you set your numbers and price, regular society lotteries above small-scale limits need registering.

9. Get your minis and juniors fundraising with a sponsored challenge

Junior sections are usually the biggest, most enthusiastic and most parent-supported part of any club, which makes sponsored challenges an easy win. A sponsored walk, run or cycle for an U13s tour, or an age-grade team taking on a physical challenge together, gives parents an easy way to sponsor their own child while raising the profile of the junior section.

Resources needed:

A challenge the kids are genuinely excited about
A simple online page for sponsors to give and share
A team of parent volunteers to organise the day

Cost of setup: Free to set up online, plus any costs for the event itself.

Could raise: £500 to £7,500.

Rugby St Andrews U15s raised £5,337 with a sponsored race up Snowdon.

Windsor U13s raised £7,402 towards their end-of-season tour to the South Coast Rugby Festival.

Didcot U12s raised £2,130 with a sponsored fun run.

Tip: Let the kids pick the challenge. A sponsored event they’ve chosen themselves will always out-fundraise one the committee has picked for them.

10. Run a tag rugby festival or minis tournament

A festival day for minis, juniors or mixed-ability players brings new families through the gate, gives your junior coaches a shop window, and works as a fundraiser through entry fees, a barbecue and a raffle all on the same day.

Resources needed:

Pitch space and equipment for tag or mini games
Entry fees or team fees from visiting clubs
Food, drink and a raffle to run alongside it

Cost of setup: £100 to £500 for pitch hire, equipment and prizes.

Could raise: £1,000 to £11,000, depending on how many clubs and families take part.

Portadown Panthers raised £10,988 running a disability tag rugby festival open to all abilities, ages and backgrounds across Ireland, a good example of a festival day that raises money and widens who gets to play.

Tip: Invite two or three neighbouring clubs to bring teams. More visiting families means more gate money, more raffle tickets sold, and more people who’ve never been to your ground before.

Top tips to boost your rugby club fundraising

Apply for match funding before you launch a crowdfunding campaign, not after, it makes the biggest difference to how much you raise.
Don’t rely on one method. The clubs above are often running a big facilities campaign, a Christmas prize draw and a junior sponsored challenge in the same year.
Give people who can’t attend an event in person a way to back it online too.
Say thank you publicly, on socials and at the clubhouse, sponsors and supporters who feel appreciated give again.

Start fundraising for your rugby club today

Whichever idea fits your club, Crowdfunder can help you get it off the ground.

Explore projects
Find match funding
Join a free webinar

Get started

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

How to build a prize draw partnership for your large charity

Rebecca Hughes — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 17:05:17 +0100

Written: 22 September 2026

In discussion with Crowdfunder’s Max, head of Campaigns.

The prize draws that raise transformational sums are not the ones with the best prizes. They are the ones where the partner has carefully considered the prize.

Our Projects team have worked on prize draw campaigns with artists from Coldplay to Ed Sheeran and charities from War Child to Crisis, and describe the pattern: “The partner promotes the draw. Their audience enters. The charity captures thousands of new supporters who had no prior connection to the cause.” The same mechanic, with a comparable prize, raises a fraction of the total when the partner doesn’t show up with genuine enthusiasm.

The examples here skew toward music and festivals; that’s simply because concert and festival experiences are natural money-can’t-buy prizes. But the mechanic works just as well outside music, as long as the prize is genuinely exclusive and the partner’s audience is the right room.

What a prize draw partnership actually does

Your partnership is a lot more than obtaining a prize. When Max (our head of Campaigns) worked on a draw featuring a handful of pairs of tickets to a major event, with a face value of around £20,000, it raised over £900,000. What surprised the charity most wasn’t the money. It was the 44,000 supporters. Most had never donated before. Many had probably never heard of the charity. They arrived because the event promoted the draw to their own audience, and that audience responded.

Charities spend significant sums every year on donor acquisition: digital ads, direct mail, cold outreach, brand campaigns. The costs keep going up, and the returns often diminish. A well-run prize draw delivers what all that spending is chasing; thousands of new supporters who actually want to be there, as a byproduct of something that also raises significant money.

The supporters who arrive through a well-matched prize draw are not random. They are pre-qualified, not by an algorithm, but by affinity. The introduction has been made by someone they trust.

What makes a prize draw partner the right one

Three things have to be true.

They have something only they can offer. Not the most expensive prize. The most exclusive one. Tickets to a sold-out show that cannot be bought anywhere else. An object with genuine provenance and a story behind it. Alex Turner offered the guitar he played during Arctic Monkeys’ first headline set at Reading. Nick Cave offered hundreds of pieces of personal memorabilia, from guitars and signed posters to plectrums and lyric sheets, raising over £220,000. War Child’s prize draw offered two tickets to one of the hardest shows in London to get into and raised £195,000. None of these required significant cost to deliver. All of them were things that couldn’t be bought anywhere else.

The same dynamic plays out well beyond music. Aston Villa Foundation offered a squad-signed shirt from their Europa League Final run, a prize only possible because the team reached the final, and only available for a brief window. Yorkshire Wildlife Park ran a draw to help fund the rescue and rehoming of lions from Ukraine, offering a £1,500 family getaway to the park as the prize. Neither required a celebrity. Both had something genuinely scarce, a moment in time, or access to something their audience cared about, and a cause that connected directly to the prize.

Their audience is correct for your cause. Max explains, a Glastonbury fan seeing a draw for a humanitarian charity is likely someone already engaged with the same or similar causes. The connection is already there, whether or not it’s been put into words. A brand with 500,000 passive followers is a different proposition entirely.

They genuinely care. This can’t be engineered. The draws that raise the most are the ones where the partner promotes the campaign because they want it to succeed, not because a contract requires it. Chris Martin has volunteered with Crisis for over twenty years. That relationship is why the Coldplay draw happened and why it worked. When the fit between the partner and the cause is right, the results are extraordinary. When it isn’t, the same mechanic raises a fraction.

The difference between a good partnership and a great one

Max explains that the best partnerships he’s been involved in didn’t look like partnerships at all. There was no sponsorship deck, no tiered benefits package. Someone cared about a cause, wanted to help, and the conversation was about how to make something great, not how to structure a deal.

Prize draws make this dynamic unusually visible. Either someone promoted it, or they didn’t, and the numbers tell you exactly which one happened.

Where to start looking

The best partnerships come from existing relationships. Before approaching anyone new, map what you already have.

Your ambassadors and supporters. Who already publicly backs your charity? Who has volunteered, donated, or spoken up for you? These are your warmest starting points.

Organisations that control access to something scarce. Festivals with sold-out tickets. Artists with meaningful objects. Venues or experiences with genuine exclusivity. The question is simple: what do they have that their audience would genuinely want, and can’t get anywhere else?

Your existing corporate and institutional partners. Corporates who are often in the background of a relationship and campaign are sometimes the ones with the most to give, and also the most to gain.

How to approach a potential partner

Lead with what’s in it for them and their audience.

The draw gives their fans something genuinely exciting to be part of. It gives the partner a public, meaningful way to support a cause they care about. And unlike an auction, it’s inclusive: thousands of people can participate for a small entry fee, not just whoever can afford to bid.

A good first conversation is short. It covers what the prize would be, the timeline, how proceeds will be split if there are multiple beneficiaries, what they can offer in terms of promotion to their own audience, and whether they’d consider matching some of the funds raised alongside the prize.

Don’t overcomplicate it. The question you’re really asking is whether they care about this cause and whether they have something only they can give.

Setting up the campaign

Once a partner is confirmed, talk to Crowdfunder before you announce anything publicly. Prize draws have specific legal requirements around free entry routes, terms and conditions, and winner selection. Getting this right before launch is much easier than fixing it afterwards.

It’s also worth a discussion with the team about the build-up, any ad spend, and the Meta Pixel.

Prize draw guidelines

Learn about the Meta Pixel

Making it repeatable

The draws that have raised the most have done it more than once. The Coldplay and Crisis/War Child campaign ran in December 2024 and returned in November 2025, more than doubling its total. Glastonbury has run its draw across multiple years.

A partner that has done it once and seen the results is far easier to bring back. Keep the relationship warm: share what the money funded, tell them what it made possible, give them genuine reasons to be proud of what the partnership achieved.

The best prize draw partnerships are not transactions. They are relationships that raise more every time.

Have something in mind, or even just the seed of an idea? The best draws often start with a simple “what if?”

Talk to us

Useful links:

How to run a six figure prize draw on Crowdfunder

How to run an online charity raffle in the UK [blog coming soon!]

Join our mailing list to receive updates on inspiring new projects, exciting match funding opportunities, Crowdfunder news, and details of our free webinars, all designed to help you raise more for the causes you care about.

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Introducing The Positivity Project

Rebecca Hughes — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:53:47 +0100

Written: 21 September 2026

There is no shortage of difficult news right now. Most of what finds its way onto our screens is conflict, crisis, or cause for concern; and while that matters, it is not the whole picture of what people are doing in the world.

The Positivity Project is a new content channel from the Crowdfunder team. It exists to tell the other stories: the projects, the people, and the communities using crowdfunding to build something better. Not as a counterargument to the difficult stuff, but as a reminder of what is actually happening out there when people decide to act.

The first episode is out now.

Episode 1: The rainforests hiding in Britain

The Land Where Plankton Eat Trees (you’re on it)

Most people don’t know that Britain has temperate rainforests. They exist! Pockets of ancient, moss-draped woodland in the wet western fringes of the country can be found in Wales, Scotland, and parts of England, and they are among the rarest ecosystems on earth. Less than 1% of the world’s land surface supports temperate rainforest. Britain once held a significant share of it. Most of it is gone.

Carl is an arborist turned conservationist and co-founder of Plant One. He and his team have been working to protect and restore what remains and, increasingly, to create more of it, inspired by a conservation model from Japan.

The concept is the fish forest. In Japan, conservationists discovered that healthy broadleaf forests along riverbanks directly feed the marine ecosystems downstream. Leaf litter breaks down in rivers, carries nutrients to the sea, and supports fish populations that in turn support the coastal communities that depend on them. The connection between the trees on the hill and the fish in the sea turns out to be measurable, significant, and something you can act on.

Plant One has been using Crowdfunder to fund their work on exactly this, planting trees in the right places, with the right species, to create those connections in Britain’s own landscapes. Their most recent campaigns have focused on establishing the conditions for fish forests in the UK: finding the remaining pockets of temperate rainforest, protecting them, and extending them outward into the surrounding land.

Plant One Cornwall are close to raising £100,000 on Crowdfunder to fund the reforestation of Cornwall, the most deforested county in the UK, with match funding from Save Our Wild Isles, Cornwall Council’s Climate and Nature Fund, and Aviva. The money went toward paying the team fair wages, bridging gaps between planting costs and grant funding, and acquiring land to open up to the public.

Tom and Oscar from our team visited Carl and the Plant One project for the first episode of The Positivity Project. The resulting film is quiet, careful, and worth ten minutes of your time.

Support Plant One on Crowdfunder →

What The Positivity Project is for

In 2026, we’re not short of notifications about the latest unsettling news and negative content on the internet. This channel can hopefully be a space that people feel genuinely hopeful to engage with.”

That’s the intention. Each episode will document a project from the Crowdfunder platform; the people behind it, what they’re building, and what made it possible. Some will be environmental projects like Plant One. Others will be community spaces, arts organisations, sports clubs, social enterprises, and campaigns. The common thread is that they exist because a group of people decided to fund them together.

For project owners, it’s a chance to tell their story properly, not in a campaign page description, but in a film. For anyone who has an idea about something they’d like to create, it’s a window into what crowdfunding actually looks like in practice, and what becomes possible when a community gets behind something.

New episodes will follow. Subscribe to the channel to catch them as they land.

Watch The Positivity Project on YouTube →

Get started

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Leisure centres: crowdfunding to better serve the community

Rebecca Hughes — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:18:00 +0100

Written: 18 September 2026

There’s a photo doing the rounds of Bridport Leisure Centre in the 1980s: an aerobics class in leg warmers, a hand-painted “Welcome to Bridport Leisure Centre” sign, the old dry-side building looking exactly like every other small-town leisure centre of its era. It’s the kind of photo that makes people stop scrolling, because so many of us learned to swim, or sweated through our first fitness class, in a building just like it.

What that photo doesn’t show is how the building got there in the first place. Bridport & West Dorset Sports Trust started life as a cricket club in 1885, on land owned by Palmers Brewery. Squash courts followed in 1975, the dry-side centre in 1986. Then, in 1983, when the town wanted a pool and nobody was going to build one for them, residents went door to door and raised £185,000 themselves. The pool opened in 1994, with Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies MBE there to mark it. The aerobics studio that opened in 1999 was even named BACIT, after the residents’ committee that raised that original £185,000.

That’s not a one-off. Up and down the country, leisure centres keep getting quietly rebuilt and reshaped by the towns that depend on them.

Support their latest project.

The same story, again and again

In Falmouth, a community interest company took on Ships & Castles Leisure Centre to save its 25 metre pool and stop the surrounding headland going to developers, raising £42,154 with match funding from Power to Change and Sport England.

In Meopham, £15,009 went towards new spin bikes, because the way people want to train has moved on since the equipment was bought.

In Westward Ho!, Northam Town Council crowdfunded a Changing Places facility, £12,788 raised with Sport England’s backing, so that visitors and residents who need more than a standard accessible toilet actually have somewhere to go.

And in Thatcham, growing demand for junior cricket meant Kennet Leisure Centre needed indoor nets it never used to need, £30,695 raised to keep pace with a sport that had simply outgrown its old facilities.

Different towns, different asks, but the same underlying story: a leisure centre is never really finished. It keeps adapting, one campaign at a time, to whatever its community needs next.

Bridport’s next chapter

Which brings us back to Bridport. The building in the 80s photo is still standing, still running over 100 classes a week, still quietly operating as a registered charity (No. 267781) that reinvests everything it makes into SEN sessions, exercise referral programmes, cancer rehabilitation and dementia groups alongside the ordinary swim timetable.

What it doesn’t have is sufficient family and accessible changing space for a growing town. There are currently only two accessible changing rooms, with one shower between them. The plan is four large cubicles, one with its own private shower, plus five drench showers, built for disabled users, families and LGBTQ+ members currently squeezed into an unsuitable space.

The project needs £15,000 towards a total build cost of £31,060. Palmers Brewery, the same brewery whose land this all started on back in 1885, is matching donations up to £2,000 through its Community Fund. Give now, and your donation works twice as hard.

Why now

At the time of writing, the campaign has raised about £3,000 from 37 supporters. Bridport has rebuilt this place by hand once before. Every town on this list has done its own version of the same thing. This is a smaller ask than 1983’s, but it’s built from the same instinct: if the building matters to you, you help finish it.

Donate or fundraise

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