Crowdfunder | Stories

How Sport England turned £6 million into £18.9 million with Crowdfunder

Rebecca Hughes — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:11:30 +0100

When Sport England set out to reach more grassroots communities across England, they needed a funding model that could do more than write cheques. They needed something that could find organisations traditional grant programmes miss, cut through the administration that slows smaller groups down, and prove that public investment in community sport could go further than anyone expected.

That’s where Crowdfunder came in.

The challenge

Sport England is a public body dedicated to supporting grassroots sport and physical activity across England. But like many large funders, they faced a familiar set of problems: how do you reach the smallest, most grassroots organisations? How do you simplify an application process that often puts off the very groups you most want to fund? And how do you measure whether the money is actually making a difference?

Traditional grant programmes proved limiting. The application procedures were cumbersome, the reach was narrow, and smaller community groups, village halls, informal sports clubs, and non-traditional organisations, often fell through the gaps.

The approach

Sport England partnered with Crowdfunder to pilot a new model: using crowdfunding as the mechanism for distributing match funding to community sports projects across England.

The model worked like this. Community groups raised money from their own supporters on Crowdfunder. Sport England matched a portion of what the crowd raised, up to a set amount per project. To qualify for the match, groups had to demonstrate real community backing — not just a good application form, but actual people putting actual money in.

This changed everything about who applied and who succeeded.

Crowdfunding connected Sport England with a wider network of community groups than traditional programmes had ever reached — including organisations in underserved communities that had rarely engaged with public funding before. The application process was simpler, the community validation was built in, and the results spoke for themselves.

“For every pound we’ve put in, it’s been trebled.” Neil Smith, Programme Manager at Sport England

Watch: Sport England on crowdfunding

Hear directly from Sport England’s Programme Manager on how the partnership worked, what surprised them, and why crowdfunding is now embedded as part of their ongoing Movement Fund offer.

The results

£18.9 million raised in total Sport England invested £6 million. The crowd added £12.9 million on top. That’s a 313% amplification — for every £1 Sport England put in, £2.13 came back from the community.

1,103 successful projects Across England, more than a thousand diverse community sports projects were funded through the partnership.

149,000 supporters An average of 135 supporters backed each campaign, demonstrating the depth of grassroots engagement the model unlocks.

Simplified funding for everyone Automated calculations, efficient decision-making, and a straightforward application process reduced the burden on both Sport England’s team and the organisations they funded.

What it meant for the funded organisations

The impact went well beyond the money raised. Organisations that crowdfunded with Sport England’s match funding reported:

87% felt better connected to their communities
86% felt more financially stable
86% strengthened their public profile
83% built new audiences
56% established a larger group of volunteers
54% built a new donor base actively engaged with their work
52% found new partners or collaborators

Crowdfunding didn’t just fund the project. It built the organisation.

What made it work

Genuine collaboration. The partnership adapted through changing circumstances — including the challenges of Covid-19 — and improved throughout. The ability to test, learn, and iterate was central to the model’s success.

Community validation built in. Because groups had to raise real money from real supporters to unlock the match funding, every successful application came pre-validated by the people it was meant to serve. That’s something a traditional application form can’t replicate.

A new kind of reach. Pilots like “Activate Your Space” brought Crowdfunder’s network to communities that hadn’t previously engaged with Sport England’s funding. The platform’s reach extended the funder’s reach.

“Crowdfunding’s been going on a trajectory of being really successful… it’s now embedded as part of our new ongoing open-funding offer, Movement Fund.” Neil Smith, Programme Manager at Sport England

A blueprint for funders

The Sport England partnership is one of the most significant examples of crowdfunding used as a funding distribution model in the UK. It demonstrates that public and institutional funding goes further, reaches more people, and creates more lasting impact when it’s matched by genuine community investment.

If you’re a local authority, trust, foundation, or corporate funder exploring how to make your money work harder, we’d love to talk.

Find out how Crowdfunder works for funders and partners →

See live match funding opportunities →

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

The high street isn’t what it used to be. Communities are taking it back.

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:35:59 +0100

Reading time: 7 minutes

Walk down almost any town centre in the UK and you’ll see the same story told in two halves. On one side: shuttered units, faded fascias, the ghost of a chain that left three years ago. On the other: a bakery that opened last spring, a community pub that nearly closed but didn’t, a music venue with hand-painted signage and a gig on every Friday.

The difference between those two halves, more often than you’d think, is crowdfunding.

The “death of the high street” has been a reliable media headline for over a decade. And the statistics are real; across UK high streets, between 10-19% of shops now stand empty. Retail vacancy rates climbed, chains retreated, footfall dropped. But something else has been happening quietly alongside that decline. Communities have been buying back the spaces that the market abandoned. Not waiting for a developer or a council grant or a chain to move in. Just asking the people who live there to fund it.

The result is a different kind of high street. One that belongs to the people who use it.

What the new high street actually looks like

In Drewsteignton, Devon, locals raised £547,210 to buy and renovate the Drewe Arms, a community pub that had been at the heart of village life for generations. Not a landlord’s pub. Not a managed house. A pub owned by the community that drinks in it.

In Reading, Siren Craft Brew raised £271,732 from the people who love their beer to open an independent venue in the town centre, championing local food, drink, and the kind of social space no chain was ever going to provide.

In Hull, The New Clarence became the city’s first community-owned pub, raising £248,625 to secure its future. In Bristol, Jamaica Street Studios raised over £106,000 to bring a cultural landmark into community ownership before it was lost.

And across the UK, Own Our Venues has raised over £4 million across two Crowdfunder campaigns to buy the actual buildings that house grassroots music venues, so that the next generation of artists has somewhere to play, and the crowds who love live music have somewhere to go.

These aren’t charity campaigns. They’re communities investing in their own places.

Why this is happening on Crowdfunder and not somewhere else

This is the part that matters for anyone thinking about launching a campaign.

Platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are built for global product launches. They’re excellent if you’re shipping a gadget to 12,000 strangers across four continents. But if you’re trying to save the pub on your street, a global audience of strangers isn’t what you need.

You need the people who walk past it every day

And it turns out those people show up. Crowdfunder’s data consistently shows that for community projects, the vast majority of pledges come from within a close geographic radius. Local projects are defined as having an average pledge distance of less than 80km. These tend to be projects with great community interest, such as cafes, bookshops, and wellbeing hubs, etc. Our data shows that local projects actually have an average pledge distance of less than 13km, highlighting how localised backers’ interest can be. The crowd that funds a community project isn’t the internet. It’s the neighbourhood.

Crowdfunding, in this model, becomes a mechanism for communities to support each other across postcodes, something no global platform is designed to facilitate, and no donation page captures.

On the flipside, projects occasionally capture hearts far and wide. The Elm Tree Pub in Weymouth, Dorset, had around 1,828 supporters from across the United States after their social media video went viral, versus the 775 UK backers.

@friendsoftheelmtree
Save the Elm Tree Inn by donating to their Crowdfunding page, and help us preserve this iconic piece of history for our Gen Zs and beyond. #saveourpub #elmtreeinn #langtonherring #dorset #iconic #crowdfunding #historic @LoveWeymouthUK @Weymouth in Dorset @ChesilRadio @Abbey Farm Flowers @dorsetplaces @Greatest Hits Radio @BBC News @itvnews @Dorset Spotlight Magazine @Dorset @Dorset View @Dorset Council UK
♬ original sound – Friends of The Elm Tree

The urgency that actually makes it work

There’s another structural reason why community projects tend to raise more on Crowdfunder than on platforms built for passive, open-ended giving.

Crowdfunder campaigns have deadlines. That’s not a limitation, it’s a feature.

Every fundraiser knows that urgency drives action. An open-ended donation page tells supporters: give whenever you like. A campaign with a closing date tells them: if this doesn’t get funded by the 28th, it doesn’t happen. That’s a different conversation entirely. It’s why the Drewe Arms raised over half a million pounds. The community knew that if they didn’t act, the pub would close. The deadline made the stakes real.

GoFundMe campaigns, by design, run indefinitely. For personal emergencies, that makes sense. For a community project trying to build momentum and convert passive supporters into active backers, a campaign with a clear start and end is almost always more effective.

It’s not just about raising money

The thing that doesn’t get said enough about community crowdfunding is what happens to the people involved after the campaign ends.

When 400 people back a project, those 400 people have a stake in it. They tell their friends it’s open. They leave reviews. They come back. They back the next phase. The Drewe Arms didn’t just raise £547,000 — it created a community of co-owners who are personally invested in whether it succeeds. You can’t buy that kind of advocacy. You can only earn it by letting people be part of something.

This is what separates a crowdfunding campaign from a donation page. A donation page raises money. A campaign builds a crowd.

And that crowd; those backers, those co-owners, those people who put in £25 because they believed in it, is the real asset. The money funds the project. The crowd keeps it alive.

The government has noticed

In February 2026, the government announced £150 million in funding to revive UK high streets, with community-led regeneration at its centre. The language in the announcement was striking: “decisions driven by people who know their neighbourhoods best.”

That’s exactly what Crowdfunder campaigns have been doing for over a decade.

Read more — Pride in Place funding: how to set up a match fund

What this means if you’re thinking about launching

If you’re sitting on a project that would change something about your town, your street, or your community, a space that needs saving, a business that needs backing, a venue that deserves to exist, here’s what the evidence suggests:

Your crowd is closer than you think. The people who’ll fund it probably already walk past the thing you’re trying to build. You don’t need to reach strangers in San Francisco. You need to reach your neighbours, and it turns out, they’re already there, already invested, and already want this to exist.

A campaign with a deadline will raise more than a page that runs forever. Give your backers a reason to act today, not eventually.

And the money, when it arrives, comes with something more valuable: a community of people who helped build it, who’ll tell others about it, and who’ll come back when you need them again.

Get started

Pride in Place funding: how to set up a match fund

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:20:01 +0100

“To maximise the impact of the Pride in Place Impact Fund and broaden its reach, local authorities are encouraged to explore opportunities to leverage funding and/or seek match funding for initiatives. Where possible, this may help to unlock additional support and accelerate progress on shared priorities for local pride.”
Pride in Place Impact Fund prospectus

This is the government’s own steer, and it is why so many local authorities are exploring new ways of working.

Crowdfunder has been distributing local authority funds as match funding for years, from Community Chest to Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). With around 200 projects going live every day, we have a whole host of community-led projects that need funding right now.

Delivering a project by offering your funding as a match fund will not only amplify your funding by combining it with contributions from the public and our wider partner network, but also create a transparent, participatory budgeting programme and give local organisations the visibility they need to reach supporters.

Why offer your allocation as match funding

On average, funds on Crowdfunder are amplified by 159%. As your money is only unlocked when someone donates, every pound you put in arrives alongside money from the crowd, so your contribution at least doubles, and often goes much further. Every fund is set up differently, which is why the amplification varies, but the direction is always the same. If your fund is not on the platform, local organisations are left to follow a more isolated grant route, invisible to the network of public supporters and partners looking to help.

It does more than raise money, too. Each fundraiser is public, so the programme becomes a visible show of civic pride that reaches groups who never knew support was there for them. The crowd’s response is a live read on what local people actually want, giving you a participatory budgeting effect without the heavy process. And because you manage the whole thing through one dashboard, with due diligence built in throughout, the admin drops dramatically.

Match funding does not just stretch your funds further, it makes fundraising easier. Our data shows the average donation on Crowdfunder is £40 without a match fund and £70 with one. That is roughly two-thirds more, a clear sign of how powerful the promise of matching is.

How to set up a match fund with Crowdfunder

Setting up a Pride in Place match fund is more straightforward than most councils expect, and we are with you at every step. Just follow these steps:

Identify your pot: with Pride in Place you will be splitting your work into projects, so start by choosing one with strong community participation to put behind a match fund. A small grants fund is the perfect pot, though the possibilities are almost endless: green space regeneration, youth engagement, sport and physical activity, arts and culture, tackling social isolation and more.
Get in touch: reach out to receive a demo of the platform, walk through your options and an indicative programme summary.

Email: cfpartnerships@crowdfunder.co.uk
Present the proposal to your board: a member of our team can dial in if needed to help explain how everything works and how it will boost your funding.
Launch your programme: we will create a branded fund page, eligibility criteria and a custom application form with you.
Review your applications: our automatic matching system cross-references your eligibility criteria with every new project. When there is a match, the project can apply, and everything you need lands straight in your application management dashboard.

From there, simply watch your contribution bring in donations. Each project you support appears on your page, creating a transparent programme the whole community can see. See our current live local authority funds.

What it looks like in practice

The amplification adds up. Over time, the donations your fund unlocks let you support more projects with the same resources, and reach bigger goals than your allocation could on its own. There are thousands of brilliant projects out there. Here are just a few that local authority partners have helped bring to life:

Different places, different needs, held together by local people putting their weight behind something they wanted to see happen, with a council pound helping them get there.

Frequently asked questions

Can Pride in Place funding be used for match funding? Yes. Match funding is not required, but both the Pride in Place Programme and the Impact Fund actively encourage councils to bring in further investment to maximise impact. A match fund is one of the cleanest ways to do that.

How quickly can we get a match fund running? Faster than a traditional grant round. Once you have set your criteria and budget with us, projects can be live and raised within weeks, with vetting and reporting built in from the start.

Does the fund need to be always on? No. You can leave it open all year, as many of our local authority partners do, or run it within a set window. The choice is yours.

How much flexibility do we have? Complete control. You review every application and can set conditions, for example that a project must hit its target, or reach 25 individual supporters, before it receives the funds. You can also cap the amount any one project draws.

Talk to us about your allocation

If your Impact Fund allocation needs to be committed by March 2027, or your Neighbourhood Board is shaping how to spend its Programme funding, the time to design a match fund is now. We would love to show you what your allocation could unlock.

Email us at cfpartnerships@crowdfunder.co.uk

Contact the team

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Councils and local authorities: How to choose your crowdfunding platform

Rebecca Hughes — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 10:32:39 +0100

Not all crowdfunding platforms are built the same way. Here’s why the model behind the platform, not just the features, is what protects your programme long term.

If you’ve never run a crowdfunding programme before, you’re not alone. Plenty of councils and public sector partners are only just discovering what it can do, and the ones who get it right tend to see results that make it hard to imagine going back to funding projects the old way.

In Salford, Salford City Council’s match funding programme has backed projects raising everything from youth employment training to inclusive rugby facilities, drawing in additional funding from Sport England and other partners alongside the crowd. The Eccles RFC Rugby For All campaign raised over £36,000 to improve facilities for women and girls, with Salford City Council and Sport England both contributing alongside hundreds of individual supporters.

So the real question isn’t whether crowdfunding works. It’s: which platform should you be doing it on?

Start with your why

Community crowdfunding has become a serious tool for local authorities and funding partners across the UK. Crowdfunder’s four key benefits are:

Stretches funds further
Reaches new organisations
Engages community-led spending
Helps organisations thrive

Once you know your why, the choice of platform becomes much clearer.

Crowdfunder is built differently

Here’s the key structural difference: Crowdfunder is the only major platform built around collaborative funding. On Crowdfunder, a single project can attract funding from a council match fund, a corporate foundation, a national programme, and the crowd — all contributing to the same campaign at the same time.

This means your fund goes further. Public backing from a council acts as a signal of confidence that draws in funding from other directions too; corporate partners, foundations, and individual supporters who might never have found the project otherwise.

Second, it means the platform itself is more resilient. When funding comes from many directions rather than one institutional relationship, there’s no single point of failure. That’s not a small thing to consider when you’re choosing where to build a long-term public programme.

Crowdfunder has been doing this since 2011. Over £450 million raised. More than 100,000 funded projects. Across local authorities, national foundations, corporate partners, and communities.

Why community groups choose Crowdfunder

This matters for councils too, because the platform a community group prefers to fundraise on shapes who you’ll actually reach.

Crowdfunder is one of the best-known crowdfunding platforms in the UK, which means community groups, charities, and grassroots organisations are already there. You’re not asking people to find a niche platform; you’re meeting them where they’re already raising money.

It’s also built to be genuinely useful to the community groups using it, not just a payment processor. Project owners get access to rewards tools, a knowledge hub of fundraising guidance, and ways for local employers to get involved through employee volunteering and giving schemes. That’s the kind of platform community groups actually want to come back to. Crowdfunder is continually investing in and developing the platform to further help organisations raise funds.

What this means for local authorities specifically

We know times are tough for councils right now. Budgets are under pressure, and every programme has to justify itself. A match funding programme should be part of the answer to that — public money working harder, not a financial risk.

The numbers back this up. Cornwall Council’s average fund amplification is 4x. Plymouth’s is 2.55x. That’s the kind of return that’s hard to get from most public spending decisions.

The right platform partnership should feel like a safe pair of hands: experienced in working with public sector timelines and governance, able to bring in funding from multiple directions, and stable enough to still be there in five years.

Crowdfunder has active programmes with councils and public sector partners across the UK, from Plymouth to Salford, Cornwall to Greater London. We understand procurement, we understand sign-off processes, and we understand that community relationships built through a crowdfunding programme are genuinely valuable and worth protecting.

Crowdfunder Salford

Cornwall Community Fund

Plymouth City Change Fund

Thinking about your options?

Whether you’re setting up a new community crowdfunding programme or reviewing your current one, we’d love to talk.

Get in touch

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How WWF achieved a 3x return on ad spend with Crowdfunder

Rebecca Hughes — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:39:43 +0100

Let the Meta Pixel work harder for you on Crowdfunder

When WWF launched the Gorilla Experience prize draw on Crowdfunder, the timing was right. A Netflix documentary about gorillas was generating genuine cultural buzz, the kind of organic spike most campaigns can only dream of. The team assumed it would be the engine that drove the main spike of performance.

It wasn’t.

How WWF ran the Gorilla Experience prize draw on Crowdfunder

The Gorilla Experience ran as a charity prize draw on Crowdfunder, with WWF putting paid Meta ad spend behind it. Their ads ran steadily throughout, and so did the donations. The campaign performed just as consistently before the documentary landed as after. No celebrity push necessary. No news hook required.

Just a well-run prize draw, with Facebook and Instagram ads quietly doing their job. And thanks to Crowdfunder’s Meta Pixel integration, WWF could prove it.

Their campaign generated donations at roughly three times their ad spend, with a cost per acquisition that WWF described as the best they’re seeing across any of their campaigns right now.

“The results were up there with the best we’re seeing across any of our campaigns. We wish we’d started sooner and run it longer.”
Max Morgans, Senior Product Manager, WWF-UK

How the Meta Pixel tracks donations from paid Facebook and Instagram ads

Before Crowdfunder’s Meta Pixel integration, charities running paid social for their campaigns were working without full visibility. They could see clicks — but not whether those clicks became donations, or how much those donors gave. Without that data, it was hard to know if the spend was working, and harder still to justify continuing.

The Pixel changed that. Connected to the Gorilla Experience project page, it passed donation data back to Meta in real time. WWF’s team could see their return on ad spend as the campaign ran, optimise as they went, and follow up with people who’d visited the page but not yet donated. Critically, it allows Meta to use its machine learning to optimise the campaign to engage users who are more likely to convert.

The result was a campaign that built steadily and consistently — not one that spiked once and faded. WWF have more campaigns planned.

What this means for charities running paid social

This is not to say that a celebrity or a big brand pushing your prize to their audience isn’t still a wonderful thing, and some of the biggest prize draws on Crowdfunder have been built on exactly that. But success doesn’t depend on it.

Charity prize draws on Crowdfunder don’t need to hinge on a big name or a cultural moment to perform. A well-structured prize draw with smart paid social and the right tracking behind it can generate consistent, meaningful returns without any of that.

The real win? Both at once. Authentic social sharing reaching the audiences who already care, with optimised paid activity building steadily underneath it. One gives you the spike, the other gives you the floor.

That’s a real shift. And it’s now backed by data from one of the UK’s most recognised charities.

Start a prize draw

How to add the Meta Pixel to your Crowdfunder project

If you’re planning to put ad spend behind your project and want to track every donation it drives, getting started is straightforward.

You’ll need your Meta Pixel ID, a 15 or 16-digit number found in your Meta Events Manager account. Then just get in touch with us directly. We’ll review your request, add the Pixel to your project page, and confirm via email once it’s live.

Contact us: support@crowdfunder.co.uk

New to the Meta Pixel? Read our guide to how it works and what it unlocks for your campaign

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Crowdfunding for Community Interest Companies (CICs)

Rebecca Hughes — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:36:17 +0100

Crowdfunder prides itself on being the home of CIC crowdfunding in the UK. This guide answers the questions CIC directors and managers are actually searching for, from whether crowdfunding is available to you at all, through to fees, match funding, and how you compare to a registered charity.

CIC’s are the thriving heart of communities all over the UK. However, they sit in an awkward spot in the UK funding landscape. Too commercial for some grant programmes, too social for most business finance, and largely invisible on the mainstream crowdfunding platforms built for charities or solo entrepreneurs. That’s why Crowdfunder is the platform for your CIC.

On Crowdfunder, CICs have raised £13,413,000+ from 323,830 donations across 8,000+ projects.

Can a CIC use crowdfunding?

Yes. CICs can use crowdfunding, and on Crowdfunder, you have access to the full suite of fundraising tools: donation-led campaigns, rewards-based crowdfunding, match funding, prize draws, and regular giving.

CICs aren’t charities and that matters for funding

Community Interest Companies are regulated by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, not the Charity Commission. That distinction has direct funding consequences: CICs don’t have access to Gift Aid (worth 25p per £1 from eligible taxpayers), and some grant programmes are closed to them for the same reason.

The asset lock, a legal requirement that protects CIC assets for community benefit, does give funders confidence that money won’t be extracted for private gain. But it doesn’t unlock the charity funding world.

What CICs can do on Crowdfunder: run donation and rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns, and access match funding. Zero platform fees apply.

Does a CIC have to pay platform fees on Crowdfunder?

No. CICs pay zero platform fees on Crowdfunder.

On many platforms, CICs are classified as businesses and charged accordingly, typically 5% or more of everything raised. Crowdfunder recognises that CICs are community-benefit organisations, not commercial ventures, and applies the same zero-fee model as it does for registered charities.

ResoluteMinds CIC walked 70+ miles in 24 hours to raise money to open Belfast’s first dedicated wellness hub, a permanent space to support people dealing with addiction and mental health challenges. They smashed their target, and the hub is now becoming a reality.

Payment processing fees still apply (2.4% + 20p (per pledge) on UK/EU cards).

Can CICs get match funding?

Yes, in most cases. Crowdfunder has over £10M in match funding available through partnerships with organisations including Sport England, Aviva, British Gas, and many others. Match funding means every pound your supporters donate is matched by a partner fund, effectively doubling (or more) what you raise.

The impact of match funding is significant: 84% of supporters are more likely to pledge when match funding is available, and the average donation size increases from £40 to £70.

Drink the Seasons! Brewing a Biodiversity Revival raised £59,559, including £25,000 match funding from Aviva Communities Fund.

Can a CIC offer rewards to supporters?

Yes — because CICs are trading entities, you can offer tangible rewards in exchange for pledges: merchandise, services, experiences, early access, memberships. A community café CIC can offer loyalty cards or host dinners. A performing arts CIC can offer tickets or backstage credits. A sports CIC can offer kit, coaching sessions, or season passes.

Registered charities can also offer rewards, but need to monitor the value of benefits given to donors against HMRC thresholds, exceeding them, and Gift Aid is lost on that donation. CICs don’t have Gift Aid to protect, so there’s no benefit threshold to manage and no need to structure your rewards tier with one eye on HMRC rules.

Cook for Good CIC has used Crowdfunder twice to launch community cookbooks, Soup for Good and their current campaign, Salads for Good, letting supporters pre-order a copy as their pledge reward. They have raised nearly £100k between both projects, with all profits going back into tackling food insecurity in Kings Cross.

Registered charities face more restrictions here because of how HMRC treats donor benefits against Gift Aid. CICs don’t have Gift Aid to protect, so you have more freedom to run a genuine rewards model, closer to Kickstarter than JustGiving.

Can CICs run prize draws?

Yes. Crowdfunder’s prize draw product is available to CICs. Unlike lotteries, prize draws fall outside the Gambling Act 2005, provided a free entry route is available. Crowdfunder’s prize draw product builds this in, so your campaign is structured correctly from the outset. Prize draws work especially well for CICs with something tangible to offer as a prize; they lower the barrier to participation, attract supporters beyond your existing network, and create a sense of excitement around your campaign.

Patchwork House is a CIC in Torbay supporting women and children affected by domestic abuse. They’ve run 40 prize draws, raising between £1,000 and £13,000 each time. Their last few hit 573%, 457%, and 392% of the target. It’s become a reliable income stream alongside their main fundraising.

Will donors get Gift Aid on donations to a CIC?

No. If Gift Aid is important to your fundraising model, typically worth an extra 25p per £1 donated from eligible UK taxpayers, it’s worth considering whether charity registration is right for your organisation. Some social enterprises operate with both a CIC and a charitable arm for this reason.

Why use Crowdfunder rather than JustGiving or GoFundMe?

JustGiving is built for charity donation pages and sponsored events. If your CIC is neither of those things, you’ll likely be classified as an individual or business account, pay commercial fees, and lose access to the charity fundraising layer.

JustGiving and GoFundMe have no match funding infrastructure and do not offer rewards-based giving.

Crowdfunder is the only major UK platform that combines non-profit treatment for CICs, rewards-based crowdfunding, a live match funding marketplace, and prize draw functionality in one place. It’s also specifically built for community-impact projects — which is what CICs do.

How to start a CIC crowdfunding campaign

Go to crowdfunder.co.uk and create an account.
Start a new project, you’ll need a description, a funding target, a deadline, and at least one image. View our best practice guide for making your project page here.
Enter your CIC registration number and bank details during setup.
Once live, our team can help you identify match funding programmes you may be eligible for.

Setup takes around 20 minutes.

Start your project

Quick answers

Does my CIC need to be registered with Companies House? Yes, you’ll need your CIC registration number during setup.

Are there any restrictions on what CICs can fundraise for? The same community guidelines apply as for any project on Crowdfunder. Your project needs to be for community benefit, which, as a CIC, it is by definition.

Can I run multiple projects as a CIC? Yes. Many CICs run recurring campaigns, separate project pages for different programmes, or repeat prize draws alongside donation campaigns.

What happens if I don’t hit my target? Crowdfunder offers both all-or-nothing and keep-what-you-raise models. You choose which applies to your campaign when you set it up.

For more information on CICs, check the GOV.uk website.

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How to run a prize draw on Crowdfunder in five easy steps

Rebecca Hughes — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:37:03 +0100

Updated June 2026

Want to find out more about running a prize draw on Crowdfunder. Here’s how in five easy steps.

Prize draws are one of the most effective ways to raise money on Crowdfunder, and one of the most fun. Instead of simply asking people to donate, you’re giving them a reason to get excited. A compelling prize, a clear cause, and a deadline create real urgency. Plus, on Crowdfunder, there are no platform fees for prize draws, which means more of every entry goes directly to your project.

This guide walks you through everything you need to know — from choosing your prize to picking your winner compliantly. Get started making a prize draw.

What is a prize draw on Crowdfunder?

A prize draw lets supporters enter for a chance to win a prize, with all proceeds going towards your fundraising target. You set the prize, the target, and the closing date. If you don’t hit your minimum target, the draw doesn’t go ahead, so there’s no risk of running it when the numbers don’t add up.

Anyone can run one. Charities, community groups, sports clubs, businesses, and individuals have all used Crowdfunder prize draws to raise thousands of pounds for causes they care about.

Step 1: Choose a prize worth entering for

The better your prize, the more entries you’ll get. Think about what your audience genuinely wants. Exclusive experiences tend to outperform physical goods because they can’t be bought anywhere else.

Ideas to get you started:

Behind-the-scenes experiences or access days
Signed artwork, kits, or limited-edition items
Vouchers from local businesses or partners
Holidays or experiences donated by supporters
Money-can’t-buy moments (a walk-on role, a studio session, a private tour)

Don’t have a prize yet? Reach out to businesses and partners who align with your cause. Many are happy to donate a prize in exchange for the visibility your campaign creates.

Step 2: Tell your story

People don’t just enter to win, they enter because they care about what you’re doing. Make that easy for them.

Your project page should answer three questions clearly:

Who are you and what are you raising money for?
Why does this matter right now?
Where will the money go?

Be specific. “We’re raising £5,000 to replace our community kitchen roof before winter” is far more compelling than “we need funds for building repairs.” Specificity builds trust, and trust drives entries.

Step 3: Set your target and entry structure

Before you go live, think carefully about your target. Crowdfunder prize draws only proceed if you hit your minimum, so set a floor that genuinely reflects what you need. You can always raise more.

On entry levels:
You can offer multiple entry tiers (e.g. one entry for £5, three entries for £10) to encourage higher contributions. Just make sure your free entry route is clearly signposted and equally accessible; this is a legal requirement (more on that below).

Step 4: Spread the word

A great prize on an empty page raises nothing. The campaigns that perform best treat the launch like a moment.

What works:

Email your existing supporters first — warm audiences convert far better than cold ones
Post consistently on social media — behind-the-scenes content, prize reveals, and countdown posts all work well
Ask people to share, not just enter — one share from the right person can unlock a whole new audience
Create urgency — a visible deadline and a progress bar do more than any copy

Check out our social media guide for more on making your channels work harder.

Step 5: Draw your winner (and make it a moment)

When your draw closes, Crowdfunder gives you a clean entry list and all the data you need at the click of a button. Use our free online prize draw winner picker.

Once you’ve picked a winner, make a thing of it. Announce it publicly, share a photo or video of the prize being delivered, and thank every single person who entered. That goodwill will pay dividends when you run your next campaign.

The legal bit: free entry routes explained

This is the part that trips people up most, so it’s worth being clear.

Under the Gambling Act 2005, a prize draw must include a genuine free entry route to avoid being classified as an illegal lottery. This isn’t optional, it’s the law.

On Crowdfunder, this means:

Your free entry route must be as accessible as your paid route
Free entrants must have an equal chance of winning
Your terms and conditions must explain how to enter for free clearly and prominently

The most common free entry route is a postal entry method; entrants can write in with their details at standard postage cost. You’ll need to include this in your T&Cs.

Crowdfunder provides a T&Cs template when you set up your prize draw, and you can find the full guidelines here. If you’re unsure about compliance, it’s worth seeking legal advice before you go live.

Looking for inspiration? Read about some of our success stories.

So what are you waiting for? Get started with your prize draw TODAY!

*Your prize draw must have a free entry route and you will need to create a set of terms and conditions for your prize draw which comply with our prize draw guidelines here. Crowdfunder is not a Promoter of individual prize draws”

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a licence to run a prize draw?
No — as long as your draw includes a genuine free entry route and complies with the Gambling Act 2005, you don’t need a Gambling Commission licence. See Crowdfunder’s prize draw guidelines for the full requirements.

What happens if I don’t hit my target?
The draw won’t go ahead and all entrants will be refunded. That’s why it’s worth setting a realistic minimum target.

Are there platform fees for prize draws?
No. Crowdfunder charges no platform fees on prize draws — one of the key advantages over running one elsewhere.

Can anyone run a prize draw on Crowdfunder?
Yes. Individuals, charities, community groups, sports clubs, and businesses can all run prize draws on the platform.

How do I pick a winner fairly?
Most organisers use a random number generator. Whatever method you use, it should be documented in your T&Cs so entrants know the draw is fair.

Can I offer more than one prize?
Yes — multiple prize tiers can increase the appeal of your draw and encourage higher entry levels.

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

Found in the crowd: how to crowdfund your film

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 28 May 2026 10:08:15 +0100

Getting a film made in the UK has never been straightforward. But right now, it’s harder than it’s been in a long time.

Broadcaster budgets have contracted. Streaming deals that once felt like a reliable route to market have dried up or become harder to access without an established track record. Grant funding is competitive, slow, and increasingly scarce. And the traditional gatekeepers — commissioners, distributors, development executives — are working with less money and more caution than they were five years ago.

For independent filmmakers, this is the reality. It’s not a skills problem. It’s a structural one.

Which is exactly why more and more filmmakers are turning to crowdfunding as a genuinely powerful alternative that puts creative control back in the hands of the people making the work.

Crowdfunding gives you something the traditional routes don’t: your IP stays with you, your creative vision stays intact, and you build a community of people who are invested in your film before a single frame is shot. That community, when nurtured well, doesn’t just fund one project, it follows you from one film to the next.

But crowdfunding a film well takes knowledge. And that knowledge has historically been hard to come by unless you already know the right people.

That’s what Found in the Crowd is for.

Get the guide

Who wrote it — and why it matters

Found in the Crowd was written by Adam Gee: a six-time BAFTA and Emmy-winning producer and commissioning editor who has worked with Channel 4, CAA in Los Angeles, Red Bull Media House and Little Dot Studios, and now leads Documentary Campus Masterschool in Berlin, one of the world’s most prestigious documentary training programmes.

Adam has backed films that have gone to festivals, shifted public debate, and built lasting audiences. He has also watched talented filmmakers run out of road — not because their ideas weren’t good enough, but because they didn’t have the knowledge or the community to get their projects funded.

That’s why he wrote this guide.

It’s the kind of advice that usually costs a festival pass to hear. Now it’s free, and it lives online so it’s always up to date.

What’s inside

The guide covers the full journey from idea to funded project — and beyond. Here’s what you’ll find:

Before you launch

Most crowdfunding campaigns are won or lost before they go live. The guide walks you through how to define your goal clearly, work out a realistic budget (including the costs most filmmakers forget), identify where your backers are actually going to come from, and build momentum in your community before you’ve even set a target.

One of the most common mistakes Adam sees? Thinking about production costs but not distribution. Getting your film made is only half the story — getting it seen costs money too, and the time to plan for that is before you set your fundraising target, not after.

Creating your campaign

Your project page is your pitch deck, your shop window, and your first impression all at once. The guide covers how to write copy that converts, how to shoot a pitch video that doesn’t need to be polished (just honest), how to design a rewards ladder that feels generous without being a logistical nightmare, and how to make the top of your page do the work for people who are only giving it five seconds.

Running your campaign

A successful crowdfunding campaign is as much about communication as it is about filmmaking. The guide covers how to build early momentum, how to use social media without burning out, how to tap into communities beyond your own network, and, crucially, what to do when things go quiet in the middle. Because they probably will. And that’s normal.

After your campaign

The campaign ending is not the end. It’s the beginning of something. The guide covers how to fulfil rewards, how to keep talking to your backers, and how to turn the people who supported your first project into the community that powers your next one.

Real campaigns, real results

The guide includes a selection of crowdfunded films that have used Crowdfunder to get their work made and seen, from investigative documentaries to shorts to feature films. These aren’t cherry-picked outliers. They’re a cross-section of what’s possible when a filmmaker with a strong story connects with the right crowd.

Among them:

Derek vs Derek raised £19,062 to fund 600 community screenings of a feature documentary about biodiversity and farming — getting the film in front of the people best placed to act on it.

MOOSHI raised £127,000 from 235 supporters for the first drama short to shine a light on illegal border pushback operations.

The Independent Noah Donohoe Investigation raised £179,000 from 5,909 supporters to fund a full documentary investigation into an unsolved case in Belfast.

None of these started with a big name or a big network. They started with a story worth telling and a community of people who wanted to see it told.

How to get it

Found in the Crowd is completely free. Sign up below and you’ll get instant access to the full guide online.

Get the guide

We’ll also send you a short series of follow-up emails over the next few weeks — one idea at a time, pulling out the most useful bits of the guide alongside videos from Adam himself.

If you’ve got a film you want to make, this is where to start.

Found in the Crowd is part of Crowdfunder’s commitment to supporting the UK’s independent film community. Crowdfunder has no platform fees for creative projects, and over £10 million in match funding is available for projects that qualify.

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

The Meta Pixel: Your ads are working. Now you can prove it

Rebecca Hughes — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:42:50 +0100

Crowdfunder now supports the Meta Pixel, and it changes what’s possible when you’re putting real money behind your campaign.

If you’ve ever run a Facebook or Instagram ad for your project and wanted to know exactly how it was performing, now you can.

Advertise with confidence

Running paid social for a crowdfunding campaign has always meant flying partially blind. Meta’s reporting shows you clicks, but not whether those clicks became donations, or how much those donors gave.

The Meta Pixel changes that, connecting your Crowdfunder project page to your Meta campaigns so you can see the full picture: who’s converting, what they’re worth, and where your budget is best spent.

What you get

Here’s what the Pixel unlocks:

See exactly which ads are driving donations. Not just clicks, actual donations. When someone comes through your ad and gives to your project, that conversion is recorded, along with the donation value. You can calculate a clear return on your ad spend, and make informed decisions about where to put your budget next.

Retarget people who visited but didn’t donate. Someone followed your ad, landed on your page, didn’t give. With the Pixel, you can identify that audience in Meta and follow up with targeted ads to bring them back. On a typical Crowdfunder campaign, the majority of page visitors don’t donate on their first visit — that’s an audience you can now do something with.

Build smarter lookalike audiences. Based on the profile of people who have donated, Meta can help you find more people like them. Your targeting gets sharper with every campaign you run.

The result: less wasted spend, better targeting, and real numbers to show what’s working.

What this looks like in practice

We ran our first live test of the Meta Pixel integration with a large charity running a prize draw and the results were remarkable.

The project owner’s Meta ad spend generated a return on investment among the best performance they’ve seen across any of their campaigns to date. The cost per acquisition came in at a low level that surprised even them.

But the most interesting finding wasn’t the numbers. It was this: the campaign didn’t need a ‘moment’.

The campaign performed extremely consistently and was able to succeed without any significant spikes. No celebrity push, no big launch hook. Just a well-run prize draw, with the Meta ads (enhanced by the Meta Pixel integration!) doing their job to drive a steady stream of donations throughout.

This is a meaningful proof point, not just for the Pixel integration, but for what’s possible when you can actually see your paid social working in real time and optimise as you go.

Not just for the big organisations

If you’re a smaller organisation or a social-media-savvy project owner who wants to try paid advertising but couldn’t justify the spend without being able to measure it, this is for you too. The Pixel means you can start small, see what’s working, and scale up with confidence rather than guessing.

A few things worth knowing for smaller campaigns: paid social tends to work best when you have an existing audience who already know you — cold audiences need time to warm up, which is why running your campaign for longer tends to pay off more when you’re putting spend behind it. The Pixel makes it possible to run that kind of steady, optimised campaign rather than relying on one-off spikes.

Why Crowdfunder, not a standalone landing page?

It’s a fair question. If you’re running paid ads anyway, why send people to Crowdfunder rather than your own site?

A few things Crowdfunder handles for you: prize draw mechanics, a trusted payment engine, and the confidence that comes with a platform donors already recognise. When someone clicks an ad and lands on a Crowdfunder page, they know where they are, and that familiarity matters when you’re asking someone to make a donation.

Now that the Meta Pixel is in place, there’s no tracking reason to go elsewhere either.

How to get set up

Getting started is straightforward. You’ll need your Meta Pixel ID, a 15 or 16-digit number found in your Meta Events Manager account.

To add the Pixel to your project, just get in touch with us directly. We’ll review your request, add it for you, and confirm via email once it’s live.

Contact us: support@crowdfunder.co.uk

If you’re planning to put ad spend behind your campaign and want to make sure you can track it properly, get in touch and we’ll get it sorted.

A note on privacy: the Meta Pixel will only activate for visitors who have consented to marketing cookies. We’ve built this in line with UK GDPR requirements — your supporters’ data is handled carefully, and you’ll need to make sure your own privacy policy covers your use of tracking tools. More detail on how we’ve approached this is in our privacy policy and cookie policy.

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

BA Better World Fund: match funding for UK charities

Rebecca Hughes — Tue, 05 May 2026 14:17:49 +0100

Crowdfunder and British Airways have reopened the BA Better World Community Fund, offering up to £5,000 in match funding to support charities and social enterprises making a difference in communities across the UK.

The fund, which has supported charities and social enterprises to raise more than £10 million since launching in 2022, matches donations pound for pound up to £250 per pledge for eight weeks once a project goes live on Crowdfunder.

This phase is focused on the fund’s ‘People’ categories, supporting projects working in wellbeing, social mobility, education, disability inclusion and local community support. The fund is open to UK-registered charities and social enterprises, with priority given to projects near British Airways operations.

Previous recipients include:

Flamingo Chicks, a Bristol-based charity providing inclusive dance workshops for children with disabilities and their families received over £27,000 of BA Better World Community Fund match funding
Global Grooves, based in Tameside, Greater Manchester, bring inspirational Carnival artists from around the world into communities across the UK to create unique opportunities for young people. They received over £165,000 of match funding.
Brighton & Hove Albion Foundation, received over £20,000 of match funding to help young people across Sussex to get active, learn new skills, and improve their wellbeing through award-winning football programmes.

To apply, organisations create a project on Crowdfunder and apply for match funding directly through their project dashboard. Match funding is available for eight weeks from a project going live.

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

Crowdfunder | Stories

How Sport England turned £6 million into £18.9 million with Crowdfunder

The challenge

The approach

Watch: Sport England on crowdfunding

The results

What it meant for the funded organisations

What made it work

A blueprint for funders

The high street isn’t what it used to be. Communities are taking it back.

What the new high street actually looks like

Why this is happening on Crowdfunder and not somewhere else

You need the people who walk past it every day

The urgency that actually makes it work

It’s not just about raising money

The government has noticed

What this means if you’re thinking about launching

Further reading

Pride in Place funding: how to set up a match fund

Why offer your allocation as match funding

How to set up a match fund with Crowdfunder

What it looks like in practice

Frequently asked questions

Talk to us about your allocation

Councils and local authorities: How to choose your crowdfunding platform

Start with your why

Crowdfunder is built differently

Why community groups choose Crowdfunder

What this means for local authorities specifically

Thinking about your options?

How WWF achieved a 3x return on ad spend with Crowdfunder

How WWF ran the Gorilla Experience prize draw on Crowdfunder

How the Meta Pixel tracks donations from paid Facebook and Instagram ads

What this means for charities running paid social

How to add the Meta Pixel to your Crowdfunder project

Crowdfunding for Community Interest Companies (CICs)

Can a CIC use crowdfunding?

CICs aren’t charities and that matters for funding

Does a CIC have to pay platform fees on Crowdfunder?

Can CICs get match funding?

Can a CIC offer rewards to supporters?

Can CICs run prize draws?

Will donors get Gift Aid on donations to a CIC?

Why use Crowdfunder rather than JustGiving or GoFundMe?

How to start a CIC crowdfunding campaign

Quick answers

How to run a prize draw on Crowdfunder in five easy steps

Want to find out more about running a prize draw on Crowdfunder. Here’s how in five easy steps.

What is a prize draw on Crowdfunder?

Step 1: Choose a prize worth entering for

Step 2: Tell your story

Step 3: Set your target and entry structure

Step 4: Spread the word

Step 5: Draw your winner (and make it a moment)

The legal bit: free entry routes explained

Looking for inspiration? Read about some of our success stories.

Frequently asked questions

Found in the crowd: how to crowdfund your film

Who wrote it — and why it matters

What’s inside

Before you launch

Creating your campaign

Running your campaign

After your campaign

Real campaigns, real results

How to get it

The Meta Pixel: Your ads are working. Now you can prove it

Advertise with confidence

What you get

What this looks like in practice

Not just for the big organisations

Why Crowdfunder, not a standalone landing page?

How to get set up

BA Better World Fund: match funding for UK charities