Matching The Crowd: Revitalising the £5bn grant-giving sector

We have been working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and Nesta to produce the Matched Crowdfunding Report 2017. The report provides an incredible insight into the impact that the world of matched crowdfunding is having which until now, despite its rapid growth, has remained largely unexplored.

You can read the whole report here. 

The way in which over £5bn of UK grant money is distributed each year has been slowly evolving. Alongside the use of online platforms to connect ideas and projects with the funds that they need to get off the ground, matched crowdfunding has emerged and is leading the way as an exemplary model for grant distribution that can literally make public funding go further. By combining smaller donations raised from the public (or what we like to call, the crowd) with larger institutional funding, matched funding highlights the essential need in today’s society for collaboration with funders to activate the change that we want to see.

The previous lack of evidence about the impact that matched funding is having could in turn be stifling its own growth, as potential funders remain uninformed about how they could be utilising it within their current funding programmes. However, with the release of the Matched Crowdfunding Report 2017, which reveals the findings from a pilot programme that was devised between the organisations involved, we now have brand new research that stands as a game changer for the grant sector and crowdfunding.

During the nine month pilot programme, Crowdfunder, who worked in partnership with the organisations, marketed the matched funds and provided the online platform for projects to launch their ideas. £251,500 in matched funding was provided by Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Fund to 59 projects on Crowdfunder.co.uk, who also received ongoing support, coaching and workshops from our team, alongside the support of a crowd of 4,970 backers.

Driven by a desire to expose vital statistics around the world of matched funding, the consequential report is an essential source of knowledge for fundraisers and grant givers – both potential and existing, with the firm recommendation shining through that the £5bn sector needs to give crowdfunding a go.

Their recommendation to Crowdfunder is that we need to invest more in sharing our knowledge with this sector and develop more technology to do this at scale, therefore unlocking more funds for more grass roots projects.

What are you waiting for? Join our crowd and let’s turn your great idea into reality, together.