Grassroots South West (UK) crowdfunding is alive and well evident in the latest Crowdfunder campaign reported in Business Live (South West). Bookhaus is an independent book sellers based in Bristol harbourside community Wapping Wharf, and it’s up for sale. According to the report by Business Live the shop’s manager Darran McLaughlin has been given the opportunity to buy the business and a crowdfunding campaign is underway to help him do just that. This is harks back to my days reporting on the early years of crowdsourcing reporting on grassroots Bristol based projects thanks to the Exeter based platform, Crowdfunder.
Lifting the Hopes of Community Crowdfunding
Crowdfunder was started in November 2010 by serial entrepreneur Darren Westlake and digital marketing & strategy expert Luke Lang. Their goal was to take an established model and make it internationally accessible by removing the shackles on the types of projects – community based projects – it considers thus attracting. Having secured their costs through Crowdfunding, they’ve achieved this and more. To date they’ve helped raise over £300m in funds for a variety of grassroot causes, some of which ight not have seen the light of day. Their goal is to secure over £1billion in funding for hundreds and thousands of impactful community projects. Here are a couple of Bristol projects that Crowdfunder helped become a reality.
Crowdfunding for My Education
In 2011, Jolene Galbreath was offered a place at Kings College London to study medicine and had secured funding for her tuition and learning resource costs through student loans. However, the funding would not cover her daily commute costs from Bristol to the college but Jolene had a cunning plan. Through Crowdfunder, she successfully raised £8,000 to help towards the costs in return of which she offered an assortment of merchandise, sponsorship opportunities, and would write a book – ‘Whitecoat, Bluestocking‘, about her non-traditional funding methods. Jolene successfully completed her studies and is continuing on her medical journey.
Bristol’s First Community Bike Cafe
By 2012 cycling in Bristol grew in popularity – despite resistance from anti-cycling naysayers. Cycling campaign charity Sustrans, was actively trying to persuade more people to take up cycling and embrace its culture. Taking it one step further, the organization’s project manager Rob Wall – also form lecturer in Transport Psychology – planned to open a community bike cafe that not only served great food and drink but also served as a hub for the growing cycle culture, selling cycling apparel, and equipment.
Wall needed £90,000 to cover working capital as well as the first year’s operational costs. A Crowdfunder campaign was launched and by 2013 ‘Roll for the Soul’ opened it’s doors to the Bristol public. Sadly it closed 4 years later but the campaign proved successful and for a short time Bristol cycling culture was very well represented.
The Bookhaus Legacy
The latest drive centers, as previously mentioned, on preserving the legacy of Bristol independent book shop ‘Bookhaus’. Kevin and Jayne Ramage decided to sell their institutional hub of literary activism and retire. Since they feel the store’s manager Darran McLaughlin is best placed to protect their legacy they’re giving him the chance to make an offer to buy. In partnership with Phil Wrigglesworth, a Senior Lecturer at UWE, Illustrator and founder of Left Cultures Magazine they have raised £25,000 towards this cost. Through Crowdfunder, Darran is hoping to raise £68,000 to raise the remaining funds needed and with just under 50 days to go there is already 32% of the costs in the bank. A story like this would feature at the top of my platform, Crowdsource Gazette as it is about Bristol, it supports and independent book shop, and is rooted in the sort of activism and awareness that personifies the city.
I’ll be featuring more stories on crowdsourcing and crowdfunding charting its Ai evolution. What stories would you like to see featured? Let me know in the comments especially your thoughts on support Bookhaus, and any other grassroots projects. Need some help getting your crowdfunding campaign launched then why not drop me an email ramon@ramonwrites.co.uk/ or visit Ramon Writes for more details.