Published: 19 Jan 2021
Creative Scotland today, 19 January 2021, launches Creative Scotland Crowdmatch 2021 in collaboration with Crowdfunder - the UK’s largest crowdfunding platform - offering expert coaching and match funding, to support Scotland’s creatives to run successful crowdfunding campaigns.
The second iteration of the programme will launch with a series of introductory, free to attend webinars:
From Monday 25 January, interested parties will be invited to express their interest in participating by noon Monday 8 February. A shortlist of projects, selected by Crowdfunder and Creative Scotland, will receive tailored coaching support from the expert Crowdfunder team to set up their campaigns.
Jason Nuttall, Programme Director, Crowdfunder said: “We were blown away by the successes of the projects involved in Creative Scotland’s 2020 initiative. The range of ideas and the creativity shown in things like the rewards offered was fantastic to see. We have high expectations for this competition, and are looking forward to supporting the chosen projects to being their campaigns to life in 2021.”
Jackie Stewart, Creative Industries Officer, Creative Scotland said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for practitioners and organisations across Scotland to raise funds for creative projects as well as grow awareness of their work and foster meaningful relationships with audiences.”
Expressions of interest are invited from all artforms, and shortlisted projects will be announced on Tuesday 16 February.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Creative Scotland will contribute a total of £75,000 of match funding, and entrants can receive up to £10,000 towards their projects.
Proposal criteria, information about the initiative and about Crowdfunder is available on the Crowdfunder website.
The first phase of the programme which launched last year, saw 18 projects achieve their target crowdfunding campaign figures with many stretching beyond their original targets.
In total, those 18 projects raised £151K with funds coming from a mix of Creative Scotland match funding (£40,000), match funding from other Crowdfunder partners (Royal Bank of Scotland Back her Business £18,225) and pledges from 2,360 individual supporters.
The recording and production of experimental focus musician James Lindsay’s second album, Torus was made possible through the first iteration of Creative Scotland Crowdmatch.
James Lindsay said: "I couldn’t have done a pre-order self-release like this independently to the same effect. The crowdfunding process gave people the drive to help the project and the tutorials offered by Crowdfunder were very helpful in helping me bring some shape to the campaign”
Photo of James Lindsay
Proposal criteria, information about the initiative and about Crowdfunder is available on the Crowdfunder website.
Crowdfunder believes that everyone in the UK is a philanthropist in the making and that they should have the power to make positive change in their communities. Crowdfunder is the UK's #1 rewards-based crowdfunding platform, where over £72 million has been raised by thousands of businesses, social enterprises, charities, community groups, and individuals across the UK. Crowdfunder helps connect people with the resources they need to make their idea happen.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery.
The National Lottery has raised more than £41 billion for more than 565,000 good causes across the UK since 1994. Thanks to National Lottery players, up to £600 million has been made available to support people, projects and communities throughout the UK during the Coronavirus crisis. https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/
Claire Thomson, Media Relations & PR Officer, Creative Scotland
M: 07747 606146 | E: claire.thomson@creativescotland.com
