Have you got an idea for how to help your local community flourish? Pitch your project to Ealing Council and it might support you with up to £10,000 – and also help you with advice to crowdfund the rest.

The council’s Ealing Together Fund is here to give you the means to get your idea off the ground and make a positive impact in your local area – such as by:

• Helping others achieve their potential through opportunities to volunteer or learn new skills,
• Bringing people together to celebrate culture and heritage,
• Improving people’s health and well-being, or
• Making the borough a greener and cleaner place.

A launch event and workshop on Tuesday (4 October) can give you all the information you need to get going. See below for more details.

Recent projects to receive backing that you might want to get some inspiration from have included Save Ealing’s Swifts, Ealing Writing Trail, Garden Share (tackling food poverty and loneliness for the disabled and older people) and Discover Bedford Park with WB Yeats.

Who can take part?

Almost anyone. A community group, mutual aid or volunteer network, a charity, a tenants’ or residents’ association, a town team or a social enterprise – or just an individual representing a group of neighbours. The key is that the location you are intending to use is in, or will benefit the residents of, our borough.

What is on offer?

There is a pot of £100,000 in the Ealing Together Fund, to be distributed to a selection of ‘winning’ projects:

• There will be a maximum of £10,000 awarded for the capital elements (substantial, physical parts) of your project to help you keep it going. This is capped at 50% of the project’s total costs
• There will also be a simplified route for smaller projects (costing less than £3,000) available, with less criteria to qualify.

The launch event

If you are interested in submitting a project, why not join the online launch event and workshop? It will be hosted by Spacehive, the council’s crowdfunding partner, on Tuesday (4 October) between 12noon-1pm. And, it will give you a chance to hear from the funders and speak with Spacehive about your potential project ideas.

You can register to attend online – but if you cannot make the launch event, simply register your project idea via a short form to access Spacehive support.

What will I need to do?

By Wednesday, 9 November you will need to have put forward your pitch and project on the Spacehive website, so you can develop it, find out how much things are going to cost, what permissions you will need, and any other key information.

What will happen after that?

Once the plan has been checked and verified, you can launch your campaign for crowdfunding from the public. And it will be time to get local people, groups and businesses involved in supporting your idea. You will need to work up support from your community to help you raise about 50% of the costs. Some online tools will be available to help you do that.

Then, in December, the council will announce which of the projects it will be backing financially, and by how much. It will also give successful projects helpful advice.

The hope is that your projects can then get under way in spring.

If you have an idea for how to help your local community flourish, and it focuses on one or more of today’s challenges, whether it is the rising cost of living, climate change, income, health and educational inequalities then this fund could help turn that idea into reality.

More information

Find out more about the Ealing Together Fund and how to get involved on the council’s Do Something Good website and sign up to the launch event on 4 October.