Crowdfund London
Crowdfund London helps communities to come together to propose, fund and deliver fresh ideas to improve our city. Supported through the LEAP, this internationally-recognised programme allows City Hall to pledge public funds to local civic crowdfunding campaigns. Developed and delivered by the Mayor's Regeneration Team, working with Spacehive, ideas are presented and developed in public where the community can show their support. The mix of funders bring skills, experience and resource to get things done.
The £4.6m programme provides small grants of up to £50K as pledges to public crowdfunding campaigns to support innovative community or citizen-led projects that build local resilience with £500k spent to date.
Crowdfund London gives anyone the chance to pitch new ideas to help make their communities and local area better. The programme uses new technology to help people come together to create, fund and launch local initiatives that can have a big social and civic impact.
Tottenham Café Connect
Tottenham Café Connect transformed an old disused bowling club into a vibrant community hub and café. This has now become a place for people and neighbours to meet - reducing social isolation, delivering new skills for life and employment, and growing food.
The bowling club was redeveloped, whilst retaining its heritage, to create a flexible multi-purpose activity space including an indoor café and community kitchen area, event & training spaces and an outdoor stage and garden. Through an extensive outreach programme and activities with the local community in Tottenham, the project responds to local need – offering an affordable space to host events, festivals, play schemes, performances or showcasing talents and entrepreneurial ideas.
In 2017, The LEAP, through the Mayor, pledged £25,000 to the live Crowdfunding campaign with an additional £20,000 raised from the crowd. Tottenham Café Connect has now launched as a new community space which celebrates local culture and history and breaks down barriers by bringing people together and being the positive change they want to see in their neighbourhood.