Thursday 14 July 2016 4:48 pm

Crowdfunder offers new funding route between projects and grant money

A crowdfunding platform is offering itself up as a new link between projects seeking funds and organisations offering grants and sponsorship.

Crowdfunder is to distribute the money from brands, councils and community funds to business, community, charity and individuals’ projects. The schemes will be picked to fit the specific criteria of the funding organisations.

The platform said it has so far secured £2.4m to distribute. And it said a further £1.3m is expected to be added to the amount over the next three months.

One partner on board with the new set-up so far is Virgin Media Business, which has already pledged £50,000 to support startup businesses.

Projects that crowdfund on the platform are able to search for additional funding opportunities of between £500 and £10,000, depending on their eligibility for the funds.

“At Crowdfunder we believe in not only enabling people to make their great ideas a reality – but ensuring that they have access to as much support as possible along their journey,” said Jason Nuttall, head of funding at Crowdfunder.

“By distributing funding from partners into crowdfunding projects that have the support of the crowd, partners are not only supporting great ideas, but putting funding into projects that have also been validated by the crowd.

“The benefits to all are enormous, bringing fund distribution to a new level.”

Crowdfunder recently partnered with Virgin Media Business to offer crowdfunding to businesses taking part in Voom 2016, a business competition.

Scott Wilkinson, head of Voom, said: “Crowdfunder and Virgin Media Business partnered to help businesses #VOOM.

“Together, we’ve turned a £50k match fund into over £700,000 already – and it’s still growing fast.”

He added: “Crowdfunding offers a pretty spectacular option for many businesses to reach out and secure their next objective.

“And our ongoing partnership is helping unleash future economic successes.”