Plymouth City Council is appealing to individuals or organisations with a brilliant idea to help save the planet who need knowhow and cash to help make it happen.
The council’s groundbreaking Crowdfunder Plymouth Climate Challenge is back with £20,000 up for grabs.
Last year the 1000 Tyres Project by marine heritage organisation The SHIPS Project, was the worthy winner of the top prize. A group that researches and explores maritime historical sites, it launched the 1000 Tyres project to rid the Sound and surrounding rivers of the many discarded tyres and dumped rubbish they encountered.
Now the search is on for even more projects which are looking to make a difference to the environment and capture the imagination of residents to pledge and support through the Crowdfunder platform.
Councillor Vivien Pengelly, Cabinet Member for Home and Communities said:
“There were some brilliant entries last time which have all inspired local people to think about climate change and to take action to improve the environment.
“I can’t wait to see what projects come up this time. It may just be a germ of an idea that with Crowdfunder coaches they can work on how to attract public support. That’s the point of this challenge – helping our groups and organisations to take action to tackle climate change in some way.“
Anyone interested will need to fill out a short form and submit a 15 second video, with entries closing on October 11 at 9am.
The three finalists will be given Crowdfunder coaches to work up their proposal before a live event which will be streamed on November 8.
Plymouth City Council has created a pot of prize money, with £20,000 for the winning project, £12,500 for the runners up and £7,500 for third place.
Another 10 projects will also receive a £1,000 starting pledge to kick-start their project.
The challenge is being run in partnership with CrowdfunderUK and builds on a partnership with the community through the City Change Fund, which pledges on local projects and helps raise awareness of the climate emergency.
Dawn Bebe, co-founder and director at Crowdfunder added:
“We are delighted to launch Plymouth Climate Challenge for the second time with Plymouth City Council. There is some significant matchfunding available for brilliant projects in Plymouth which aim to tackle Climate Change, so we hope projects will get involved and raise the money they need to make their idea happen.”
The council will continue to pledge to the crowdfunding projects via the City Change Fund, with up to 50 per cent of a projects target being made available in addition to the challenge funding.
The City Change Fund supports local projects for local people. It’s a pioneering and award-winning project in which the Council has chosen to distribute some of the city’s Community Infrastructure Levy to support local projects through a partnership with CrowdfunderUK.
In the last six years the City Change Fund has distributed £734,720 to 130 projects. These projects raised £2,297,626 in total from 15,399 backers. In 2020 a new Climate Emergency Bonus was introduced for projects helping to address climate change and to date have distributed over £30,000 of this additional funding.
To enter the Climate Challenge Competition go to www.crowdfunder.co.uk/backthefuture/plymouth
