MyParkScotland launches first crowdfunding site for Scottish parks and greenspace projects
Howard Lake | 3 June 2015 | News
Scottish charity MyParkScotland has produced a website that not only lets people search all 254 parks in Edinburgh and Glasgow to find out what is going on, but also donate to park improvement projects.
MyParkScotland‘s website launched to cover park events and activities over the Spring Bank holiday weekend, letting people search by location, postcode, facilities and events. It also lets local friends of parks groups fundraise via crowdfunding for particular projects.
The parks featured range from small local parks to world famous landmarks such as Calton Hill.
Ian Goodman, Project Manager explained:
“Park users often told us they would like to be able to support their local park but there wasn’t an easy way to do this. That’s why we developed MyParkScotland as a safe and easy way for people to donate to support park improvement projects developed by Friends of Parks and other local groups, and to make donations to parks”.
He added that, as a charity, MyParkScotland could reclaim Gift Aid on donations and it was using this ‘extra funding’ to build sustainability and endowment funds for Scotland’s parks, with the aim of safeguarding them for future generations.
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First crowdfunding campaigns underway
One of the first projects to feature on MyParkScotland is the Hayburn Play Park Association in Glasgow. Having already raised £70,000 towards their target of £81,000 to create a natural play environment for children, they are using MyParkScotland to raise £550 to create a mini-orchard.
Over in Edinburgh, the Friends of Figgate Park will be raising money for bat boxes in the park and in Saughton Park they’re looking to bring the historic bandstand back to life.
Councillor Alistair Watson, Executive Member for Sustainability and Transport at Glasgow City Council, said:
“MyParkScotland is an exciting new fundraising initiative which will help people not only discover their local parks but also help support them. MyParkScotland has the potential to give Friends of groups the tool to generate funds for park projects, events and activities – and that is to be welcomed.”
Supported by Rethinking Parks
MyParkScotland is one of 11 UK projects that has been supported by the Rethinking Parks programme. This is a partnership between Nesta, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund, and aims to support organisations to develop new approaches to sustaining and making the most of the UK’s public parks.
MyParkScotland is the only Scottish project within the Rethinking Parks programme, and it aims to expand it to cover the whole of Scotland.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.