Crowdfunding site Angel Shares launches for Scottish cultural organisations
Howard Lake | 21 February 2012 | News
Angel Shares, the crowdfunding website for the cultural and creatie sectors, has launched in Scotland in partnership with Arts & Business Scotland. Founded by Sarah Gee, a professional fundraiser and marketer for nearly 20 years, the site aims to help the arts build stronger relationships with donors. It launched in England in November 2011, supported by Arts Council England and BusinessLink West Midlands.
Gee says that it is “the only arts and cultural crowdfunding site that collects Gift Aid on donations”. She sees it as a way of helping diversify income streams for the arts and offer new ways for individual supporters to get involved with arts projects, and of raising awareness of Scottish arts projects internationally.
The service is supported by Creative Scotland and is part of the Year of Creative Scotland.
The first project on the site, ‘Walk Sans Frontières’ from Deveron Arts features Ethiopian artist Mihret Kebede creating a Slow Marathon in which 225 people jointly walk the distance of 5,850 miles from Addis Ababa to Huntly, Aberdeenshire on 17 March 2012. Donors to the project can receive rewards ranging from a copy of the accompanying publication to a pair of Ethopian shoelaces.
Barclay Price said ‘Such sites as Facebook show the power of the internet to engage people, and to offer innovative ways to create communities of interest. Crowdfunding offers cultural organisations and artists an innovative way of encouraging their audiences to fund their creative work, and enables everyone with an interest in Scotland’s cultural scene to support the country’s creativity. I am particularly pleased to be launching this initiative so soon after Arts & Business Scotland became independent as it evidences our ambition to champion new fund-raising tools to help sustain and grow the arts in Scotland.’
Iain Munro, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, said: “AngelShares Scotland is a fantastic new opportunity for organisations to develop new income streams by connecting Scottish-based arts and cultural organisations with potential investors and maximise philanthropic support.”
Arts & Business Scotland will be running a series seminars in different locations across Scotland to raise awareness of AngelShares Scotland and further digital fundraising opportunities for the arts.
www.angelsharesscotland.com
Advertisement
Related posts
Arts & Business Scotland becomes independent charity
New Chief Executive at Arts & Business Scotland
10:10 seeks organisations to benefit from solar power crowdfunding campaign
Culture & Business Fund Scotland launches to promote business and arts collaboration
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.