To help us to develop our digital story platform we are reaching out to storytellers and storyseekers across the UK. In October, we will be launching our crowdfunding campaign and will be reaching out to communities and organisations to help us to raise funds and spread the word about Storical.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a form of fundraising driven by the community. As a donor you can choose campaigns that you would like to support, and in exchange for a pledge receive a benefit from the organisation.

We will be using a platform called Crowdfunder, a safe and secure site that enables people with great ideas to raise the money they need, in return for ‘rewards’.

How can you get involved?

Our crowdfunder will provide individuals, communities and organisations with the opportunity to pledge towards creating story trails for when the Storical platform it launches in April 2021. By donating, you will be able to buy an individual ‘story’ or a full ‘story trail’ – we will provide full details about the different options for pledging before the campaign launches in October.

We are looking for organisations and communities who would like to create a digital story trail, and be part of our campaign. By getting involved in our campaign you can:

• Help us to raise funds to develop a story trail(s) for your organisation

• Support the development of a story trail(s) for your community

• Sponsor a community of organisation to create single or multiple story trails

• Join our community of storytellers and storyseekers and be the first to gain access to the Storical platform and trails.

What are the benefits of being involved?

We understand that creating digital story trails is expensive and often requires technical expertise. This means that because you cannot edit story trails, they are often not sustainable. By contributing towards our crowdfunder you will be helping us to develop an accessible platform that is easy to use, affordable and sustainable for communities to create and edit story trails in the future. However, by contributing towards our crowdfunding campaign you can also gain additional benefits:

• For organisations you can choose to either buy story trail credits at an affordable price to use once the platform launches in April 2021, or you can encourage your community to get involved in raising the funds for you.

• For individuals you can support your local community or organisation by purchasing story credits to help them raise funds for a full story trail which you can enjoy in the future.

• For community sponsors you can choose to sponsor a story trail or a package of story trails to help your community celebrate their stories and preserve their heritage.

We understand that the current climate is challenging, and that technology will play a role in celebrating our story and culture moving forward in new ways. We also understand that this is a difficult time to finance new technology, and our crowdfunding campaign provides a flexible and fun way to raise these funds without compromising on other resources.

I’m interested, what now?

We would like to create a list of featured organisations and communities that would like to be part of our crowdfunding campaign in October 2020. These organisations/communities will feature on our crowdfunding page and our website. During the campaign we will be encouraging individuals to pledge stories towards our featured organisations. To ensure the campaign is successful we will also be asking you to get involved by promoting to your members and encouraging them to pledge towards your story trail. Our team will provide you with resources to help you spread the word!

If you are an organisation or community group that would like to get involved please do get in touch and we will send you more details.