BATCA successfully raised over £1,642 on Crowdfunder (and another £879 in offline donations) to bring their community awards to life.
BATCA (Balham and Tooting Community Association) holds a volunteer appreciation and awards ceremony every year. The event is free so everyone from all backgrounds can attend, but obviously it costs money to put on with the food, room hire, technology etc. So this year BATCA’s secretary Kate, who is retired but has lived in the neighborhood since her 20s, decided to try crowdfunding. She undertook our 8 week online crowdfunding training course.
The BATCA crowdfunding campaign reached its initial goal in less than 2 weeks and then managed to hit and exceed its stretch goal too. In addition, on the night of the awards, £879 was also given, meaning the campaign overall raised more than £2,500. This was 202% of their initial goal, excluding Gift Aid. Kate said, “as important as the funds raised was, the crowdfunding helped bring the Awards, and BATCA, to a wider audience and convey the spirit of solidarity and community they represent”. The event itself was attended by nearly 200 people from across Balham and Tooting and 12 community volunteers received awards. In addition to
Crowdfund 360’s founder, Jes has known Kate for 3 years when they met at an inter-faith Ramadan dinner in the neighbourhood, this was before Jes had even moved to Tooting! Since then, their paths have remained close and they have many mutual connections as well as an interest in the neighbourhood. Kate went on the undertake the Crowdfund 360 online training course and has now launched her campaign. Within just 1.5 hours she had raised more than she paid for the course and in less than 8 hours, had doubled that amount.
Tooting was voted by Lonely Planet as one of the Top 10 neighbourhoods in the world. Crowdfund 360 was born in Tooting! It is a neighbourhood where all ethnicities, backgrounds, nationalities, ages and demographics really come together in harmony!
The video for the campaign (which can be viewed below) was made for Kate and BATCA by Digilab. Digilab is a local Tooting based innovation hub for young people to come and learn digital skills – a great example of how the community works together for the greater good of the society. The campaign features many of the local influencers from business, government, networks etc as ell as many of the local charitable heroes who have previously won awards.
Visit the BATCA crowdfunding page here