Background

Solas Eige SCIO is seeking to bring a historic church on the Isle of Eigg into community ownership. They have successfully run exhibitions in the church for some time, and now that it's up for sale they have the opportunity to benefit the community for many years to come by establishing 'Ionad Solas Eige' - the Solas Eige Centre. 

Need for Support

The SCIO needed to raise significant funds to purchase the church. They knew they could count on the strong support they had, from islanders to mainlanders to international visitors. They planned to run a crowdfunding campaign. The only trouble was, they'd never run one before. 

What we Did

Camille from Solas Eige reached out to share their vision. Marketing advisor Margot from Community Enterprise worked with her to create a plan. Laying out each action needed on a gantt chart was a sharp awakening. 

With an immovable deadline approaching, it quickly became apparent that the charity did not have the time or resources to do a large-scale crowdfunding campaign justice. Better to start small, and build from a place of success. 

Margot continued to guide and support Solas Eige as they built a website, established networks of supporters, started social media channels and more. They used these to run a raffle on a crowdfunding platform, successfully raising £6,400 from over 200 supporters. 

 They plan to build on this success with a larger scale crowdfunder soon. They now have vital information on what marketing channels worked well for them, what messages resonated with people, and how much time & energy it takes to run!