Back in September 2022, a member of the Swindon Hub's board of trustees approached us as they needed support with marketing and graphic design.
In order to continue serving the community over the winter, the Swindon Hub was launching a crowdfunding campaign that aimed to raise £5,000 to keep the heating and lights on in the building over the cold winter months.
Based in the old River Island building in Swindon Town Centre, the Swindon Hub is managed by a diverse range of volunteers who give up their time to keep the place running. The Hub is a safe and accessible place where people can socialise and take part in activities. They have an exhibition space, a café, a kid's play area, a function room on the first floor, and so much more. They offer workshops and classes on a weekly basis. These activities vary from arts and crafts to music and fitness.
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Photo by Jeanne.
As a team, we visited the Hub to scope out everything that we could do to help them. Discussions led us to us primarily focusing on PR, getting the Swindon Hub in the local press, and highlighting the good the Swindon Hub does for the people who need it most in our community.
Armed with photographs that captured the essence of the space, our Marketing team wrote the press release and copy on the crowdfunding page. The press release was issued to local press in and around Swindon, leading to outlets getting in touch with Swindon Hub to share its story with their readers. This helped spread the word about the Hub and its crowdfunding efforts.
After a couple of weeks, donations started coming in but not fast enough to fulfil the £5,000 target. The crowdfunding campaign was set to 'all or nothing' meaning that if the £5,000 target wasn't reached, the Hub wouldn't receive any donations at all. We gave the Hub further marketing advice about how to continue to promote the campaign on social media and through the local radio. Our graphic design team designed a flyer with a QR code that accesses the crowdfunding page when scanned. These flyers were handed out at the Hub and around Swindon Town centre. This led to a number of large donations being made.
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Photo by Jeanne.
The campaign which lasted a month ended in November 2022 and was incredibly successful with over £8,000 being raised. The extra funding means Swindon Hub is able to provide soup to the neediest in our community. Donations can still be made to the Hub by popping in their fun and vibrant unit in Swindon Town Centre.
Graeme Leighfield, Managing Director of GEL Studios said:
At GEL Studios, we're all about making a positive impact on the community, and helping others is at the heart of everything we do.
“We’re so humbled to have been able to support this incredibly important campaign which perfectly suits our vision: inspiring change through creativity”.
Claire Quant, Volunteer and Member of the Board of Trustees at Swindon Hub said:
“The team at Swindon Hub is looking forward to this long-standing partnership with GEL Studios.
“Run completely by volunteers, Swindon Hub hopes to reach more people in the community who need safe spaces to socialise, network and participate in activities”.
A special mention to Henry Bowdidge (local film student) - for his work filming and producing a short promotional video to support this campaign! Great work Henry!