Funding to launch a marketplace
A Slivers-of-Time marketplace requires small sums compared to some existing employment initiatives. £100,000 can underwrite the first year of operation serving up to 100 individuals if the bookings are short enough. And, the money buys a tangible benefit; a local park rejuvenated, run-down buildings restored or wasteland cleared and landscaped for instance.
A funding application will need to specify:
- what the money being sought will be spent on; clearly it is local people doing local work, but what is the output of that work? Examples include; environmental improvement, face-to-face interviewing of local people, personalised support for clients or street wardens.
- why a Slivers-of-Time marketplace is the best way to get that work done, besides lifting the local community.
Identifying a local project
You may need to find a local project that will benefit from many hours of work. Our Types of work suited to Slivers-of-Time section can help. But crucially the project needs to generate work that can be:
- Taught easily.
- Done in small chunks, perhaps two hour bookings, not formal periods of several weeks. This is so it can be spread around through the marketplace.
- As local to your sellers as possible.
- Broken into different types of work, for example not all of it requires physical labour, which some sellers won't wish to do.
Once that is in place, detailed information on funding sources can be found through databases such as the www.j4bgrants.co.uk site. This service allows some searching free after registration, with a charge of around £10 a month for full access to data.
Starting a market
