Greens and SNP tap into grassroots with election crowdfunding

It has been used to launch comics, gadgets, apps, breweries, ships, lightbulbs and football clubs. Now crowdfunding has spread to the UK general election as politicians tap into their grassroots support to finance their campaigns.

The Green party and the Scottish Nationalists have led the way, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds on crowdfunding platforms and on candidates' own websites. On Crowdfunder, the leading platform in this election battle, the SNP has raised more than £125,000 with 41 appeals during the 2015 campaign, while this week the Greens broke the £300,000 barrier on the same platform.

The resources of the three main parties dwarf these amounts, as they are able to call on large donations from companies, unions and wealthy individuals, as well as public funding that the Westminster parties receive.

Even though Labour and the Conservatives have American advisers who have both worked with Barack Obama, they have largely ignored crowdfunding despite the US president's success in raising hundreds of millions from small donors.

Crowdfunding is "very effective in going viral, spreading through social media and reaching out to those beyond the usual email list and supporter base", said Tom Beckett, fundraising director for the Green party.

Although the Greens and the SNP have worked centrally with Crowdfunder, individual candidates and activists have separately raised tens of thousands more on this and other platforms to pay for their deposits and market themselves to voters.

Crowdfunder's data show a plethora of candidates and causes, such as Dick Cole, the leader of Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Cornwall - who has raised £1,800 to contest the St Austell and Newquay seat.

A Bristol movement called Protect our NHS raised more than £2,000 to complete a documentary about its efforts to block private health companies from regional NHS services, while an independent group has raised £500 in its attempt to take seats on Wells City Council.

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Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems failed to respond to requests for information about their crowdfunding projects but candidates from all three have embraced the tactic on their own. One of the most successful is Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem MP for Cambridge, who has crowdfunded £22,500 on his own website.

"I don't get direct funding from the national party," said Mr Huppert, who is fighting off a challenge from Labour, "so it has helped massively in being able to fund our campaign. If we'd had to cut £22,500 from our budget it would have been a huge challenge."

"We spoke to Labour and the Lib Dems but they said they didn't need it," said Oliver Mochizuki, chief executive and co-founder of Fundsurfer, another platform that has also been active this election. "But the Greens realised it was perfect for them."

Arguably it was the SNP that blazed the crowdfunding trail in British politics. "There will be lots of SNP MPs on the morning of May 8 who have been crowdfunded," said Phil Geraghty, managing director of Crowdfunder.

<>Michelle Rodger, director of communications at the Crowdfunding Centre, worked with the Yes campaign during last year's independence referendum. "There were so many thousands of Yes groups individually fundraising for badges, banners, window posters, just to spread the word, it became obvious that crowdfunding on a more formal basis was the way forward," Ms Rodger said.

"When the Westminster campaign kicked in, a good number of SNP candidates who had been part of the Yes campaign . . . had experience of crowdfunding so it made sense for them to boost their campaigns."

Progressive grassroots parties were making the most of crowdfunding, she added, forecasting it would continue for next year's battle for the Scottish parliament.

"People have passions for certain things and are aware their money can have an influence in changing the world," said Julia Groves, who chairs the UK Crowdfunding Association. "[Politics] suits the crowdfunding model of engagement - it's democracy in action."

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