Community schemes will have to negotiate a competitive “crowdfunding” model and have cash capped if they want to ask for council money.
Angus Council has handed out more than £800,000 to 435 groups since its community grants scheme was introduced in 2009.
Grants of up to £5,000 have been available to applicants who can show the cash will have community benefit, many of which have opted to raise money towards their total.
A new arrangement will see the maximum amount cut to £1,000, and hopefuls will be required to match any figure they ask for.
The responsibility for the cash will also move from Angus Council to its partnership with Crowdfunder, as part of a move towards “digitalisation”.
The move is to be put to councillors for approval on Tuesday.
In his report to the policy and resources committee, chief executive Richard Stiff says the current model of promoting, processing and monitoring funding applications requires “significant resources”.
He states: “This is a resource intensive process requiring significant staff resource from officers across the council such as economic development to promote the fund and process applications, finance to process payments and budget monitoring, and representatives from all directorates to assess projects.
“Crowdfund Angus currently operates as a complementary service to the grant scheme for communities as well as for businesses and individuals to lever in funding they require to deliver local projects.
“To date it has supported 27 campaigns, 14 of those going live and generated over £90,000, excluding the additional funding brought in following a successful campaign.”
The current grant scheme is worth about £58,000 each year and Angus Council will pay Crowdfund Angus 5% – around £2,900 – to administer it.
Mr Stiff said this figure is “significantly less” than the current staff cost, and will reduce if the pot decreases in future.
The last beneficiaries of the old-style grant scheme will be Newtyle FC, awarded £3,996 for youth football equipment and a project to increase female participation, and Montrose Music Festival, given £3,360 towards a family-friendly “butterfly stage” at its 10th anniversary event.
Strathmartine Community Council are awarded £1,126 for a flooding response shed with sandbags, and Edzell Drama Group £1,000 for improved lighting at Inglis Memorial Hall.
The chief executive adds: “Applicants could have a campaign up to any value, however the contribution would be capped at £1,000.
“This would maximise the value of the council funding and keep the risk at a minimum.”
Crowdfund Angus
One of the projects partially paid for through Crowdfund Angus is the Hospitalfield harp, which had fallen into disrepair after it was purchased by prominent Angus figure Patrick Allan Fraser for his musically gifted wife Elizabeth.
The Grecian harp was made around 1830 by Sebastian Erand, a pioneer of instrument design in the early 19th Century and it has long been an ambition of Hospitalfield staff to repair the instrument and bring it back into use.
Having sourced a company which could do the repair work, a crowdfunding bid was launched in October and a concert using the harp is being planned for the summer.
The crowdfunding campaign raised £2,215 from 36 backers, falling short of the target of £4,800.
However, several subsequent donations meant restoration work could begin.
