The Stroud Valleys Project (SVP) raised £18,294 through public donations, street fundraising, and pledges from businesses and organisations as part of its Little Acorns, Mighty Oaks campaign, which was designed to unlock funding through Stroud District Council (SDC).
SDC pledged £8,000 to the campaign, and Cotswold Canals Connected pledged an additional £1,500.
Clare Mahdiyone, CEO of SVP, said: “We launched Little Acorns, Mighty Oaks as a way of accessing funding through Stroud District Council (SDC), who backed us with a pledge of £8,000, with an additional £1,500 from Cotswold Canals Connected (CCC).
“The race was then on to hit our target of £17,350, using the Spacehive online platform to reach out to our supporters and to find new ones.
“We’ve had numerous enquiries from schools in the area who want to work with us on nature-based learning – and thanks to our donors, we’ve got the funding to do it.
“Some of the research that backed up our appeal showed a shocking level of disconnection between children and nature, and we want to be able to buck that trend here in Stroud and ensure youngsters know a little about our world and the species we share it with.
“We’re also overjoyed that we’ll be able to secure our work with adults on our Creative Shed and Wild Shed projects when the funding for them runs out later this year.
“We’d like to express our gratitude to every single person who donated to help us get over the line.”
Donations of up to £1,154 came from supporters including Our Co Op, Ethical Giving, Rubicon, Kava Communications, She’s Electric, Borderless Books, Pangolin Digital, Saymor Furnishings, and Zest for Life.
It also received backing from parish, town, district, and county councillors.
SVP, a Stroud-based community and conservation charity, will use the funds to expand nature-based education and activities for both children and adults in the district.
