| A massive thank you to our community! Sister Midnight writes: |
| After 6 months of campaigning our Crowdfunder closed on March 3 with £260K raised towards our goal of establishing Lewisham’s first community owned music venue. We feel empowered by the last 12 months of seeing our community come together to work towards making this project a success. There’s no better motivation than seeing the power of community spirit and collective action first hand! We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who believed in us and who have joined the fight to open lewisham’s first community owned live music venue. As well as the help of the South London community, we’ve had some incredible support from Lewisham Council and the GLA, as well as from Cooperatives UK (and through them funders including Power to Change and The Architectural Heritage Fund), and Social Investment Business’s Reach Fund, which has all played a part in getting us to this stage. We’ve now drawn down the funds from our Crowdfunder, and we’re putting them aside in a separate bank account while we continue to work towards saving the Ravensbourne Arms! We’re also exploring other potential venues to make sure that if we can’t agree an offer on the Ravensbourne Arms, we can still make a trailblazing community owned music venue a reality for Lewisham. For our investors we want to reiterate that:1) The Ravensbourne Arms remains our priority, but any new site that we consider will be in Lewisham Borough, and ideally as close to the Ravensbourne Arms as possible. 2) If there are any fundamental changes to the proposal we initially put forward (including a change of venue), we’ll revise the business plan and clearly identify any changes that affect your investment. 3) We won’t spend any of the money without giving our members a chance to review any new proposals. If any of our members decide they’d prefer not to continue with their investment, they will be able to withdraw their funds. 4) If after 12 months we’ve been unable to move things forward, or it becomes clear at any point before then that we just can’t make the numbers stack up between grants, borrowing and your investments, then we’ll return the money to everyone. |
| This is just the beginning, make sure to keep your eyes peeled for all the future fundraiser events we’ll be hosting at local venues until we have a space that we all communally own. |
| We’re back at the Fox & Firkin on April 9… |
| Get yourself down on the April 9 for one hot lineup with bands and DJs that you’ll kick yourself for missing! We’ve got Do Nothing, Suep, The Uglies and more joining us for an all day party. |
| GET YOUR TICKETS HERE |
| Thank you all again, and we are as determined as ever to make community-ownership achievable and accessible! We’ll continue to be completely transparent about any changes or developments with the project, and we’re always here to answer any questions you might have, please get in touch with us at info@sistermidnight.org Love, Sister midnight x |