The first Keene First Friday Art Hop begins soon - Friday July 6 from 5pm - 9pm. We are eager to get downtown businesses, local organizations, artisan & craft businesses registered and ON THE MAP!
Registration Forms
Downtown Keene businesses can get involved by: Staying open! We recommend open until 9pm. We understand that some businesses close much earlier. If you are normally open until 6, would you remain open until 7pm and offer a wonderful and unique First Friday special? Offer arts or music in your shop? Add a Harvest of the Month special to your menu? And, if you notify the local police and liquor commission, as well as follow the simple rules (free, open to the public, legal tasting size, etc.), it is FREE to offer a tasting in your store! More here. Showing ART! Host a local musician! For a nominal fee, Machina Arts, our promoter, will provide low cost access to their ASCAP license, decreasing your cost to host live music. Contact us for pricing. Promote local food! Promote the Harvest of the Month: Berries in July and Tomatoes in August! Other ideas!? We would love to hear them! Host a local museum or non profit; offer an arts activity; bring a local artisan business into your shop for the evening; partner with a local artist to commission a new work of art. The list is endless! We are eager to put you ON THE MAP! Fill out our registration form by June 29 and let us know what will be happening in your location. And please, do share the news about this event: Share our Facebook event, invite artist friends to vend on Railroad Square, get a local non profit involved to spread their mission and/or host a family friendly activity, visit one of our TWO POP UP Galleries, host/invite a local craft/artisan food company to participate. Information is available here. Thank you for your consideration. Feel free to contact me with any questions: 603-309-6339 or carolyns@machinaarts.org.
Share our campaign
The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock launched its eight online crowdfunding campaign to support The Hinsdale Beautification Committee Safe Streets crowdfunding campaign. In 2016, the Town of Hinsdale adopted a Complete Streets Policy -- a plan to consider all types of users (walkers, motorists, bicyclists, seniors, youth, etc.) when designing or maintaining a street. This project will make this policy come to life on Main Street -- to make shopping at local businesses and the farmers' market safer. This crowdfunding campaign is an effort to raise $2,000 to show community support for this project -- and will be used as matching funds on a future grant application. The project includes adding crosswalks, parklets or bump outs to the sidewalks and a radar post. Individuals can contribute to this crowdfunding campaign regardless of where they live. Offline donations are also accepted. Checks should be made out to the Town of Hinsdale Town Hall (c/o Kathryn Lynch, Community Development Coordinator) P.O. Box 13, Hinsdale, NH 03451.
Support this campaign today!
From Village Roots Permaculture
Thank you to the community of supporters that helped make this fund raising goal a reality! Your donations of time, money, rewards, materials, expertise, advertising and emotional support have all led us to this next important phase, construction.
Getting Started
We've been stirring on ideas for quite some time now and the planning process continues every time I feed the animals or grab a tool. Now with the campaign a success, we are wrapping up details of the design, gathering materials and starting the first phases of the timber frame construction.
Stay tuned. Now the real fun begins.
Follow this campaign
From the Montessori Schoolhouse of Cheshire County
We called on you, and YOU ANSWERED! We want to express the deepest gratitude to each of you who donated and has supported this campaign. It is a huge representation of the generosity of this community and we are so grateful for your support. We hit our goal of $8,000.00 only 19 days in to the month long campaign! The campaign will continue on through the end of the month, with April 30 as the last day. And we hope that we will continue to see support. This means so much to the children of the Montessori Schoolhouse, and I know that as we begin to purchase the items in our budget they will reap all the nature play benefits of your support. We truly can't do it without such a powerful and generous community of parents, relatives, alumni, and friends. We thank each of you from the very tip of our toes to the top of our heads, with full hearts.
THANK YOU! On behalf of the Montessori Schoolhouse Staff and Board, and all the grateful children, Christina Klueh Board VP
We did it – wait – YOU DID IT!
A huge thank you to each of you who donated during Monday Madness – we far surpassed our goal of meeting our one-day $1,000 matching challenge. We received $2,025.00 donated by you, and that was matched with the $1,000.00 from Wyatt & Associates to give us a total of $3,025.00 donated in 24 hours!
We are now at 76% of our goal – Whahoo!
I am continued to be amazed by this community. I know that we will hit our goal, and hope that you all will continue to share our mission and goal with others in your community.
Again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
The Staff and Board of Montessori Schoolhouse, and all the children
From The Montessori Schoolhouse Outdoor Classroom Project
In our first 48 hours we have received more than $1900! Thank you for you efforts in getting the word out and your donations! We appreciate all of the backers for our campaign! We have seen this campaign spread all the way to Georgia, and we hope that we will continue to see the support of our community grow even further to reach our goal. Thank you for your support by donation, and we are really looking forward to seeing us reach our final goal!
Support the Moving Outdoors Crowdfunding Campaign
From Marty, Ellen and Joules
Two days before we launched this campaign we chickened out and lowered our goal from $10,000 to $8,500. Given the overwhelming support of the community, we are raising this goal back to $10,000.
The extra $1,500 will allow us to pay for the installation of a walk-in cooler, which is critical to our goals for this space. Thank you for demonstrating that this is possible!
Visit the Village Roots Barn Raising Campaign
Monadnock Buy Local received a grant from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund to support The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock, a locally based crowdfunding platform. TLC Monadnock empowers individuals to support the businesses, organizations and initiatives that grow wealthier and healthier communities in the region. Since launching in March 2017, over 200 supporters contributed $35,000 to four campaigns through TLC Monadnock's platform. These campaigns focused on sustainable agriculture, bicycling and independent retail. This winter's campaigns include topics such as community solar, complete streets and outdoor learning. TLC Monadnock is a collaboration of regional economic development organizations including Southwest Region Planning Commission, Monadnock Buy Local, New Hampshire Small Business Development Center, Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce, Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce and Monadnock Economic Development Corporation. For more information, contact Monadnock Buy Local at 603-499-7950.
The New England Grassroots Environment Fund energizes and nurtures long-term civic engagement in local initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe and sustainable communities using stories, tools and dollars to fuel local activism and social change. Since 1996, the Grassroots Fund's core grantmaking program continues to fund nearly 150 grants annually, giving more than $4 million in 20 years to initiatives by better than 2,000 community groups covering more than 60 percent of New England's cities and towns. For more information, please visit grassrootsfund.org or call 603-905-9915.
In 2017, The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock -- a locally based crowdfunding platform -- supported campaigns based in Keene, Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Swanzey and Winchester. In the New Year, we’re excited to announce that we’re expanding into Alstead, Jaffrey and Peterborough, too! What does that mean to you? It means that if you have a great idea -- one that strengthens your local economy and community -- and live in one of these eight towns, you can apply to launch a crowdfunding campaign with TLC Monadnock. If you’ve heard of Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you might understand how crowdfunding works. However, TLC Monadnock is different from other crowdfunding platforms. It’s designed specifically for rural communities. Also, you’re not alone when you launch a campaign with TLC Monadnock -- we provide education, support and hyper-local tools to connect local businesses, organizations and community groups with the capital they need to thrive. These differences recently earned us a Crowdfundie Award presented at the Global Crowdfunding Conference in Las Vegas. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the crowdfunding industry. People are beginning to notice what our community is doing to inspire more local investing!
Since we launched in March, four crowdfunding campaigns have collectively raised $34,946 from over 200 individuals. Our most recent campaign, the Bicycle Mayor of Keene, met its $1,300 goal just five days after publicly launching. Tiffany Mannion, the inaugural Bicycle Mayor of Keene will focus on three areas during her two year term: education, connection and creation. TLC Monadnock funded her first goal, to create an online hub that connects our community of riders to each other. Connect with her at bicyclemayorofkeene.com. Two TLC Monadnock campaigns focused on sustainable agriculture: Archway Farm’s Farm to Table on Wheels project and Stonewall Farm’s Barn Raising project. Archway Farm bought a Sausage Cart and traveled to various community events this summer, introducing their pasture-raised pork and other local products to new people throughout our region. Stonewall Farm plans to invest their funds in a new barn for their small animals and offer more space for the farm’s education programs.
Our third campaign, the Monadnock Placemaker project, focused on independent retail and the power of online tools to inspire more of us to spend our dollars at locally owned businesses. Funds from this campaign will go into launching a local rewards program this winter. Learn more about all four projects. Three new campaigns are now in the development stage: Safe Streets project from the Hinsdale Beautification Committee, Moving Outdoors project from the Montessori Schoolhouse of Cheshire County and Chesterfield Community Supported Solar project from the Monadnock Sustainability Network.
Once these new crowdfunding campaigns launch, you can join with your friends and neighbors to support the campaigns that inspire you -- by giving any amount of money you feel able and moved to give (from $1 on up!). Some campaigns provide rewards for your support -- a thank you gift for funding their project. Sign up for our e-newsletter to stay updated. Just send us an email and we’ll add you to our contact list.
So, now we turn to you and ask: Do you have a great idea that could use a lift? Will your project support community goals, while keeping to a budget of $10,000 or less? Are you, or is your business or organization, based in Alstead, Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Jaffrey, Keene, Peterborough, Swanzey or Winchester? If yes, then please consider funding your project through The Local Crowd Monadnock. We are accepting crowdfunding proposals until January 12, 2018.
Learn more about our current request for proposals. Here’s an added incentive to submit a proposal now: TLC Monadnock will select one proposal to receive a free video, donated by 710 Main Films, to support their crowdfunding campaign. Crowdfunding campaigns with pitch videos receive four times more funds than campaigns without a video. TLC Monadnock is hosted by Monadnock Buy Local and supported by a leadership team that includes the Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce, Southwest Region Planning Commission, New Hampshire Small Business Development Center, Monadnock Buy Local, Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce and Monadnock Economic Development Corporation. We’re looking for other economic development groups beyond Keene to join our leadership team. Contact us today for more details at jen@monadnocklocal.org or 603-499-7950. As our TLC Monadnock crowd expands, we hope you will join us. We are collectively funding the things we want to see more of in our little corner of the world.
The Local Crowd Monadnock - Keene, NH
