About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

The award

Greenspace Scotland have been awarded £100,000 through the Rethinking Parks project to develop and test the impact of public contributions to parks in Glasgow and Edinburgh, enabled through a parks information, events and crowd-funding website.

This project is jointly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Nesta.

The idea

MyParkScotland provides a website that brings together people who value and love greenspaces in spaces in Edinburgh and Glasgow with opportunities to attend events, sign up to volunteering and donate to their park. Friends of Groups can promote events and projects, whilst the public can have easy access to information about all parks in their area.

The desired impact

MyParkScotland is a unique solution which will help people discover and support their local parks. The web-based platform combines elements of crowdfunding, for individual and business giving to support parks and parks projects, with an investment strategy to develop longer term sustainability and endowment funds.

This is about improving our parks today, as well as maintaining and safeguarding them for future generations. It will also be your first port of call if you’re looking to find your local park and what’s on through the interactive hub which provides information about park events, facilities and activities. We hope it will help more people to use, enjoy and support our parks.

"Finding new and innovative ways to make the financing and management of parks and greenspaces sustainable is vital to ensuring their future. We need to make sure we maintain and keep our parks in good heart today and for the benefit of generations to come. MyParkScotland is our response to this challenge.

Being involved in the Rethinking Parks programme on this exciting project will enable park users to discover more about their parks and also develop new ways for people to contribute to developments in their parks."


The team

  • Julie Procter, Chief Executive, greenspace Scotland
  • Ian Goodman, MyParkScotland Project Manager
  • David Jamieson and Helen Stockham, Edinburgh City Council
  • Stevie Scott and Alex Morrison, Glasgow City Council

Contact

Ian Goodman: [email protected] 01786 849 757

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