TLC Monadnock Launches Community Response Campaign

The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock, a community-based crowdfunding program in Keene, will launch a TLC 4WARD Community Response to COVID campaign in early June. This campaign will empower community members to support the local businesses they don't want to live without. This campaign will provide participating locally owned businesses with funds to weather the COVID crisis, help them meet shifts in community needs and/or seize new opportunities to forward a more local, green and fair economy in the Monadnock Region.

"This is an unprecedented time—one we could not have imagined even six months ago," says Diane Sontum, co-founder of The Local Crowd. "Yet, what we imagine today gives us the power to change the world of tomorrow into one we want for ourselves, our children, our neighbors and the planet that sustains us."

Businesses interested in participating can visit tlcmonadnock.com/4ward for more information.

In response to the economic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, TLC developed 4WARD—a crowdfunding-based initiative that can be rapidly deployed in communities to support recovery. 4WARD enables residents to contribute to local businesses and organizations through online transactions.

The purpose of TLC 4WARD is to help rural communities recover more quickly and completely from the COVID-19 crisis. Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, this initiative is based on TLC’s recent Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project. This research concluded that the TLC crowdfunding platform is an effective tool for stimulating financial and social capital in the communities that use it.