Eligible   |   Examples   |   Ineligible   |   Budget   |   Frequently Asked Questions   |   Contact
 

Submit your idea to get started!

Eligibility:

Donations are matched up to $500 per donor, and up to $3,000 total until the program ends. To receive match funds from the 2024 Con Edison Power Up Neighborhood Match, your project must:

1. Provide a public benefit to residents in Con Edison’s service area, which includes the five boroughs of NYC and Westchester County,  except the Rockaways. The Rockaways are not eligible because they are outside of the Con Edison service territory.  

2. Be specific to the three eligible project categories: Environment, Green Space, and Arts & Culture. Examples below.

3. Be led by a resident, informal group, nonprofit organization, place of worship, school, or business based within Con Edison’s service area.

4. Not be aimed at making private profit for a specific individual, family, or business entity.

5. Be implemented by December 31, 2024 at the latest.

6. Finish fundraising and cash out by November 30, 2024 at the latest.

7. ioby policy requires that match participants achieve a minimum of five distinct donors in order to cash out with matching funds. Here's why

8. Be specific and concrete. Please note that all ioby campaign pages must include a budget outlining how funds will be spent.

9. Fit within one of following project areas (see details below).  

10. Please note, current Con Edison grantees are NOT eligible for this match opportunity. 

11. Please note, campaigns for COVID relief are NOT eligible for this match opportunity. This match is specific to the three categories funded below: Environment, Green Space, Arts & Culture.  

 

Examples of Eligible Projects:

  • Environment - Projects that promote local solutions to environmental issues, such as:

    • Recycling or composting programs

    • Projects that promote biking, walking, and public transportation as greener alternatives to car travel

    • Green infrastructure projects

    • Tree planting

    • Environmental education

    • Environmental justice efforts

    • Projects that promote energy conservation or renewable energy

    • Initiatives aimed at emergency preparedness for climate change or building community resilience to climate change

  • Green space - Projects that make your neighborhood greener through caring for parks, gardens, or street trees, and that encourage resident use of and engagement with green spaces, such as:

    • Improving park amenities

    • Street tree planting and stewardship

    • Park clean-up days

    • Community events held in parks or gardens

    • Converting a vacant lot into a community garden or pocket park

    • Expanding and supporting community gardens

  • Arts and Culture - Projects that beautify and enliven communities with the visual and performing arts, make art more accessible to a broad audience, or engage community members in the creation of art, such as:

    • Arts education programs

    • Murals and public art installation

    • Art parades and other participatory arts events

    • Free or affordable ticketed arts events 
       

Eligible Expenses:

Funds raised as part of this match challenge can be used to cover any cost directly related to your specific project, including:

  • food and other event costs
  • event permitting fees
  • volunteer rewards such as T-shirts
  • advertising and marketing
  • materials and equipment
  • educator, performer, speaker or intern stipends
  • local travel
  • software and hardware
  • contracted services
  • consultant fees
  • staff salaries and administrative overhead, prorated for the time spent on the project.

 

This matching program is available now, on a first-come, first-served rolling basis.

Share Your Idea

Simply share your idea with the ioby team, and we’ll confirm within 1-2 business days if your project is eligible for match funding. Then you can publish your ioby crowdfunding page and begin fundraising, with support from our experienced team of fundraising coaches. First-time fundraisers are welcome—we’re here to help!  While you fundraise, donations to your page will be instantly doubled so your fundraising work goes twice as far. 

 

Want to discuss your project and see if it’s a good fit?

Contact us at Matches@ioby.org

If your project isn’t the right fit for the Power Up Neighborhood Match, you may still be eligible to fundraise on ioby without matching funds, which will still give you access to our training materials, low-fees, fiscal sponsorship, and one-on-one support from an experienced ioby Leader Success Strategist.

Share your idea to get started!

 

Examples of Ineligible Projects:

  • Social service or charitable projects that lack a primary focus on arts, environment, or green space.
  • Projects led by an outside organization that aim to ‘serve’ a community, but do not deeply involve or engage residents of that community.
  • Arts or cultural projects that are not affordably priced for the community they are based in or do not have an accessible public component.
  • Fundraising for a pool of funds to be re-granted to others or used for an unspecified purpose in the future.

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Questions about the basics of fundraising with ioby? You might want to start with ioby 101.

Who is eligible to receive matching funds? Anyone living in the Con Edison service area working on a local project to benefit the environment, improve greenspace, or support arts and culture! Individual residents, informal groups of friends and neighbors, nonprofits, schools, community-based organizations, and community development corporations are all invited to submit their project ideas. To be eligible for the match, your project must fit the specific eligibility criteria described here and your organization must not be a current Con Edison grantee.

What if I have more than one eligible project idea? It’s best to pick one thing to crowdfund for at a time. If you’re trying to decide between several possible funding needs, keep in mind that crowdfunding works best for projects that are concrete and specific, where residents will be able to see the results or participate in the project they helped fund.

How do I get approved for match funding? Simply share your project idea via the brief form here. You’ll need to create an ioby account, or sign into an existing ioby account, to do this; the process typically takes 5-10 minutes.

After you share your project idea with us, you'll be contacted by an ioby Leader Success Strategist--one of our experienced in-house fundraising coaches--within 1 or 2 business days. They can confirm for you if the project idea you shared is eligible for matching funds, or ask questions if we need a little more information. If you’re fairly confident your project fits the eligibility guidelines, feel free to begin building a fundraising page immediately after sharing your idea, or you can wait to hear from us.

If I’m approved for match funding, am I guaranteed to receive a specific amount?  No, this is a challenge match, not a grant. Your team needs to raise a dollar to receive a dollar, and no amount of match funding is guaranteed in advance. If you begin a campaign, but then stop fundraising for several months, there is no guarantee that match funding will still be available later. Funds will be distributed on a first-come basis to all participating campaigns, so that funding flows toward projects with the most urgent funding needs and the most active teams.

How do I know if match funding is still available for my project? When you share your project idea, your ioby Leader Success Strategist will alert you in the case that match funds are running low and you may not be able to access the maximum amount; then you can decide if you would like to go forward with fundraising or not. If you are already participating in the Power Up match, but have not yet met your fundraising goal, ioby will alert you when match funds begin running low.

Why shouldn't I just set a really big goal and hope for the best? You will only receive match funding equivalent to what you raise, so we encourage you to aim for an amount of funding that fits your team’s fundraising capacity and immediate budget needs. Also, it makes crowdfunding more difficult to set a larger goal than you have a plan to reach, because donors are less likely to give to campaigns that don't look likely to meet their goal. Our webinars, campaign planning tools, and your Leader Success Strategist can all help you set a goal that fits your team size and fundraising plan.

What if I use up all the match funding I was originally planning for, but want to keep fundraising? Great! With ioby’s flexible finish policy you can always raise your goal mid-campaign if needed. If you hit the $3,000 match cap, you are also welcome to keep fundraising additional unmatched dollars.

What happens if I don’t meet my goal? Our trainings and one-on-one support are intended to give you and your team the best shot as success. However, if you fall short of your goal, you'll still keep anything you raised and equivalent match funding. When you close your campaign, your Leader Success Strategist will ask you to adjust the budget on your page to show how you’ll use the smaller amount of funds toward your project.

Are donations of any size matched? Match funding is meant to make it easier for you to reach out to your networks broadly to ask for donations, and not meant for doubling just one or two large gifts. For that reason, we’ll only be matching up to the first $1,000 of any single donation. There is no minimum donation size that can be matched.

When will I receive match funding?  Donations to your ioby campaign page will be doubled instantly as people donate to your page. When you decide to close your campaign, you’ll receive a check for one lump sum--the total you raised including any match funding that was applied to your campaign. ioby’s super-low fees will be retained from that total.

Can check donations be matched?  Yes. It's not standard practice, but if you have a donor who prefers to give by check instead of credit card, they can send their check to ioby to be applied to your campaign. ioby's donation processing fee of 3% also applies to check donations, and check donations are able to be matched. We won’t be able to match a check donation until we receive and process the check, whereas online donations are matched instantly.

How long will match funds be available?  This will depend on how many projects participate, and how quickly they fundraise. Funding will be distributed on a first-come basis as participating leaders fundraise.

What reporting is required later if I participate? Reporting for this program includes completion of a required online survey, which you complete at the end of your fundraising campaign. It should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. In that survey, we'll ask you when you plan to implement your project. We'll follow up with you shortly after that implementation date to ask how things went, and invite you to share any great photos or stories from your project.

 

Budget

 

How much match funding can I receive on my campaign?  $3,000 is the maximum amount that can be applied to any campaign in the Power Up Neighborhood Match. This cap helps ensure that multiple projects will have access to funding.

What if my project is small and I don't need $3,000? Or what if I don't think I can raise that much?  That's totally fine! This program is appropriate for small-scale grassroots projects and ioby has lots of experience supporting smaller campaigns. You are not required to try to use the full $3,000 in match funding.

Should the goal I set on my fundraising page include the amount of match funding I hope to receive? Yes. For example, if you need $6,000 to implement your project, your public goal on your page would be $6,000—you would only need to fundraise $3,000 of that goal, which would be doubled as you fundraise.

How does match funding on ioby work? When you are fundraise on ioby with match funding, donations to your campaign will be doubled instantly, so you move toward your goal twice as fast. So if someone donates $25, your page will reflect a donation of $50!  

Your page will continue to accept donations after your goal is met and you can raise your campaign goal at any time. You are always welcome to raise more (unmatched) funds beyond the maximum match funding cap, and you can keep whatever match funds you earn even if you raise less than the cap.
 

For example, here are some possible budget scenarios:

*Minus ioby fees

Your original goal: $4,000

You raise: $2,000

Match funding added: $2,000

Total disbursed at end of campaign: $4,000*

 

Your original goal: $4,000

You raise: $1,000

Match funding added: $1,000

Total disbursed at end of campaign: $2,000*

 

Your original goal: $6,000

You raise: $3,000

Match funding added: $3,000

Total disbursed at end of campaign: $6,000*

 

Your original goal: $23,000

You raise: $20,000

Match funding added: $3,000

Total disbursed at end of campaign: $25,000*

*Minus ioby fees

 

Questions? Please email Matches@ioby.org

 

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