Bristol social enterprise Represent has kicked off its crowdfunding campaign to support its mission of improving diversity, inclusion and equality in the region’s creative sector.
It has set a target of £15,000 and is offering a range of rewards for supporters with pledges of support starting from as little as £10. 
Other rewards include Represent t-shirts, inclusion in promotional campaigns, databases mailers, newsletters and social media, all the way up to a £5,000 Gold sponsorship package to fund 12 months’ of Represent activity across Bristol and the South West.
Founders Joanna Randall and Liz Gadd are committed to tackling the lack of diversity in Bristol’s fast-growing creative sector which takes in advertising, design, web/digital, public relations, media, publishing, social media, film, television and animation.
Money raised will support outreach work to raise awareness of careers and opportunities in the creative sector.
Joanna, who runs Bristol PR agency Purplefish, said: “Since our launch we have been overwhelmed with offers of support and help. However, in order to really start to make a change to address the lack of diversity in the creative sector we need to do more work to get out and about to talk to schools, community groups, parents, teachers, students, charities and employment organisations.
“We’re really excited about our crowd funding campaign as it’s a great way for the public to get involved from as little as £10. There are also rewards tailored to local businesses who we will be targeting to support us with higher donations.
“Represent has been set up to benefit the whole of the Bristol community and this campaign is a way of sharing what we’re doing and giving other people a chance to support the vital work we’re doing to make a tangible change for the future.”
Bristol’s creative sector employs 15,900 people and is vital to the prosperity of the city. Yet despite Bristol boasting a rich cultural diversity, its creative businesses do not reflect this.
Represent has already gained the support of the city’s key media organisations including Bristol Business News, Ujima Radio, Bristol 24/7, Bristol Media as well as the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
The crowd funding campaign is being run by Bristol based Fundsurfer. Click here to pledge to the project
you can go to www.fundsurfer.com/project/represent
