Money For Moray

Money for Moray comprises of 15 members and the group runs very much on a consensus basis with no single member having authority over any other. Instead of running like a normal “board” the group uses facilitation as the means to organising and making their events work and work well.

At the start of the process, when PB was practically unheard of in Moray, they received invaluable support from Moray Council`s Community Support Unit but after a couple of early events the group decided to go it alone. They have also worked with Participatory Budgeting Scotland (PB Scotland) and the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) to gain the knowledge and skills to set up a PB exercise.

Membership of the Money for Moray team comprises representatives from Community Councils, Area Forums and the Moray Federation of Community Halls and Associations (MFCHA). The team operates on an entirely voluntary and independent basis and its members are drawn from all parts of Moray and is the only Participatory Budgeting (PB) working group in Scotland made up entirely of volunteers.

The Money for Moray team was initially asked to deliver, via the PB process, £120,000 of funding - £60,000 was received from the Scottish Government and this was match funded by Moray Council.

Community and voluntary groups in rural areas of Moray were invited to apply for between £200 and £5000 for projects that would benefit their local economy. Groups that submitted applications which met the criteria were then invited to do a two minute presentation on their project at one of two public events held in the Grant Hall at Rothes. The public then voted for their favourite 10 projects. A total of 23 groups presented at the May event, and 27 at the June event, with 17 groups being successful on each occasion.