Frequently Asked Questions 

Why are you asking for donations?

We are a charity - and are seeking donations to put down a deposit for the loan to buy The White Swan premises outright for a range of uses. This is more than a pub - in fact the pub isn't the main purpose, the pub will generate a profit which we can use for a programme of youth music and arts activities and community space. Every penny from the remaining profits, will be invested back into the community.

A deposit you say? Why are not asking for the whole amount?

We have split the whole campaign up into a number of phases. Naturally being within a London Borough, the market rate to buy such a premises is more than we felt the local community could bear on it's own. That's why we have worked on a business plan looking at the long term commercial viability, as well as exploring a range of other funding routes, such as business loans, mortgages, grants, sponsorship, lottery wins you name it, to cover the rest!

The first stage of the campaign is to raise a deposit in order to secure a business loan, and to ensure we collect donations in a compliant way, we are partnering with the well known platform 'Crowdfunder' to facilitate this phase of the campaign.

I've heard this Crowdfunder described as  'All or nothing' What do you mean by that?

Our agreement with Crowdfunder is such that they will collect and hold donations on our behalf for the duration of the campaign, which runs until the end of February 2026. If we are successful, and meet our target, all the donations will be transferred to our account and the campaign continues.

If however, we fail to meet the target, then Crowdfunder will return all money to the original dons, we're back to square one and the White Swan's future is as precarious as ever. 

In that sense then, we've minimised the risk for donors as much as possible. Either the Crowdfunder succeeds putting us is strong position to secure a business mortgage, or the money is refunded. 

Why do your crowdfunder rewards start at £300?

We value every donation, however as a charity we are governed by gift aid and charity law which limits the value we can reward our generous donors. Every donor will be honoured and recognised, but it may well be in a form without financial value.  

I've also heard you plan to run a share scheme, how is that different to the Crowdfunder?

The share scheme is planned to start after the Crowdfunder phase has finished, and won't run at the same time because it has a different purpose. Assuming a successful completion of the Crowdfunder leaving us in a position to make a formal offer to the owners, we will then be looking more members of the community to help realise the vision of the charity. The charitable structure we have adopted is a Charitable Community Benefit Society (CBS) and it's usual for such organisations to issue shares that carry democratic voting rights to help ensure the organisation acts in the interest of the entire community.

What do I get for my share?

You can only buy one share for the value of £25 and that entitles you to be a member White Swan Music and Arts community benefit society. You become one of the owners with voting rights for the future direction of the initiative, we hope you will be active and help look after the charity and make sure we fulfil our objectives.

Why can't I buy a share now?

We are delaying our share offer to join the White Swan Music and Arts  until we are confident we can reach our donation target, to secure a loan to buy The White Swan. This is to make sure we are a sustainable financially viable organisation because we ask for additional funds.

Where will the young people be?

22 The Village, The White Swan, has a basement, ground floor and first floor all together that's 5699 square foot of internal space and then there's the garden that used to house the stables. The refurbishment of upstairs and the basement will be for the charity and community use, leaving the ground floor for trading.

Who's going to run the pub?

That's a decision for our members, as a charity we will set up a secondary trading arm (another company) to run the pub, but if you decide to buy a share and be part of the decision making of how we run, ultimately its up to us?