In August this year we announced that the future of Exchange was in doubt and launched a campaign to #SaveExchange by becoming Bristol’s first Community owned Live Music Venue. Although the venue was never under immediate threat, the three directors of Exchange decided the long term future of Exchange could not be guaranteed without investment and involvement from people outside of the current ownership group. Therefore the decision was taken for Exchange to become a Community Benefit Society and to launch a Community Share Issue to raise £250k to help secure the long term future of the venue.
From September 2018 the people of Bristol, music fans from across the world and social investors were able to buy Community shares and became co-owners of the venue. On 26th October we reached our minimum target, and five days later at the end of the campaign we had managed to hit our maximum target of £300k with over 400 people buying Community shares.
If you are interested to find out more about why we chose to run this campaign, what a Community Benefit Society is / how Community Shares work and how we plan to spend the money raised then you can still read our Share Offer Document by clicking this link.
As of 1st November 2019 membership to the Community Benefit Society is closed until such point we can consult with our members on how best to manage future membership. In the meantime you are welcome to consider becoming a Friend of Exchange.
SAVE EXCHANGE PRESS
Bristol Live Magazine Interview
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank everyone who invested, became a Friend of Exchange and helped promote our Community ownership campaign. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the following companies and individuals who helped assist us.