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Pub campaign success prompts US launch, firm says

Natalia Goncherenko Campaigners standing outside the closed Elm Tree Inn. About 50 people and about five dogs are posing for the camera. Some are holding placards with slogans.Natalia Goncherenko
Villagers plan to reopen the Elm Tree Inn on 10 July

An online fundraising firm has said it has been inspired to expand to the United States following the success of a campaign to save a village pub.

Crowdfunder said 1,697 Americans gave money to help villagers in Langton Herring, Dorset, buy the Elm Tree Inn in May.

The pub, which closed in November 2023, is due to reopen on 10 July.

Crowdfunder said it would seek similar community projects in the US.

Villagers raised more than £550,000 for the pub, through an online appeal for donations, a prize draw and other schemes.

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They achieved global fame through a TikTok video featuring Gen Z slang, which has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.

The Elm Tree campaign was a "lightbulb moment", according to Crowdfunder's joint chief executive Simon Deverell.

He said: "Watching Americans rally around a pub they'd never visited, in a village they'd never heard of, simply because they understood its importance to community life – that told us everything we need to know about American values."

The Elm Tree Inn will have a special "Thank You America" wall with messages from US supporters, Crowdfunder said.

The firm, founded in 2010, has so far helped to raise money for 80,000 projects in the UK.

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