In April 2020 the BBC England Data Unit and the BBC Shared Data Unit reported on pubs and restaurants turning to crowdfunding websites to survive the coronavirus lockdown.
The BBC found at least 15 active appeals on the website Crowdfunder.co.uk raising funds for pubs, restaurants and music venues to help them through the lockdown, though there are likely to be dozens more.
Some are using other sites such as GoFundMe, or are launching donation schemes locally.
The word "covid" appeared more than any other in a sample of 1,000 titles of appeals hosted on the Crowdfunder website.
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association. Stories generated by the partnership included:
- Yorkshire Live: The crowdfunders raising money to help Yorkshire get through the coronavirus outbreak 24 April 2020
- Portsmouth: The News: Portsmouth businesses facing 'massive' funding problem as they turn to the public to keep them alive 25 April 2020
- Cornwall Live: People in Cornwall are raising thousands to help us through the coronavirus outbreak 3 May 2020
- CSV: Snapshot of 1,000 projects on Crowdfunder on April 22 2020
- CSV: Word frequency analysis on April 15
- XLSX: Spreadsheet analysis of projects
- Nick Antona, chairman, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra)
- 'Tommo' Thomson, co-owner, Barge East
- Bradley and Charlotte Marchant, who run the Abinger Hatch in Surrey
- Debra Bolam, The Cottage Inn, Northumberland
- Bar chart: Word frequency in 1,000 on Crowdfunder.co.uk
You can find all coronavirus-related stories by the BBC data units tagged 'coronavirus' here