Freegle Funding Group Report 2017 01/07

Freegle Funding report 11/01/17 – 04/07/17, covering messages 824 - 1024

We have 50 members as at 04/07/17, anyone else very welcome! Topics discussed as follows:

• Following the last report, Mark (Bath) offered to do affiliate, online marketing offers which fit with the Freegle ethos, which he would undertake on a commission basis. The challenge is to find something both appropriate and cheap, which we could do without using a bridge site.

• An application went to the Transform Foundation for £18k, work done by Jacky and Edward. They notified us that they will shortly be launching another project for smaller organisations which might suit our scale of operation better, and we will be welcome to apply.

• Jacky continues to forward 3 funding newsletters to the group – Green Grants machine newsletter, j4b Community Funding and one from Funding Central.

• Dominic told us of Small Charity week social media competitions, but it was felt that it was tricky and the top prize (£450) was too low to warrant the effort of getting people to vote for us.

• The Digital awards application didn’t get through, but is on a google spreadsheet (from the links section of the funding group on freegleinfo drive) to save us reinventing words for every application. Thanks to Jacky.

• David sent through details of funding training courses, suitable for a volunteer.

• Some work was done on business cards, and how printing them for individual groups could be managed. Edward has since included the possibility on FD that members can order them, and volunteers send them out. Groups are notified when a member orders some cards.

• At about the same time, Edward introduced the idea of introducing a donation thermometer. Liz and Dominic both suggested forms of wording, which Edward is going to experiment with. We also discussed how fundraising targets per group should work; the initial results were very positive, showing nearly a doubled donation rate, and some quite large donations (£40/£50) to make up a group’s total. Jackie will do thank you emails for significant amounts, with Liz as back-up if necessary.

• Edward, Chris and Liz helped Louise with an application for Kendal Freegle and a small grant was made.

• Mhairi created a draft role description for a Fundraising volunteer, and received suggestions. It's a Google doc and was put on Fundraising Whiz, but we have as yet had no volunteers, although one did look promising.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CrGswri50UOgu6kl_YmcVTWYjehk6OeVQuyq5GhqZ4/edit?usp=sharing

• Uber partnership – following poor publicity, it was decided not to proceed.

• Chris suggested a Freegle limerick competition, which brought in a few entries, now on the wiki http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Limericks_and_Poems.

• Liz from Enfield had found some information about grants in Cambridge, but the deadline was passed.

• Edward had been contacted by Savoo, offering a new route to lots of potential new supporters.

• Dominic suggested an approach should be made to the national Waitrose fundraising scheme http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/inspiration/community_matters.html . David drew our attention to the plastic bags schemes run by other retailers ( Tesco, Asda, Morrisons etc). Chris emailed details of the Co-op Local Causes fund, deadline 08/08, which he also put on central https://causes.coop.co.uk/

• Dominic drew our attention to Kindlink, a donation service. At the moment, it was felt we should stick with Paypal, which is much more established. https://www.kindlink.com/

• Jacky drew attention to Zero Waste Scotland’s Climate Change fund, which may interest Scottish groups.

• Chris discovered that as an Industrial and Provident Society, we are not eligible for Santander’s grants.

• Chris highlighted the Green Alley award, which is a European scheme for start-ups and entrepreneurs, with a 7000 euro prize. However Chris enquired and we don’t seem to be eligible as we are not for profit.

• Chris also raised the Environment Now funding, but that needs to be led by a young person. Various ideas were discussed but we lack a young person to lead it.

• Paypal – there are two ways of donating, either through the Paypal Giving fund (larger amounts and with gift aid, monthly cheques) or with a donate now button (any amount, charges fees and no gift aid). It seems that the Giving Fund yields us better results.

• Donations are bringing in around £1500 a month, although June is down. This led to a discussion about the level of reserves and how they should be enough to pay our staff commitments for around six months. Text donations are small and administered by Edward. Thanks to Jacky, the details are on the wiki http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Donations_for_Freegle

• Fundraising preference service – a new scheme being launched. Details here - https://www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk/the-fundraising-preference-service This seems to apply to registered charities only, but Edward has sent an email to confirm this.

• Carried forward from previous notes – a reminder -

Aviva Community Fund– runs a voting competition each year. Maybe we should gear ourselves up for this in Autumn 2017.

Links:

• Freegle Funding Group
• Previous report Freegle Funding Group Report - 2016 10-2017/01
• Following report Freegle Funding Group Report - 2017 07/08