Potted History

How it began

Once upon a time, in 2003, Deron Beal had a great idea: why not use the internet to put people in touch with each other, so they could pass on the things they didn't want any more? Yahoo had a great facility, Yahoo Groups, free to use, that gave people a platform to post messages offering stuff away. Freecycle was born, with the first group opened by Deron in Tucson, Arizona. Then the idea spread.

Skip forward a few years, and The Freecycle Network (TFN) had turned into a worldwide movement with thousands of groups, volunteers of every nationality, and millions of members. Outside the US, Freecycle was particularly successful in the UK. But there was a problem: in 2009, conflict arose between UK Freecycle moderators and the US-based founders of the company. It centred on the lack of freedom for UK Freecycle groups to develop local initiatives and features, and on how volunteers were treated. This culminated in the UK Director, Neil Morris, and at least 20 local group owners and moderators being dismissed and replaced with US-based counterparts.

Freegle is born

A huge number of emails and a remarkably short time later, Freegle was born in September 2009, and UK Freecycle groups started joining our new network. The Freegle name and logo were devised by those first volunteers and voted in to be adopted; the website was put together, and the first set of guidelines for affiliation began to be drawn up. After the Freecycle experience, the volunteers who joined together to make Freegle were clear the new network needed to be democratic and transparent, and that groups should retain their autonomy. Those principles are still a bedrock of Freegle. The organisation first developed a Constitution and got itself a bank account, then moved on to forming the legal entity of Freegle Ltd, an IPS, all the time working collaboratively with all its volunteers to support the network of groups.

Moving away from Yahoo

The legacy of using the Yahoo Groups facility as the main platform for running a Freegle group continued, although Freegle was happy to consider other platforms if new groups wished to affiliate (see Norfolk Freegle). Meanwhile, exciting facilities were developed in-house, so groups could offer members a wider range of ways to get involved (Facebook, Freegle Direct etc.).

In September 2016, a new, updated website launched, with the capability to directly host groups, free from Yahoo. Members of Freegle Ltd voted at the 2017 AGM that support for Yahoo Groups needed to be dropped, so Freegle disengaged from Yahoo by the end of September 2018. This meant every local group was now hosted on Freegle Direct, except those on the Norfolk platform. In early 2020, the Norfolk platform groups decided to move to Freegle Direct too, so the whole family of Freegle was together on one platform.

In late 2019, Yahoo announced it would effectively be closing down Yahoo Groups, so the final phase of moving away from Yahoo was undertaken. Freegle moved its national groups to the Discourse platform, fulfilling the AGM vote to find an alternative platform. Some national teams and local mod groups also moved their Yahoo discussion groups to groups.io. Archive records were made of all the messages on local and national groups that were accessible, for future reference, as Yahoo intended to delete all content on their Groups. Yahoo later confirmed it was closing down the whole Groups platform on 15th December 2020.

Coronavirus

In 2020, the Coronavirus outbreak caused us to close the website down completely for a few weeks. We were very relieved that we received enough income to survive this, and that freegling continued with enthusiasm once lockdowns eased.

One family

Freegle is an umbrella organisation for lots of independent groups. We continue to develop ourselves, and all volunteers form the family of the organisation. Although some volunteers are able to offer more time and different sets of skills to help make it all work, everyone is encouraged to pitch in and help make it happen, including by becoming voting Members of Freegle.

Legal changes

Initially we were governed by elected Reps. We were unincorporated, which meant individuals may have had to take personal responsibility. This made it difficult for us to enter into partnerships with, or get funding from, other organisations.

A committee was formed to suggest a solution to this problem, which resulted in Freegle UK voting to become an Industrial and Provident Society (now known as a Registered Society). Freegle Ltd was formed as a holding company with 3 Reps as Directors. The company was converted from a Company Limited by Guarantee to an Industrial and Provident Society on 13 June 2014, IPS Registration 32410R.

We're regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and subject to rules agreed with them. We were very fortunate to receive practical help and funds from Co-operatives UK to make these changes. Freegle UK elected 9 Directors in February 2014, and these were appointed as Directors by the Founder Members (the 3 Rep Directors) on 21 June 2014.

We were granted exempt charity status by HMRC in March 2015, meaning we're entitled to gift aid on donations. This isn't the same as being a registered charity, which means being registered with the Charity Commission - an IPS is exempt from that registration (which actually means it can't register). An IPS is nowadays called a "Registered Society".

The name Freegle Ltd was changed to Freegle on 1st June 2026 by the FCA, after a resolution was passed at the 2025 AGM to make that change.

Useful links:

• https://mutuals.fsa.gov.uk/SocietyDetails.aspx?Number=32410&Suffix=R
• http://www.fca.org.uk/
• http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Rules

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