Funding Group Report - 2015 09/10

Freegle Funding group report Sept/Oct 15

(Posted on Central 23rd October 2015 [1]

Very busy period for the group, we had a few new members and lots of discussions summarised here:

Facebook Windows Upgrade Your World Voting

Edward spotted this opportunity to win £32,000 for Freegle. A lot of work in the funding group went into devising admins, making short links, adding reminders on Freegle Direct and nagging our membership to use social media to vote for us. Very happy that we won, despite the slightly disappointing fact that only about half the groups in the country actually sent out the admin. We have collected a lot of nice quotes from members which we can re-use in future applications; these are grouped in a document, still being worked on.
(Press Release Upgrade Your World 15/10/15)

Freegle Mobile App in-app Purchases

It was discussed that the Freegle app might be a good way for users of the app to donate money to Freegle. The options might be:

• A - Free app has in-app donation option
• B - Free app has adverts
• C - Free and paid version of app, with same functionality but nag in free version
• D - Free and paid version of app, with extra functionality in paid version
• E - Free and paid version of app, with same functionality but ads in free version
• F - Stay as we are with free app, no in-app donations and no ads

Option (D) would/might have repercussions elsewhere in FDweb and widespread discussion on whether we should charge for any services.

Apart from (F) option (C) would be the easiest to do.

Option (E) might raise the most money - but ads might be unpopular.

App users might expect more functionality in a paid version, but it is common to have a paid-for version that removes ads/nag. If we get a grant to improve things, funders may actually like it if we can show that we are looking to have a revenue stream in future.

Ads v Donations

Discussion regarding if the best way to collect funds, either by donations or paying not to have advertising. Edward ran a survey on Edinburgh which showed 64% for ads v 36% for donations.
From our current appeal for donations on FD we're getting an average of about £20 per day, so about £600 per month. Possibly we could probably double that with some tweaking.
FD gets about 1.6 million page views per month. Based on estimates, prominent banner ads could raise roughly £1400 per month.

Tips from a professional fundraiser

Edward reported on some ideas received for Freegle future funding from an Oxfam fundraiser. These are being considered.

Funding – grant applications

There are a lot of grants we might be able to apply for.

Chris Cant has identified the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, next deadline is 30/11.

It has been suggested that we start a spreadsheet of possible grant making bodies, deadlines and contacts made. This is still under discussion, as is the idea of employing a part time fundraiser to either apply, or research opportunities and apply.

Other funding ideas

• Development of a 100 Club – Liz (Lewes) to research.
• Selling unwanted items to raise money for Freegle – felt this would be difficult to do.
• Use of specific search sites – felt better to concentrate on Give As You Live.

PayPal Gift Aid procedure

A glitch was identified and is being raised with PayPal.

Link: Freegle Funding Group