AGM Board Annual Report 2025
Freegle Annual Report 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025
Board of Director's Report
Together we have made an incredible effort that has resulted, over the past five years, in 65,859 tonnes of reusable items successfully being diverted from languishing in landfills.
To truly grasp the scale of this environmental achievement, here are some compelling comparisons that illustrate the significant difference this has made.
It is comparable to the weight of nearly 5,500 double-decker buses. Lined up, this fleet of iconic vehicles would stretch for miles.
It is comparable to the amount of waste dispose over a year by nearly every single household in a city the size of Norwich. To put it another way, this tonnage is approximately 10% more than all the residents of Oxford dispose of in an entire year.
If you prefer the comparison to be on an annual basis, it is comparable to the waste disposed of in towns such as Penarth in Wales, Bearsden in Scotland, Newtownards in Northern Ireland, or Hitchin or Lichfield in England.
This achievement has had a significant economic impact for the people who have received items from Freeglers: in total £46.83 million pounds worth of benefit over the past 5 years. It has made a big difference in many people’s lives. That’s not even counting the economic benefits for the Freeglers who are giving things away! There are further important social and health benefits for both the people gifting and those receiving the items.
The environmental benefits of keeping 65,859 tonnes of reusable items out of landfill over the last 5 years are significant. Freegle's users have averted the emission of an estimated 33,756 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
To put this in the context of everyday life, this reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is comparable to taking approximately 24,000 cars off UK roads for an entire year! We clearly can be proud of what we are achieving as an organisation.
At the forefront of this work are our volunteers who moderate the hundreds of local Freegle groups. It’s your work which makes things happen in your community.
The attached reports from our national teams detail the amount of work which goes into supporting this immense effort.
Thank you to everyone who has played a part in this heroic effort! It is an amazing result. Everyone’s efforts have made a contribution in reaching this level of success! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
While it is great being able to look back at what we have achieved, we need to look at the present and to the future of Freegle.
Freegle is at a crossroads.
Our working practices are based on what we inherited when we formed Freegle back in 2009. We now have 29 teams, many working in isolation of each other. We are a complex organisation that many of our volunteers find hard to navigate.
We are a small and declining group of mainly volunteers. Many of us have been working on reuse issues for the past 20 years. We started in 2009 with around 1,000 volunteers, now we have some 350 and out of those, only 250 or so are active on a regular basis. This indicates a need to ensure that we are getting the best use out of our volunteers’ time, the need to recruit some more, and to look at other ways of working which aren’t so labour intensive.
Funding is increasingly tight. We also need to live within our means, rather than relying on windfalls of money coming in from Paypal. We have cut our budget for the 2025-2026 year to bring our expenditure closer to our outgoings.
One of our greatest risks is that Edward, our hardworking Chief Technology Officer (and former Chair), falls over. This is a huge risk, and one that is often underestimated. To put it bluntly, if Edward falls over there is significant risk to the organisation. While this risk was probably underestimated in recent years, an increased priority is being placed on reducing the impact on Freegle. Unfortunately it isn’t something we have solved to date.
During the year, we saw the impact on our work when Cat Fletcher, our National Media Spokesperson, experienced a house fire. While it was incredibly traumatic for Cat, it also impacted Freegle. Cat got through, as did Freegle. Things do happen and we need to be prepared for them happening in the future.
We need to change the way we work.
During the year covered by this report, the Board started a strategic review. The review demonstrated the extent of the change that is needed, including a simpler, more responsive management structure.We have started the process of this by establishing an Operations Team. But this is just the start, and we need to bring about more change so we can tackle the challenges we face.
We have to be honest. If Freegle doesn’t change, we won’t be here for too much longer. Our user numbers will drop off, the amount of reuse that is happening will decline, we won’t have the people to run the organisation and our local groups, and funding will decline.
We are going to be on quite a ride of change in the next couple of years. Many of us went through such a ride when Freegle started in 2009, and we did it again when we left Yahoo groups. Please hang tight and let us together go through to our next stage of development. Your involvement in helping us get there is going to be vital.
We have an incredible base to build on. The foundations are getting more solid. We have an established 16 year track record and we have a huge amount of potential to deliver an increased amount of reuse.
To conclude this report, the Board would like to thank every one of our volunteers and our team of paid contractors for your involvement in helping us achieve the amount of reuse we have over the 2024-2025 year.
Neil Morris
Freegle Chair
AGM 2025 Team reports
Ombudsman Report
We recruited 7 volunteers to serve on the Advisory Panel for this year. They assisted in dealing with the one complaint received and we are grateful for their advice and contributions in this matter.
The complaint was from someone who had been a member of a group for 6 years. This group restricts membership to certain postcodes only. The member came to notice on another matter and it was discovered that he lived just outside one of the approved postcodes. Although he lived only some 6 miles from the town and had never caused any problems during his years of membership, he was removed from the group. Sadly we were unable to persuade the group to change their mind over this matter and he has remained banned from the group.
Jeni & Kim
Ombudsman Team
Mailbox - info@ Report
The national info@ mailbox has had another interesting year with a variety of enquiries.
In the period April 2024 to March 2025, there were c.1300 'chats'. The vast majority of these relate to donations that we have received, as this mailbox thanks kind people who commit to a regular monthly donation, cheque and bank transfers, and for all donations over £20.00. Some gift aid information is also requested. It is satisfying to witness the generosity of so many members and always a pleasure to send appreciation.
We have had enquiries from people outside the UK who wish to start up Freegle abroad, Councils and other organisations who are looking for help and information, and a handful of complaints from local members. These last ones are always sad to receive, time consuming and usually difficult. Any complaints that can't be smoothed over are passed onto the Ombudsman team.
A 'typical' year, it is always interesting to log in each day to see what awaits!
Jacky, Angelika and Jools Mailbox team
Returning Officers Report
Our written remit is to run polls, but over the years this has expanded to include the administration work needed to run the AGM and Director's annual election. The AGM held in September 2024 was shortened to 3 days and the 'venue' changed to a specific AGM group on Discourse. A full voting election for new Directors wasn't held, as the number of candidates didn't exceed the number of Board vacancies, so they were elected unopposed. The AGM went well, both length of time and venue. We were not asked to organise any polls outside of the AGM during the year.
Jacky and Alison Returning Officers
Wiki Team Report
The wiki continues to provide a depository of information that helps volunteers run their local groups and the national organisation. It also serves as a record of activities in various areas of work. Always open for ideas and suggestions, a small informal team quietly keeps the wiki up to date; all volunteers are encouraged to become an editor if this interests them.
Jacky, Neville, Edward and Chris
Wiki Team
Report for Social Media Team
The Board’s decision to cut ties with the Twitter pages and the loss of the App to share pages to Facebook has reduced the amount of work needing done by the Social Media Team.
3 groups have contacted us at socialmedia@ilovefreegle.org to assist them with creating new pages to allow them to post publicity to the relatively new Bluesky platform.
If any groups would like help to restore their social media pages to full capacity or if the owners would like to help us keep a register of the Admin details please get in touch at socialmedia@ilovefreegle.org
We can also help with any group wishing to start a new Bluesky page to help with publicity.
Derek is leaving the SM team and we would like to thank him for all the work he has done for the team over the years.
Anyone interested in helping out to act as his replacement with basic social media set up skills for occasional bits of work please get in touch with the team.
Melissa, Jo and Derek
Social Media Team
New Groups Team Report
The New Groups Team launches new groups and deals with any name or area changes. The team currently has 5 members.
For the period from 6th April 2024 to 31st March 2025 14 New groups were launched with other tasks completed as well. With requests for new groups to be formed by the Freegle Board it has been a busy year.
We welcome applications from anyone interested in joining the team to newgroups@ilovefreegle.org
Jo
Freegle New Groups Team
Training group report
In the period from April 2024 to March 2025 the Training group has had 8 potential Volunteer Moderators start the training process of which 6 have successfully completed the training and gone on to become Moderators on groups all across the country.
There have been prospective trainees that actually failed to answer the phone after setting a day and time for the first session and others that cancelled training saying that it looked like being too much work for them to commit to.
We like to think that all Trainees are given a good basic grounding in how to use Modtools and also to recognise the difference between a good post for the message board and one that sadly might need to be rejected.
The Trainees are shown how to Edit a post that is in Pending so that if possible they can turn a bad post into a good one with just a slight alteration and they are also told that any changes to a member’s post must be related to the member on what they have done to the post and why. The trainees have a lot to learn in a short time frame but we do feel they get a good basic knowledge during their time with us and then go to their respective groups and 'learn by doing'.
Derek
Training Group
Support Team Report
In the year ending last March, Freegle Support had 1,712 conversations, four or five a day on average.
We no longer receive spam reports, as another way of dealing with them has been introduced. The questions come from users and mods, probably about equally. Some of each are repeat users, and the majority of both do not use our services at all. So as it is always a pleasure to be able to help other mods, any of you who haven’t made use of Support would be welcome to give us a try. We rarely hear from trashnothing users. There is a TN help button which leads to Questions and Answers and a Contact Us button.
The ability for Mods to reach straight out to Support from a chat is proving useful. Now we are experimenting with sifting the questions in Discourse Tech and ModTools category to see if we can limit the ones that Geeks need to answer. That’s a work in progress at the moment.
Dee, Angelika and Jacky
Support Team
Spammer List Team Report
Sadly Freegle suffers attempted attacks by spammers along with other organisations and individuals. The internet is unfortunately a very convenient and easy way for them to do this. Some central safeguards have very usefully been put in place by Edward to identify potentially harmful communications and posts but dubious posts and communications can still occur.
When a moderator identifies a potential problem member or message then they submit a spam report. This is then reviewed thoroughly by the Spammer Checking Team. If it is a valid submission then the email address is added to the list of Confirmed Spammers and the reporting moderator is advised. Otherwise the reporting moderator is just informed of the reason for the submission being rejected.
Courier spam used to be the most common problem. A desirable item would be offered then a member would reply only to be told that they had moved some distance away but the item could be couriered to them at a cost. The item probably never existed. Worry words will often be highlighted in chat checking and post checking so that members are not put at financial risk.
During our investigations it is sometimes possible to identify very similar emails - e.g.name1@somedomain, name2@somedomain, name3@somedomain - which can enable us to identify problem email addresses and block them before they are used maliciously. Recently the same Profile Name is repeated so these multiple email addresses can be blocked, sometimes before they cause a problem.
Spammer/scammer tactics change over time. Recent practices involve offering desirable, and possibly slightly older items. These can be computers, mobile phones, musical instruments – the variations continue. IP addresses are often outside the UK, but not always. It seems to be a fairly regular practice by spammers to send strange spam to group volunteer addresses. It is unclear what they intend to achieve with this so moderators should be very wary of such doubtful messages. Moderators should not post “what do you think about this” on Central etc. Always submit a spammer report then it can be fully investigated by ourselves. Reports are always investigated thoroughly and sometimes this can be quite time consuming.
The outcome of each investigation is recorded on our mailbox for an historical record. Additionally the reporting moderator is always advised of the outcome for their information. The number of entries in our mailbox is not a reliable way to count spammer/scammer impact because we sometimes combine banning of commonality of email addresses and profile names as described above into single recorded mailbox records.
Saira, Sheila and Roger
The Spammer Checking Team
Trustpilot Review Report
We received 11 reviews in the last year.. Five were 5*, one 4* and five 1*. The 5* and 4* reviews were complimentary; the 1* reviews as follows -
- One complaining about the ChitChat board; he wanted to use this more but his comments were being blocked or removed as others found them offensive;
- One because his account had been closed for no reason, despite his being a long standing member;
- One worried that some people join and reply just to get her address and when she will be at home;
- One because there are too many time wasters and also now worried about her security as someone else has raised this issue; and
- One because he was not allowed to post a Wanted as the group requires a new member to post an Offer first, plus he could not understand why he could not post his telephone number
Unfortunately Trustpilot changed their procedures during the year and I was not able to reply to all the reviews. This matter now seems resolved.
Jeni
Trustpilot Team
Mentors Team Report
The Mentor team mainly looks after Freegle groups where there is no local volunteer, seeks out new volunteers for these groups and also supports local volunteers on a temporary basis with moderating or recruitment. We provide mentor support to new Freegle local volunteers for their first 6 months.
We actively offer support to groups that are not being reliably moderated and may request these are declared abandoned if we can’t resolve the situation. At any one time there may be around half a dozen groups potentially causing concern.
Caretaker groups may have been abandoned, handed over by volunteers unable to continue or who were unofficially caretaking, or set up centrally by board request either to fill a gap or in response to council engagement.
Some groups are with us for a matter of days, others much longer.
Members of the mentor team past and present also act as unofficial backups to at least 50 groups.
Our team consists of 8 members:
- As at 31st March 2025 there were 51 caretaker groups
- During the year we took on 25 groups
- In the same period we handed over 12 groups to new owners
- Over the year we helped on 13 groups in various capacities, all but one are ongoing now
- We also provided short term / holiday cover to 6 groups
- We mentored 13 new local volunteers
Experienced moderators wishing to join the team or permanently take over a caretaker group can contact us at mentors@ilovefreegle.org
Jo
for the Mentors Team
ChitChat Team report
ChitChat continues to be a place for discussions about various topics. New members can get advice from older members and benefit from their experiences. There have been conversations recently about the benefits of Wanteds, and how best to avoid no-shows. It's good to see topics come up which are unrelated to Freegle, such as the BBC licence fee which has generated plenty of discussion.
Members can also post requests for help with finding a tradesman, or get advice on finding local alternatives to Freegle such as charity shops/other organisations.
Queries are sometimes responded to on ChitChat, or members are directed to contact local mods or support as appropriate. We respond to reports from members/volunteers, either removed by letting them know that a post is OK to be in the ChitChat section, or that we have moved or hidden a post. Recently a 12 hour delay has been put on ChitChat posts being emailed out to members. This is to give us time to hide unsuitable posts and prevent them being sent out.
Thank you to local volunteers who also help us with moderating ChitChat :)
Wendy, Melissa & Kim
ChitChat Team
Geeks Team Report
The Geek team is currently Edward Hibbert and Chris Cant. During this year: ● We’ve kept the lights on, and modernised the technology used in ModTools. ● We’ve supported the fundraising efforts via donations, and shifted to a new advertising provider to increase income. We are very grateful to people who help with Gift Aid, donations and thank yous. ● We’ve collected group rules and started exploring better ways to show posts and handle replies, with the help of an academic statistician. ● We’ve started exploratory work on a more modern mobile app, using a mobile developer (Martin) who supports our aims. ● As always, we are grateful to the Support and Info team for handling questions and problems and implementing a triage system for geek questions from volunteers.
But make no mistake, we are in crisis. ● Chris is gradually retiring and will be stepping back from paid geek work (though he will still be around as a volunteer). We are all enormously grateful to him for his calm and patient work over the years, which is often behind the scenes. ● Edward is spending increasingly large amounts of time and energy caring for a mother with dementia, which makes it difficult to work at all. As ever, we are very grateful for the leadership he has shown over the years.
There are enormous opportunities for reuse in general and Freegle in particular. But unless the Board, with significant support from the rest of Freegle, makes rapid and concrete progress on securing extra technical people (e.g. recruiting and paying for another geek, though that is not the only option), our service will shut down during the next year.
Councils/partnerships Team Report
This year the Councils and Partnerships team have completed another project in Wandsworth with funding from the Cost-of-Living Support Fund. With a much bigger grant, we were able to do a lot more and focussed on hard-to-reach communities in the borough. You can read the full report here.
Following on from our second Wandsworth project, we successfully applied for another round of funding to run a third project, which will narrow the focus further to working with foodbanks and community kitchens. We begin this project in September 2025.
We have continued to receive interest from councils that we have not previously been in touch with as well as those that we are already partnered with; although a shift in our focus from trying to constantly push information for councils out, to working on projects with councils has brought deeper engagement and more interesting opportunities.
Essex, Cheltenham, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Lancaster have all renewed their Partnerships with us. Unfortunately Buckinghamshire Council and Lancashire County Council decided not to renew; in both cases this was due to a change in management and lack of funding.
Freegle Bites has continued to be popular and has generated a number of leads with councils looking to work more on reuse.
As well as councils, we have continued to explore and work on partnership opportunities with other organisations such as SUEZ, Material Focus, Metrostor, local NHS Trusts, consultancies, the University of Central Lancashire, ReLondon and charitable organisation in specific areas.
In September we spoke at the Resources & Waste Management Conference about our first project in Wandsworth and will be discussing our second project at the upcoming conference this year.
National Reuse Day in October was an overwhelming success, with us being featured on the ITV 6 o'clock news in all 10 regions.
Finally, we successfully completed a series of promotional films with a small filmmaking company. Amongst others, this includes the Freegle Free Shop video and the Freegle A-Z.
Anna and Natalie
Councils/Partnerships Team
Media Report
Public engagement for Freegle UK has significantly reduced over the past year compared to the previous 15 years. This decline is largely due to personal health challenges and a reduction in contracted hours —from approximately 12 days per calendar month to a maximum of 8, averaging just 1.5 days per week. As a result, fewer events were attended, limiting networking opportunities and the capacity to initiate new projects.
We discontinued posting on X (formerly Twitter) due to algorithm changes and increasing toxicity on the platform. While the account remains monitored, it is no longer active. TikTok has been identified as a potential platform to reach new audiences, but progress was halted due to the departure of a video collaborator and personal setbacks. Efforts are underway to recruit younger volunteers through university programmes to support social media efforts, including TikTok content creation.
Facebook and Instagram remain stable. Freegle has approximately 82,000 Facebook followers, with engagement levels consistent despite not boosting posts. Insights from January to July show that fewer than 5,000 followers see posts on average. Two standout posts in early 2024 — on obsolete items and blister pack recycling — achieved 25,000 engagements each. So completely random! Instagram followers increased from 1,000 to 1,200, with a 65% rise in engagement. The audience is predominantly women aged 25–64. Multi-image posts with background music perform best.
Goals for the coming year include attracting more male and under-35 audiences, doubling followers, and producing more polished content.
Due to personal circumstances, summer 2024 saw limited activity. Thanks to Kathryn Bird for stepping in to support media tasks during this period.
Key Engagements and Achievements
September 2024:
- Attended the RWM exhibition at NEC Birmingham. Delivered a seminar on council work in Wandsworth and networked with reuse organisations and councils.
- Recognised in “The Environment 100” list for influence in the waste industry.
- Brighton Freegle Free Shop won Highly Commended at the BBC Make a Difference Awards. Coverage included BBC Radio Sussex and local press.
- A short film about the Free Shop was produced by Natalie and Anna.
October 2024:
- Participated in CIWM’s forum at Arup London on circular economy, with strong networking outcomes.
- Filmed with ITV for National Reuse Day, broadcast nationwide.
- Delivered a talk at the Climate Women event in Brighton.
November 2024:
- Lectured and mentored students at Brighton University’s Global Challenges Project.
- Joined a Lottery-funded Climate Action programme with £8,000 funding for pop-up Free Shops in Brighton & Hove.
2025:
- Delivered a talk at Roedean College for Climate Action Week, receiving positive feedback.
- Partnered with IKEA HQ for Slow Fashion Week, redistributing 70kg of clothing and establishing a valuable contact ahead of a new store launch.
- Recruited a Defra volunteer to help develop a Learning & Development Volunteer Day at Freegle Free Shop.
- Mentoring others to run pop-up Free Shops, with a pilot in Peckham (Sept–Dec) in partnership with a food bank.
- Completed six live BBC Radio Sussex interviews on environmental topics. Am always introduced as Cat from Freegle and manage to get a plug in for us :-)
Cat
Media Director
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