Freegle Funding Group Report 2018 04

Freegle Funding report 30/08/17 – 30/04/18, covering messages 1135 -1459

We have 56 members as at 30/04, anyone else very welcome!

Current Funding

We are now raising more than we spend. Each month:

• Around £2000 from website donations from freeglers.
• Around £500 from ads on the site.
• Around £1500 from ads in emails.
• Around £700 in other donations a month, including £600 from one very generous anonymous donor

So that's about £4700 per month.

Topics discussed on the group:

• Chris submitted results of the publicity survey.

• Liz established that Freegle UK would not be eligible for a grant from Viridor

• Jacky raised the possibility of fundraising through facebook, and there was some discussion around our eligibility. Edward sent in an application.

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

• CE Hack – one of the lessons learned included that we need to be younger and present newer ideas!

• Dominic queried whether or not local Freegle groups could tie in with other local groups with a similar ethos, and if there might be a spin off benefit. It was felt that this did not present a problem.

• Cat, with help from Edward and Chris, submitted an application to a WRAP scheme to reduce fly-tipping.

• Chris submitted an application to Cumbria Waste Prevention Fund for Penrith and Eden Freegle for £1000.

• Ebay ran their “My favourite charity” scheme again, with a top award of £7000. Edward prepared admins and publicity on this, including regular bulletins about the numbers backing Freegle. He had help from Dominic, Jacky and Ruth. We did very well subsequently when we were Ebay’s charity of the week.

• At the same time as the Ebay competition was in full flood, the Aviva awards started. Chris produced an application and a video, helped by Jacky’s suggestions. He also persuaded Naturesave, insurer, to nominate us. We were pleased to make the final, but the judges didn’t choose us as a winner. It led to a £500 award and some group owners trying to establish better links with their local councils.

• Edward spotted a funding opportunity with Twilio, and sent off a quick application.

• Following comments that social deprivation might be a good angle for us to explore for funding, Chris contacted www.poverty.ac.uk , who promised to get back in touch soon.

• At the end of November, the monthly freegle donations target was raised to £1500.

• There was a long debate about running ads on the Freegle site via Google - Adwords or Adsense. Most people were ok with it, given our funding situation. It was estimated that this might bring in £8,000 pa.

• Chris submitted an application to the Digital Agenda Impact Awards.

• Cat discovered an award from Online Centres, which Chris publicised.

• Wanda forwarded information from Give As you Live.

• There was some discussion of franchising Freegle events, as do organisations like The Repair Café.

• Jacky told us of www.beehivegiving.org, which Cat looked into.

• Edward alerted us to possible Veolia funding in Merseyside.

• Ruth told us about Smile (via Amazon) but that is only for registered charities, and also suggested that we try to attract some legacy funding, which was felt to be worth exploring but quite complex..

• We have a stock of generic Freegle A5 leaflets that can be posted out. Please email Elaine Bones on emb_398@hotmail.com to request some.

• Jacky and Chris forwarded details of a scheme being run by the Co-op that groups could apply for, but nobody responded.

• If individuals don’t have Paypal, they can transfer to sort code 60-83-01, account number 20339094.

Fundraising Personnel

Dee appealed for help with funding, aiming to find a bid writer and a co-ordinator; Chris Cant is the co-ordinator, and David Clark-Collins is the bid writer. If anyone, any group or any area would like some publicity materials, funding to run events or similar, then please get in touch with Chris Cant on chriscant@phdcc.com

Liz
Lewes and Funding

Links

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