Fundraising
After your first few successful sessions you may consider applying for a grant to enable you to develop your community repair group.
Before you start…
Record your success: It is useful to keep a record of your impact in the community to support funding applications. This could include the number and satisfaction of attendees, categories of items brought for repair, the repair success rate and even carbon savings. Keep data anonymous so that you don’t breach GDPR legislation.
Open a bank account: Most banks require a Constitution and two or three signatories who are members of the repair group. Often, groups find the ‘Clubs and Societies’ bank account the most appropriate and easiest to open.
Consider why you need funding: Is it for venue hire, tools, PAT testers, training or publicity? Most providers prefer to support a specific purchase. You may need to provide quotes to the funding body and prove your plans are sustainable for the future.
Ideas for funding
- Your local Parish, Town or District Council. Most councils offer a small grants scheme that can be completed online.
- Councillors’ Divisional Funds. Speak to your local councillor at district or county level for the area you operate in.
- Waitrose ‘Community Matters’ scheme or similar supermarket/building society schemes. Ever been given a plastic token in the supermarket to ‘vote’ to support a community group?
- Rotary/Round Table and Lions all donate to worthwhile community projects.
- Sponsorship from businesses and organisations. This could be a cash sponsorship or material sponsorship (e.g. donated tools or printing services).
- National Lottery Awards for All Community Fund. Application is online and this fund requires evidence of a repair group being community-led and benefitting the wider community.
- Donations at your event. Most people are very grateful for their repairs and are happy to donate some cash to help support future events!
However, our best advice is to speak to another community repair group and get their first- hand experience.
We can help!
Whether you're just starting a new repair group or you've been running events for a while, we're here to share our experiences and offer support. Simply get in touch with your nearest network member and let them know what you need.
