You
know what, a big public fundraising drive can be a bloody scary ride.
Think about it. You have to open up your doors, reveal all your
problems to the public and basically beg for help. It isn't a very
good look when you think about it. The only option available is to tell it like
it is. This is how much cash we have right now. And this is how much
we need over the coming months. And if we don't get it? Well, I guess
we'll go the way of Woolworths.
Once
upon a time a charity like ours would hold out the begging bowl and
hope to fill it up with cash and cheques. Nobody would actually see the
begging bowl, so even if it remained tragically empty the charity
could put on a brave face for the world. Now things have
changed with the advent of crowd funding sites. Now we charities bare our souls
and all the world can see whether anyone cares or not.
I
don't mind admitting there was a sick feeling in my stomach when I
put together our Just Giving page. Which is here by the by. Right
here. Right underneath these words. Hint, hint!
There
was no way of sugar coating the basic message. We are running out of
cash. Fast. We are £20,000 short of making it through to 31 March 2017. And we
think we are worth supporting. And we hope you also think we are
worth supporting. So please support us.
Click.
'Publish'.
A bared soul is revealed to the world. And something else
is revealed to the world.
Oh
yeah. The dreaded 'amount raised' column. The 'percentage raised
against the target' column. And here is where the real sick feeling
settles in the gut. What if we only get £50? What if nobody gives a
damn if we survive or not? Where the hell do we go next if this idea
bombs out?
Of
course First Base is in a better position than most when it comes to knowing
we enjoy the support of our local community. £45,000's worth of
donated food every year offers pretty compelling proof. But there is
always doubt. Always doubt.
Well
it has been a week now and there is no doubt. Yet again our local
community has proved itself to be bloody fantastic. As I write this, the total raised funds on our JustGiving page are just shy of £11,000
when the Gift Aid is lumped in. Over the course of seven days First
Base's immediate future has been secured. Yet another crisis has been
averted.
It is impossible to overstate what a morale boost this has
been for everyone. Because of course this is yet another of the
downsides to going public with a funding crisis – you have to find
a way to persuade your staff and volunteers not to worry too much. As if!
I
won't bore you to death with a long list of thank you's to all of the
people who need thanking, though I really should. However thanks are
due. Big time.
Let
me start with the guys who have spent half a week living off one of
our food parcels and raising funds with JustGiving pages of their
own. First there is Neil who is a Minister from one of the churches
in the town who is very much a fellow veteran of the emergency food
game. Here he is.
Then
there is Gary who has been a food parcel client of ours in the past. If you
click your way to his site, I hope you can spare a couple of minutes
to read what he has to say. You can maybe guess how his words make
us all feel about what we do. He also helped out by going in front of
the TV cameras to talk about the time when his life was down the
tubes and he needed to come to us for his daily bread. Not many are
willing to do this. So thanks Gary. Big time.
Our
local media have been great. You can see from my woefully amateurish scan at the top of
the page how our local paper, the Standard, gave the campaign a
boost. West Sound Radio gave us a slot on the news. Border TV gave us
a full five minutes, BBC Radio Scotland nearer ten. I was
particularly pleased with the BBC interview. If you like, you
can hear it by following the link below.
As
I write this, over a hundred people have supported the three
JustGiving pages.
So thank
you. All of you.
One
donation stands out of course. £5000 from Mark Jardine. Unbelievable
generosity. I am pretty sure Mark won't want me to write much about
this. He's not that kind of guy. Well, tough.
Mark
is a funeral director and all too often over the last thirteen years
he has buried clients of ours. Young clients of ours. Painfully
young. In my mobile phone I have the numbers for almost fifty dead
people. Fifty dead clients. I should delete them, but I don't. Average age? Maybe thirty.
How? The usual. Drug overdoses. Or the gradual physical disintegration
Class A's bring to the party. Or the slow inexorable drip, drip
poisoning that is alcoholism. Or suicide when life has just gotten
way too dark. Or the sharp end of the violence that stalks to streets
of addiction.
How
many in all? In thirteen years? In a small town in the South West
corner of Scotland? Maybe 80? Maybe 100? Maybe 200? Too many. Way, way too many.
When
young people die from drink, drugs, violence or despair it is an
unimaginably terrible time for their families. These are very worst
of funerals. And sadly over the years Mark has had far too much
practice when it comes to finding the right words. The right tone. A
way to help families to say goodbye to a loved one to
fell on the wrong side of the tracks.
Well
he does it and he does it superbly. We have shared this desperate place for 13 years. At First Base, we try to stop the worst thing in the world from happening. If it happens, then Mark tries to find a way to make the
unbearable a little more bearable for the families who are left
behind.
I
guess what I am trying to say is that we share the sharp end of
things with Mark. The darkest of the dark places where things get so
broken they will never, ever be fixed. So to receive such an
unbelievable vote of confidence from Mark means one hell of a lot,
believe me.
Thanks
Mark.
I
guess that is about it for now. What was a mountain to climb has
become a relatively small hill over the course of a week. We still
need another £9000 so please continue to help us out if you can. I
am pretty sure there are a few more folk in the pipeline who are
going to spend half a week eating one of our food parcels and raising
some cash. Fancy having a go? If you do, give me a bell on 01387
279680 or 07770 443483. Or you can e mail me at markglenmill@aol.com.
And
once again. Thanks guys.
Well said as usual Mark, glad to be of some small help, least I could do
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