Our latest funding news
We are very thankful that our crowdfunder on Spacehive reached its target thanks to numerous individual donations plus the support of North of Tyne Combined Authority and Newcastle City Council. We managed to raise a little bit over our fundraising target which will enable us to buy a few more plants for the garden. Thank you to everyone who supported this crowdfunder.
More funding news: We are delighted that both the Sir James Knott Trust and Allchurches Trust (as part of their Hope Beyond programme) have provided SAW with funds to support our community engagement. The Sir James Knott Trust funding will go towards training community members in woodwork, building planters and furniture to transform our green space into a community garden. Money from Allchurches Trust will go towards staffing costs to carry out engagement and promotion to widen our project’s reach.
SAW’s Funding Situation
SAW’s core costs have been provided by the Methodist Church for the past 5 years, and came to an end in August 2020. Whilst remaining a project of The Methodist Church, we are now working to sustain our organisation through accessing other funding sources.
This continues to be a really difficult task that places uncertainty over SAW’s future, with closure remaining a real possibility. However, through a combination of grants and individual donations, we have thankfully raised sufficient funds to continue all of our activity at least until August 2022. We are continuing to raise funds in order to continue our work past this date.
SAW would not be possible without the care, prayer and encouragement of our supporters. We are incredibly grateful to all of the individuals who have already become part of our support team. Whilst we have and always will appreciate support through the giving of time, at this moment our greatest need is financial, and we need to ask directly for your help in this way. Your support will give SAW stability to develop the project further, and provide confidence that our work and presence in Shieldfield can flourish and continue.
Here is an idea of what the following amounts, if given each month for one year, would help pay for:
£5 the food provided at 6 Mixing Bowl evenings
£10 the paint supplies in our Painting for Fun class
£20 each member of the SAW team could have a tea or coffee with a community member each week for a year (that is 240 shared conversations)
£50 a community celebration event which will bring together different ages and community groups through art and social activism
£100 14 community gardening workshops which will upskill local residents and embody our research of land ownership and stewardship
How you can support SAW
It costs around £80,000 a year to run SAW, so every penny helps. There are a few different ways in which you can make a contribution towards SAW’s work:
This is through your own online banking, or by going to your bank or building society in person. If you use this method, SAW will receive 100% of your donation. You could either set up a regular payment or just a one off. You will need to complete this form to receive SAW’s account details. The form includes a Gift Aid declaration section – if you are a UK Income Tax payer we can claim Gift Aid (an extra 25%) on your donation at no extra cost to you or SAW.
Setup a donation online via Stewardship – good for anonymous donations
Using this fundraising page you can set up a monthly or one off donation to SAW. This replaces our previous JustGiving fundraiser. We now use a service provided by Stewardship to process online card payments. As with all card payment processors, this incurs a small fee (3.5% of your donation). Stewardship’s platform allows you to add Gift Aid to your donation before it is passed on to SAW, and your details can also be kept anonymous if you would prefer this.
You can help us raise small donations, at no cost to yourself, by simply doing your online shopping via Easy Fundraising. It’s easy and completely free – 4,000 shops and sites will donate to SAW when you use Easy Fundraising.
Buy art, gifts and publications from our Etsy shop
We have some lovely art works, gifts and publications for sale on Etsy to also raise funds towards our work.
Hire our building (when Covid-19 restrictions allow)
Need a space for a meeting or event? Hiring our building is a great way to support SAW as all money generated through hire charges go towards SAW’s maintenance and programme costs. More information can be found on our hire page or by contacting william@saw-newcastle.org.