1st Richmond Scout Group, based in North Yorkshire, offers Beaver, Cub and Scout Sections for both girls and boys. The group are wanting more volunteer leaders to grow their group and continue giving young people in the local community experiences and opportunities through scouting.
We spoke to Group Lead Volunteer, Darren to learn more about the group after they recently received a £500 donation from easyfundraising’s Impact Fund.
Tell us all about your cause and what you do.
I’ve been Scouting for 10 years, got involved because my son was in a Beaver colony, they wanted help and then it sort of goes from there, you just get more and more involved. Then about seven years ago, I took over the Richmond group, as the lead volunteer.
In our group we currently have Beavers, Cubs and Scouts sections for both girls and boys.
What do you need funding for?
We are fundraising for new camp equipment because a lot of it’s quite old and needs replacing with excessive use. Then we’re also fundraising at the moment for hut renovations as well. We have our own building which we’re responsible for, so in the last year we’ve redecorated, we’ve had new boilers, we’ve had new kitchens. The last job that we’re trying to raise for is to renovate the floor, with years of use, it now needs re-sanding and sealing after years of kids running around on it, it’s looking a bit tired should we say.
Why did you choose to sign up to easyfundraising?
I signed up with easyfundraising probably about seven or eight years ago at least. I think I got onto it quite early.
I travel internationally for work, so I spend a lot of time at airports, so I get all my airport parking through it and raise quite a bit for the group through easyfundraising.
How have you promoted easyfundraising to your community and encouraged them to support you?
Sometimes I struggle getting parents to jump on it, or they sign up and then they forget to use it. So, I’ve put it on our website and we have parents WhatsApp communities so especially when I get new parents come in I remind them about our easyfundraising. Near Christmas I always push if you’re shopping online at Christmas, please sign up for easyfundraising because it all helps.
How will the funds raised be used (or how have they been used)?
We’re trying to replace a mess tent at the moment as well. The group’s growing so it’s not big enough and for a big canvas mess tent, it’s about £2000. The last one we’ve got is about 20 years old, so I’m constantly fundraising because there’s always something we want to do or something we want to buy.
It’s about making it affordable for the kids as well, you don’t want to price some families out of scouting. So, we’re very careful about how we price things and how we, you know, adjust subscriptions.
If we’ve got enough in our account we will then offset the cost of the camp and donate an amount per child to make it cheaper for them. Especially if we’ve done some fundraising and we’ve got money sat there because at the end of the day we’re not here to make a profit it’s about ploughing that money back to the kids to increase their engagement and activities that they can do.
What other fundraising do you do?
We do coffee morning in the town hall on Saturdays with tombola, cake, coffees and teas. We’re also doing a school summer fete, so a lot of my kids go to the local schools here and some of the parents are on the PTA and they’ve asked us to go and do burgers and teas and coffees. We have lots of other charitable people in the town, so we’re lucky to get donations from them.
What advice would you give to other such causes to help them raise as well as you have?
It’s worth doing, even if you only get small donations, if you’ve got a really big group then the rewards can be bigger. It relies on people signing up to using it, but it’s money for nothing – they’re shopping, which is what they’re going to do anyway, so from that you get a reward that’s going to go and benefit the kids ultimately.
Because the money’s unrestricted, it’s not like some funds you apply for; the money goes into your account and we can spend it on what we want. So, if we want to go out and buy some badges or we want to go and take them on a trip or we want to put it towards some other goal that we’re working towards, it’s completely unrestricted.
And it’s simple, the app’s there, you’ve got the pop-ups on your browser as well. It even reminds you that you’re an easyfundraising user if you install the plugins. It’s simple to sign up, to promote it.
Feeling inspired? Become an easyfundraiser!
If you’d like to support 1st Richmond Scouts with every shop, sign up here.
Are you connected to a cause that could use some extra free funding? Register your cause here.