Daveyboi* recently wondered if members would like to make Christmas donations to a suitable gardening charity as we did last year.
Following lots of comments, and various suggestions, a poll was taken and Gardening Leave - http://www.gardeningleave.org/ - chosen as this year's good cause.
If you would like to donate you can do so via this JustGiving page -
http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Rogers1
- using credit/debit cards or a Paypal account. If you pay UK tax please click the GiftAid box when you donate.
If you have any problems or questions then please comment here or PM me...Flighty.
*Daveyboi has made a generous offer of a small gift to some members who donate details of which can be seen here -
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,63330.0.html
I must stress this was Betula's Good Idea
All credit must go in that direction to Betula for the original suggestion and running the just giving etc last year along with Flighty.
I only was asking if it was happening again this year ......
Thanks must also got to TonyBloke for organising the poll and to all those who gave last year
I think it is great that more people have become involved this year. ;D
Thanks for the lovely words but it takes all of our membership to make it work.
I feel very proud to be a member Of A4A.....we have some great people.
Also proud that we can in our forum name make a donation to others who hopefully will experience all the delights that we do in growing.
Good to see the forum thinking of others less fortunate in these tough times, and spreading it around a bit this year. Keep up the good work! :)
I would like to point out that the JustGiving link shows my name as I've had an account there for some time, and I certainly get no so called kudos for having my name on the webpage.
Another point is that Gardening Leave is one of nearly 7,500 charities, including Perennial and Thrive, that are happy to use JustGiving as although a small fee is charged that is re-invested to raise even more money so that the charity actually ends up with 119% of your gift as you see here
http://www.justgiving.com/about-us/what-it-costs/
Three cheers for our Four Musketeer's, hip hip. ;D ;D ;D
LOL @ Kev ;D ;D ;D
Felt I must post as I am amazed that we have raised £90 already.
Thank you so much.
All donations very welcome big or small ........it all adds up.
Oh and don't forget the lovely surprise pressies.
It feels like Christmas already ;D
Once my new credit card arrives, ( lost mine the other day) I shall make my donation and lets hope as Grawrc said before, everybody who voted, and more, chip a bit in. ;D ;D ;D
I'm going to make my donation nearer to Christmas so it feels more Christmassy to me ;D ;D
I do have a question, silly as it may seem, I have been wondering. Is there a cut-off/closing date and if there is and people donate for 2-3 months leading up to it, does the charity also receive the little bit of interest the donations must generate?
This tells you all about it
http://www.justgiving.com/about-us/what-it-costs/
I am presuming they do not hold on to the donations,I think they get passed on as they come in.I am not sure though,Flighty may know.
It is a very popular way of donating with many fund raisers.
I think this is the very best way to donate when the gift is being given under a collective such as us on this forum....we can all have a share in the fun of seeing how much we have raised.Otherwise it would be just another advert for a charity.
SamLouise the page will be open for donations until early in the New Year.
That's not a silly question at all! Regarding when the charity gets the money details are shown here -
http://www.justgiving.com/about-us/how-it-works/for-charities
Clearly if any charity didn't feel that fund raising in this way wasn't cost effective then they wouldn't do it.
Thanks to everyone who has already donated for getting it off to a great start with £130 raised. I emailed Gardening Leave to let them know what we were doing and they are most appreciative. :)
Sorted!
thanks Mike for setting this up. ;)
Oh wow...we are up to a £180 now. ;D ;D ;D
I was thinking this morning..................oh er,other half always says it is dangerous when I start thinking LOL ;D
I noticed on Gardening Leave's web site that they welcome donations for a specific item.I rang them up asking if there was anything they particularly wanted.I mentioned the amount we raised last year.
They do have a wish list and someone is going to call me tomorrow to tell me what is on the list.
I would like to see what members think about what is on the list as hopefully it could be something specifically from us.
My own thoughts were maybe a bench or something like that but have no idea what is on this list till tomorrow.
Just thought it would add to the fun. ;D
Seems like a good idea. How much did we raise last year? I've forgotten.
Around £200 Anne.I thought that was brilliant for our first effort and hopefull we will match that amount this year. ;D
Betula well done that's a great idea, and I'll be happy to go with whatever the majority wants to do! :)
Last year's total was just over £200 plus the GiftAid.
So it looks like we're on target to do better this year. That's really good.
£190 now, my credit card arrived today, can I still have 31 please DB. ;D ;D ;D
Hooray for kev's credit card ;D ;D ;D
Well I spoke to Anna today at Gardening leave.
She is so thrilled at us doing this and wants to thank you all.
They want to do there own Willow weaving and they would really like to be able to buy willow cuttings of 12 different varieties.
After they have planted the cuttings they want to purchase some Mipex ? ground cover/weed suppressant.
Anna would like to send up pictures of the project as it goes along.
So that is their main wish and it will be lovely to see the pictures of a project we have funded so no need to vote folks LOL ;D
Betula that was a good idea to talk with them. I'm somewhat relieved that we don't have to vote again, not that I did the first time round! :)
I'll try my credit card again tomorrow so unless anyone donates in the meantime that will take it over £200 plus the GiftAid.
I've donated at last which means that the total is now £200 plus £36-67 GiftAid.*
That's a grand total in just a week, so thanks again to all those who've donated. :)
*Make that £210 plus £39-49 thanks to anon anon!
Betula, thanks for letting us know about the willow weaving. Looking forward to seeing the photos :)
Well we are now up to £230........thank you all so much. ;D
This means the willow growing project will get off to a wonderful start.
I become curious about this and googled willow weaving and you can make some amazing things.
Saw some pics of some amazing archways,just right for growing lovely roses or in my imagination could see one dripping with runner beans LOL ;D
Anyone on here into willow weaving ?
Evening all :)
Thought I would give this a little bump as I am in a bumping mood LOL ;D
There seems to have been a bit of a lull. Still plenty of time to go though.
Excellent cause. As my daughter has worked for charities for several years (currently BHF) I have made a small donation to Gardening Leave and bought raffle tickets from BHF.
The total with GiftAid, and including donations inadvertently made by two members on the Gardening Leave JustGiving page, now stands at just over £330!
Many thanks to all of you for being so generous.
We are doing so well this year.We are only at the end of October.
Big thankyou to everybody so far ;D ;D ;D
Glad to know TWO people have done that!!
Shame about the news this morning that Justgiving takes a bigger cut than other donation sites (5p for every £1). Maybe we should use a different site next year.
This does really annoy me at times the bad press for Just Giving.
Yes it is a commercial organisation and it charges for it's services. However it is now a trusted and respected organisation which handles donations securely and also deals with the paperwork and claiming the gift aid.
I recently looked at another charity which is using World pay to take donations and their charges are very nearly identical to those of Just Giving.
Around £750m of Gift Aid is going unclaimed each year, according to research by the Charities Aid Foundation.
This is why so many charities actually use Just Giving as it is a very cost effective way of raising funds. Plus of course the whole concept of individuals having a fund raising page without having to create their own website etc.
We could of course elect someone to collect on behalf of A4A and then they pay the amount to our chosen charity. However the Just Giving way is much more suitable for our purpose.
However maybe we could use charitiestrust.org next year if people are happy with it.
It is a difficult one this...when I first had the idea last year I was thinking people could send cheques to me to pass on to the charity.....It was quickly pointed out to me that it was much more practical to use something like Gift Aid..I had never heard of them.....I am a real dinosaur at times :)
I am really happy with Gift Aid.....Flighty does the work on that side of it and he has been great.
I think maybe sometime next year if we do it all again we could look to see if there is a better deal but lets get this year over first. ;D
My concern is more around the security of the site and justgiving does invest in good security and systems, That doesn't come cheap. I had fraud on my credit card in Jan 2009 and sadly the only site I used that was different in December was a charity gift site, so I'm very suspicious that their security wasn't up to scratch.
Here's the article from the BBC for anyone who's interested.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11654649 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11654649)
(Betula, Gift Aid is a different thing- a slip of the typing finger? ;))
Caroline.you spotted the deliberate error then LOL ;D
Sorry to hear about your bad luck froglets. :(
A final word on Just Giving
It is worth reading this article showing why the charges Just Giving make are worthwhile ignoring to the charities ...
http://charities.justgiving.com/2009/03/09/charity-news/justgiving-for-charities/aspire-raises-100000-more-with-its-justgiving-fundraising-strategy/ (http://charities.justgiving.com/2009/03/09/charity-news/justgiving-for-charities/aspire-raises-100000-more-with-its-justgiving-fundraising-strategy/)
Now back to fund raising LOLS
Still quite a few places left on the surprise present draw .... choose your numbers ;D
Just thought I would give our fund raising a little bump :)
Christmas is drawing ever nearer LOL ;D
Just a periodic reminder of what we're doing! :)
Yes thanks everybody so much........... :)
Flighty,your periodic reminder sounds so much better than my bump LOL ;D
Well we are up to £278 now plus gift aid ;D ;D ;D
Thanks to everybody ;D
Yes well done everyone
To those of you who have not chosen their numbers yet please see
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,63330.40.html (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,63330.40.html)
Another bump ;D
Just a reminder of our A4A Christmas gift this year folks.
Christmas seems to be coming up fast this year.Can't believe November has gone already.
how much has been raised so far Betula?
We are up to a wonderful £300 now plus gift aid.
Well ahead of last year already.
I know it is a hard call for many so I have been very
touched by people's generosity..bless you all .
I know it has been said before but we all know on here
how much growing and having the soil on our hands
benefits our lives so much in many different ways..
Good to pass it on. ;D
1066 a couple of people inadvertently donated on Gardening Leave's JustGiving page instead of ours so including those the grand total is just over £400, which is more than double last year's donation. :)
Just a reminder to anyone who hasn't donated and would like to, our page...
http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Rogers1 ... will remain open until early in the New Year.
that's an amazing amount!!
Ohhh...total looks really good ;D Every year I do my 'Christmas bit' and I donate for one animal charity and one human..this year the choise was different for human one but it has been interesting one to follow how it grows up. ;D
When you give to big charities your money is just 'drop in the ocean' and it doesn't feel that you've done anything with the money. Now when I've been following the total to grow it has that 'personal' feeling...like we have done something together ;D...it is not millions of pounds but it feels like it ;D
Yes I feel like that too ;D
I love this forum and it is great for us to be doing this together. ;D
The surprise present results are in and the winners are
Electric Landlady
Flighty
Squash64
Grawrc
Deb P
Jill
Could we have an update on the total please (including the direct donations)
Thanks
With the addition of a very generous amount yesterday the grand total, which includes GiftAid and a couple of donations made inadvertently on Gardening Leave's JustGiving page, is now over £500!
Our page - http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Rogers1 - will remain open until early in the New Year.
There's just been another very generous donation made which means that the grand total is now heading towards £600! :)
Fantastic! Well done everyone :)
Still plenty of time left to give.
Well the countdown is on now for Christmas.
It has been an amazing effort from A4A and it's wonderful members.
When we started I was hoping we could at least match last year and this has exceeded my expectations by miles.
Big hugs to all ;D ;D ;D
Hi All,
Have been a bit absent recently so only just caught up with this thread (and idea).
Just wanted to say, I can not believe the generosity shown by members of the forum, while I know that your generosity in no way stems from being a member here, it makes me feel very privileged to know that this community would be so generous.
Keep up the good work :)
Dan
Thanks for the message Dan.
I think this forum that you started all that time ago is something you can be proud of. :)
Quote from: betula on December 20, 2010, 16:20:08
Thanks for the message Dan.
I think this forum that you started all that time ago is something you can be proud of. :)
Seconded wholeheartedly! Thank you, Dan. :)
Did everybody see this video?I have only just seen it myself
http://www.gardeningleave.org/
Hello please count me in on any donation you will have to let me know what to do and where you want me to send it please leave me a message and i will get back to you Cheers Rugbypost
Quote from: rugbypost on December 20, 2010, 23:21:15
Hello please count me in on any donation you will have to let me know what to do and where you want me to send it please leave me a message and i will get back to you Cheers Rugbypost
Just go to http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Rogers1 (http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Rogers1) and donate any amount you are happy with.
All donations whatever the amount are greatly welcome
Also a belated Happy Birthday from me ! Hope you had a good day
Thank you for that link Betula.
Quote from: betula on October 19, 2010, 15:16:37
Well I spoke to Anna today at Gardening leave.
She is so thrilled at us doing this and wants to thank you all.
They want to do there own Willow weaving and they would really like to be able to buy willow cuttings of 12 different varieties.
After they have planted the cuttings they want to purchase some Mipex ? ground cover/weed suppressant.
Anna would like to send up pictures of the project as it goes along.
So that is their main wish and it will be lovely to see the pictures of a project we have funded so no need to vote folks LOL ;D
Will we make a special album for these??
My Flighty's plot blog post today is titled Gardening Leave -
http://flightplot.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/gardening-leave/
For anyone who would still like to donate the JustGiving page will remain open until early in the New Year -
http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Rogers1
Well hopefully we will get piccies soon but with l the snow we have had it could be a while.
Thrilled with how our appeal has gone this year.
Last few days now folks.
We are very near the end now.I think Mike will close it on January the third so if you have planned to donate please do so soon.
Thanks again all you lovely people ;D
really looking forward to seeing the photos from Gardening Leave - will you let us know when you put them up?
Thanks
1066 :)
Just a reminder that the JustGiving donation page for this will be closing late tomorrow should anyone be leaving it to the last moment! :)
What's the total now Mike?
The grand total is around £630! I think that is really terrific as I was somewhat optimistic that we would perhaps raise £300 when we started. :)
Quote from: Flighty on January 02, 2011, 14:19:32
The grand total is around £630! I think that is really terrific as I was somewhat optimistic that we would perhaps raise £300 when we started. :)
a truly superb total from the forum!!
well done to all involved in organising this.
A really good result. Thank you organizers. Roll on the next one ;D ;D ;D.
One final bump! :)
I am going to miss this.......Thanks again everybody ;D
Yes thank you Betula for your "Good Idea" you can be well proud of the total achieved this year!!
And of course we could do it all again next Autumn ;D
Your lotto idea was inspirational and it was lovely to see how your gifts cheered people up. ;D
Our JustGiving page is now closed but people can still donate direct to Gardening Leave - http://www.gardeningleave.org/
I have to say that the grand total of £630 raised makes me proud of you all.
Many thanks everybody! :)
Just a suggestion regarding this topic.
When it is made unsticky is it an idea to have a sticky Gardening Leave topic which details of the willow etc are posted in through the months ahead?
Well done everyone!!
I've just received an email from Gardening Leave's Chief Executive -
Massively kind of you to raise a magnificent sum AND such great awareness of GL.
The official opening of Gardening Leave Chelsea will be at the Royal Hospital on 14th April - if any of you could make it, you would be very welcome to join us!
Many thanks again and I look forward to keeping in touch - As ever, Anna Baker Cresswell
I think I could make that but only if there's a group of us going. Would love to see and hear more about the work of the charity.
It would be interesting to go.
Anybody else like the idea ??
Quote from: betula on January 17, 2011, 22:23:24
It would be interesting to go.
Anybody else like the idea ??
me!