Just heard about this excellent micro fundraising idea #CharityNinjas which was started by the comedian Jason Manford.. there is a FB page too but they promote small UK charities struggling to reach crowdfunding targets on #JustGiving and encourage people to swoop in and donate £2 and they reach the target in hours. Nominations and more info on this page https://thecharityninjas.co.uk/ #charity #donate #UKCharity #GoodNews

Don't mean this to be a rant.. but I don't think people realise how bad the funding crisis is in the UK for #UKCharity #CommunityBusiness and similar organisations doing great work. Increased costs of wages, National Insurance, energy bills, equipment, food at a time of increasing need and massive reduction in donations and grants available are all creating a real shit storm. Some funders are significantly changing priorities which means, in our case, we can no longer apply to some who have always supported us in the past. I know of several previously very successful organisations currently close to bankruptcy. We are OK ish for the next 6 months and have a good chunk of regular income from long term room hire which helps pay rent, bills and wages for our office manager.. but getting money for staffing is increasingly hard. The timescales involved in applying to some of the larger funders are a big factor too. The UK Lottery Community Fund take 16 weeks to make a decision and you can't apply until current funding is nearly finished. We are losing a key staff member soon - he's got a job elsewhere as his funding runs out end of this month and we don't yet know if we have Lottery money to pay his wages after that.

Moving away from #mailchimp for the community project I run and want something Europe based.. looking at #Brevo #Mailjet which both look fine and free versions will be more than enough for our needs..but just spotted #Systeme too which has email marketing but many other features which may be useful in the future. Any thoughts or comments from people using any of these. Only need it for general sporadic emails to our business and community supporters about events and news for now .. but may want to sell things like seeds, plants, recipe books, upcycled fabric things at some time in the future. #UkCharity #nonprofit #communitybusiness