we’re excited to announce that we’ve registered with easyfundraising, a fantastic online platform that enables you to raise free donations with every purchase you make.
With over 8000 participating retailers, ranging from your weekly food shop at Tesco,
a spot of DIY with B&Q or Wickes, Friday night takeaway with JUSTEAT or Deliveroo, and even taking out insurance on Compare the Market, there’s something for everyone!
Ready to make a difference? It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Sign up or read on to find out why we’re asking for your support, how it works, and where you can shop to generate donations.
Why we're asking for your support
“It is a safe place to go and connect, learn and be involved. If you have no family members around, in that brief moment, it feels like family.”
– Railway Gardens visitor, 2023
“If railway gardens didn’t exist, I wouldn’t get out of my house“
– Railway Gardens visitor, 2023
We’re a little project with a big impact! In two years the local community have transformed a derelict fly-tipping hot spot into a green oasis where people can grow food and connect with nature. Last year 4,934 people took part in a group, activity or event at Railway Gardens, with those taking part telling us they feel more connected, more confident, and better equipped to make positive change in the community, and beyond. 50% of on-site activities are now led by community members, who have access to free use of the site to bring their ideas and projects to life.
Many people are surprised to learn that we don’t receive funding from either the council or Welsh Government. Our running costs are currently covered by a National Lottery Grant but this will come to an end in two months, and we’re currently seeking grant funding to help continue our work. But we need your help too. By signing up to Easy Fundraising you can help us keep the site open, safe, and beautiful – and it doesn’t cost you a thing. Here are some examples of how we use the money raised:
- The ‘boring but essential stuff’: getting the bins emptied, keeping the lights on, fixing and repairing stuff.
- Heating. Like you, our energy bills have sky rocketed and take a big chunk out of our budget.
- Supporting our volunteers. Last year volunteers gave 649 hours of their time to the project. We’re committed to ensuring they have a great experience by offering them training and support as well as keeping them fed and watered at longer events.
- Growing food and supporting biodiversity. From seeds and bulbs to children’s gardening tools and bird feed, we need to your help to keep the Gardens growing!
How does it work?
easyfundraising work with brands to encourage people to shop with them by offering a donation to the shopper’s chosen cause each time their make a purchase. This is usually a percentage of the purchase – anywhere from 0.5% to 6% but sometimes it’s a bigger fixed sum, such as a £25 donation when switching to green electricity provider Ecotricity.
When you sign up you’ll be asked to choose us as your cause. You can then shop in a few different ways:
- search or browse for brands on the Easy Fundraising website and click through to the brand’s website from there to activate your donation.
- install the easy fundraising plug in to your browser (very simple and only takes a few seconds!) which will pop up whenever a website your visiting offers a donation, allowing you to claim it with just one click.
- Or if you prefer to shop from your mobile you can use the Easy Fundraising app.
It’s simple, safe and small donations add up quick. The staff team tested it fora few weeks to check we were happy asking you to sign up – and it’s working great! The average shopper can easily raise over £100/ year! We have over 1,500 people on our mailing list – if just 20% of our supporters sign up and use easy fundraising it would cover the physical running costs of Railway Gardens each year. Wow!
Most importantly, it does not cost you anything extra! The donation comes from the brand, not from you.
Where can I shop to generate donations?
Over 8,000 online shops offer donations including all the supermarkets if you do your food shop online, plus you can generate donations if you’re booking travel getting insurance, selling your car, or switching to a new energy, mobile, or internet provider.
We’d also love it if you feel you could ask your employer to consider signing up. Businesses spending on office supplies, travel, IT equipment and more can raise HUGE amounts, again at no extra cost to them. If just ten people get their employer signed up it would make a huge difference to the financial security of the project. Here’s a template email to adapt if you’d like to suggest signing up to your manager.
Obviously, being Green Squirrel we don’t want to promote unnecessary consumption or distract from opportunities to buy pre-loved, local, or independent! When we signed up, Easy Fundraising sent us an example ‘year of fundraising‘, showing how the average shopper’s donations add up. For all you conscious consumers, we’ve put together our own version showing how you could can raise donations while shopping ethically – ours is meant to be a bit tongue in cheek as we all need to buy other stuff of course, but we did want to showcase some greener brands that are part of the scheme.
sounds good...but I'd like a bit more guidance to get started
No problem! Below we’ve shared some getting started videos.
How does it all work? easyfundraising explained in 60 seconds
how to use the easyfundraising app if you shop on your phone
How to add the clever 'donation reminder' to your browser if you shop on your computer - this thing is genius!
How to install the donation reminder if you have an iphone or ipad
How to install the donation reminder if you have a Samsung phone or tablet
One more thing...can you help us boost donations?
This only works if we can get lots of people signed up and using the platform. Here are five ways you can make a big difference by championing our easyfundraising platform.
1. Ask your employer to sign up. There are loads of brands on the platform that are regularly used already by companies, such as Viking, Staples, Booking.com, Dell, thetrainline, ToolStation and Euroffice. One business could raise hundreds for Railway Gardens in a year without it costing them a penny. Here is a template email you could use to send to your boss.
2. Use your referal link. When you sign up you’ll get a unique link that you can share with friends, family and colleagues. If they sign up using your link, and raise £5 in donations, we get a bonus £5 donation! Once you’re logged in you’ll find your special referral link here.
3. Pop up a poster! Got access to a noticeboard at work or in the community? Click here to download a printable poster or pop into the office and ask us to print one for you.
4. Use your ‘stamp card’. Each time every shop will get you a stamp on your virtual easyfundraising Stamp Card. 5 stamps fills your card and earns you an entry into the monthly prize draw to win up to £1,000 for Railway Gardens. We can make £1,000 go a really, really long way!
5. Remember easyfundraising when you’re buying things like insurance and broadband or switching your mobile or energy provider as these generate big donations! Superstar Sara recently used easyfundraising when she switched to ecotricity and instantly raised £25 for us in the process. Find out more here.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and consider signing up.
We leave you with this accurate artist’s impression of Hannah’s every time she gets a notification that a new supporter has signed up.
