Wild Things has suffered a huge financial crisis as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. The organisation has never been run to make a profit, and as a result, we live very much month-to-month, earning just enough to cover the cost of running our activities, with no financial assistance. The lockdown, which happened in March with pretty much no notice, caused financial stress for so many of our families and we reacted immediately this. We offered an enormous reduction in fees to all those who were affected financially, whilst continuing the high level of tuition in Dance, Drama and Singing that we always deliver, albeit virtual. The result was devastating.
We, like everyone else, didn’t anticipate just how long the lockdown would carry on for and we weren’t able to sustain such minimal income. In order to avoid folding, amongst many things, Chief Executive Nancy Monaghan chose not to take a full salary during the pandemic, a short-term and unsustainable situation. The continuation of Government restrictions means that, although we have managed to safely return to face-to-face Drama classes, Wild Things is in a constant state of near-closure, as income is drastically reduced and costs up significantly.
To help solve the short-term financial shortfall, we set up our Covid-recovery Crowdfunder. We estimate that we are losing approximately £3,000 per month and at first, aimed to raise £5,000 to help us to continue operating for a couple more months, whilst we became familiar with the brand-new world of grant funding, which we are hoping will be a new source of income for us and a way to focus our values into important work within our community.
We have been overcome by the response to the Crowdfunder, which to date (time of writing 28/10/10) has raised over £7,500. This was helped along by a match-funding of £2,500 from the Natwest ‘Back Her Business’ scheme – set up to support women in business. As a result of the success of the Crowdfunder so far, we have had an extension of 2 weeks given to us in order to try and raise our stretch-target of £10,000. This would allow us to secure the running of Wild Things until the end of 2020 – buying us more time to access the grants that we are in desperate need of.
We can do it, we know we can.
A huge thank you to all those of you who have supported us so far. We honestly couldn’t have survived without it.
If you would like to donate to our Crowdfunder, please click this link https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/covid-recovery-fund