City Farm’s Christmas wish comes true as Appeal reaches £50k target
It seemed an impossible task but with the truly outstanding support, hard work and dedication from visitors, staff, members, local businesses and local media, Windmill Hill City Farm has reached the target of £50,000 for its SAVE OUR FARM Appeal!!!
Back in August, the much-loved charity and oldest city farm in Bristol announced that it had hit hard times with outgoing finances heavily outweighing the incoming fundraising and its future was looking bleak. The charity set up the SAVE OUR FARM appeal to raise an urgently needed £50,000 to plug an immediate cash shortfall.
After a massive launch event in August which in itself raised nearly £10k, and a huge amount of fundraising activities including art auctions, online pledges, cabaret nights, an Aardman art day, farm calendars, cake making, music events - the local community has helped the farm raise the money it desperately needed to get it through to 2010.
Carolyn Hecker, head of the SOF Committee at WHCF,
"This is not the end of the fundraising road - it is only the beginning but we hope this marks a new era with a re-energised farm, re-igniting people's interest and support for what we do. This £50k hugely helps the farm get through to the end of the financial year and has helped raise our profile so that new more long term fundraising may now start to come in. These are tough financial times for all charities but this city farm is determined to keep up the fight."
Sarah Morgan of the Management Committee at WHCF said,
"This is a wonderful achievement and we hope next year will mark a new year for a new farm. Clearly there is a lot of love for this place and achieving this goal has meant we can look to 2010 with a more focussed approach. We've identified the areas that really need to find extra funding and this campaign has already helped us open new avenues for potential funds and given us a lot of hope for the farm's future. We can't thank our supporters enough for all the hard work over the last few months."
The city farm provides a range of services for its local communities including social groups for older people, activities for children and young people, sports facilities, a computer centre and an OFSTED nursery as well as providing a working city farm creating organic produce.
Windmill Hill City Farm would like to thank everyone who has supported the appeal including visitors, staff, members, local media and local businesses and look forwards to their continued support in the new year.
For more current news from the farm - you can view the latest copy of the Farm Newsletter here
For upcoming Fundraising Events and News click here.
BRISTOL’S OLDEST CITY FARM LAUNCHES URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IT FROM POTENTIAL CLOSURE
Windmill Hill City Farm has launched an urgent ‘SAVE OUR FARM’ Appeal to deal with its current funding crisis. The Appeal encompasses a number of big events at the farm’s site in Bedminster, the first of which was ‘The Big Fundraiser’ – a huge event on Saturday August 22nd.
This event was the beginning of an ongoing Appeal to raise an urgently needed £50,000 over the upcoming months. The farm recently held an emergency meeting to tell members and users of the site about its current financial crisis. If it does not raise the money it needs over the upcoming months, then the hugely popular community farm may not be able to continue.
The farm has an annual turnover of £1million and needs to raise 30% of this itself. Last year the farm fell short of this sum and has been using its reserves to continue operating as a free community facility. The charity is looking to make significant savings over the next few months as well as raise £50000 via the ‘SAVE OUR FARM’ appeal. As a registered charity, Windmill Hill City Farm relies heavily on donations and visitors to the site so the next six months will be a challenging time for the farm and its staff.
Eric Booth, Chair of the Management Committee, said:
“ We need people to know this is serious. We know how important this place is to so many people in the local communities and no one wants to see it go. We also know that times are tough for everyone in a recession, but if we can all help just a little then maybe we can breath a new life into our farm.”
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