Yesterday I had a really helpful conversation on zoom with Amy Meek from the charity and organisation Kids Against Plastic (their instagram), where she offered a lot of advice and information to me about how she and her sister started Kids Against Plastic, and how I can go about starting and growing my Rewilding project.
During the call, I was able to ask Amy the biggest questions I had about starting up an initiative which I really hope will grow and expand to be on at least a similar scale as theirs is. One of my key (and first) focuses was funding, and where they got their funding from in order to grow their community and become the successful organisation they are now. Their funding was much more ‘organic’ than I had envisaged, and grew slowly over time, and wasn’t actually one of the first things that they looked into. But she was able to recommend a few locations to me (and agreed with the Patreon account idea), such as Geovation, who can provide funding for organisations, as well as mentoring for how to get the most out of the funding that you get and to make your organisation as effective as it can be. Additionally, she recommended achieving charity/Not for Profit/NGO status, as this makes people more willing to donate to your campaigns etc. Finally, she also recommended Investors in Community, through which you can connect and work with businesses and organisations in your local area, and they are able to donate, volunteer, and volunteer hours or skills towards your project, and helps it grow in your local community.
The importance of investing in the local community was also something that she stressed, as that is something that they focus on, and helps to grow your organisation – even if it is only slowly and in a small way to begin with. Also try and do as much ‘face to face’ and get out physically as much as possible, as people are more likely to engage with a physical project/activity that they can see and be a part of, rather than a more perforative one which is largely online based.
In terms of social media and publicity, instagram and their website are their main channels – with the instagram being a kind of signpost for their website, which is where all of their resources, information, opportunities, etc are posted. They were featured on Instagram’s own account, and she did say that she may be able to put me in contact there in the future, which would grow the size and following of the project.
Finally she gave me a few other helpful links and contacts, who may be very interesting to talk to and work with for my project, such as:
Overall, it was a really successful and useful conversation to have, and has got me very fired up about starting my project properly!
