Raising Funds

I am proud to be a Rotarian, albeit a serial underachiever due to work time restricting my freedom to attend meetings. Rotarians raise enormous sums of money both at the local level, such as my Dursley Rotary Club and through Rotary International. The Jessie May Trust, GL11 Community Project, Acorns, Yercombe Lodge and Cotswold Care Hospice are all currently benefiting from the Dursley club’s activities.

Amateur fundraising is impressive but as charities grow, the need for a professional approach becomes essential. The Wildlife Trust needs £800,000 a year to carry out its core work protecting Gloucestershire’s wildlife for Gloucestershire people. This is no minor challenge and needs a very organised and hard working team to keep the funds flowing.

When we want to carry out ambitious, cutting edge work, the costs are quite scary. My current challenge with the team is to safeguard the future of the water vole in the Cotswolds. To employ expert staff to do this for the next five years will cost over £0.5M! If we take no action we could end up like Cornwall, which has lost its whole water vole population.

I recently met the creative minds of Square Peg with my team. This specialist agency is advising us how to explain the mysteries of isolated water voles populations, habitat fragmentation and predation by unwanted foreign mustelids, into plain English. We know what we want to do and how it will prevent the water vole becoming extinct along entire reaches of the Rivers Leach, Evenlode, Windrush and more. If we take no action the future for the friendly and harmless little Ratty, the character from Wind in the Willows, is bleak.

If a rich and prosperous county like Gloucestershire does not take action to protect a rapidly declining mammal, we do not have any right to expect third world citizens to defend the Tiger, Rhinoceros or Panda. Creativity and professional fund raising can make all the difference between success and failure. But we all share a responsibility for keeping the county the wonderful place that makes it such a joy to inhabit.

Water vole (c) Paul Gregory