The
art of fundraising is closely associated with the village hall. Not only will
the village hall committee need to bump up their income on occasions, the hall
is often the host to the fundraising activities of others. The charity fete,
whist drive or auction will all find a home here. Perhaps the hall kitchen
needs refurbishing so that a dinner club can use it – all kinds of markets and
minor gambling will take place to try and secure it.
Or
perhaps a grant application will be put into the Lottery or a charitable trust –
a way that rich people can sooth their consciences and avoid taxes is to distribute
grants to good causes from these trusts, often modestly named after themselves.
There are some obscure ones with fun names that will only cover a small
geographical area, and there are some well known ones with recognisable names
that anyone can go for.
I
have spent much of my career applying to these grant making trusts and know the
names and criteria of many of them practically in my sleep. So I was fascinated to come across reference
to the beginnings of one of them in a very old text. I am currently working my
way through William Cobbett’s “Rural Rides”, first published in 1830. The
wonderfully opinionated Cobbett took himself on tours of southern England’s
rural areas and reported back on what he found there – the way that people
lived, the poverty, the farming practices.
On
one particular ride, he came across the Baring estates. This grabbed my
attention because The Baring Foundation is one of the big players in the grant
making world. Here’s Cobbett’s opinion
on the whole thing:
[Sir Thomas
and Lady Baring] are very charitable; they are kind and compassionate to their
poor neighbours; but they tack a sort of condition to this charity; they insist
upon the objects of it adopting their notions with regard to religion; or, at
least, that where the people are not what they deem pious, they are not objects
of their benevolence. I do not say that they are not perfectly sincere
themselves, and that their wishes are not the best that can possibly be; but of
this I am very certain, that, by pursuing this principle of action, where they
make one good man or woman, they will make one hundred hypocrites…
Cobbett
goes on to say that if the poor people in his parish were paid properly then
they would have no need of charity, and Baring would be much better occupied if
he spent his energy ensuring decent wages rather than dishing out grants with
silly conditions attached.
Anyone
who has ever spent any time trying to secure grants for their village hall will
smile at this. Charitable trusts do still have their own narrow view of what
they want to give money to, and fundraisers can waste a great deal of time
making up new projects when what they really need is just enough money to be
able to keep up their current work.
I
don’t know if it is comforting to know that it has been the same for the past
200 years, or to feel angry and frustrated that so little has changed. If rich
people paid their taxes properly, charity would barely need to exist. Instead,
we all have to go begging to the rich and pretend to do what they say to get
what we need.
Lilian Baylis was an early "modern fundraiser" and it has been said that she treated the Old Vic theatre like a village hall. Without her skills however, there would be no Old Vic or Sadler's Wells. Download my pamphlet to find out how she did it by clicking the link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WTBN9N/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i17
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