Finance and Fundraising

Guidance for local group, regions and nations on all things financial.

• Intro to Fundraising
• Managing Your Finances
• Bank Accounts
• Request Funding From Your Nation/Region
• Fundraising Methods
• Embedding Fundraising in your Outreach & Emails
• Activities and Events just for Fundraising
• Contactless/Card Payments
• Using Donation Tins and Buckets
• Creating a Crowdfunder
• Business Cards to Order or Print
• Training and Support

Intro to Fundraising

Fundraising is a crucial activity in Extinction Rebellion. Without it we cannot make the impact and progress that we need to towards achieving our three demands and building the movement to act on the climate and ecological crisis.

Why does XR need money?

Extinction Rebellion UK spends around £500k a year on its basic activities, which include:

• Supporting a range of volunteers with essential costs, including people who support our movement through their involvement in UK wide teams. These people are essential to delivering resources, training, strategies, regional and national coordination, fundraising, etc.

• Carefully planning a huge array of national and UK-wide, attention-grabbing actions, strategies and campaigns.

• Creating and safely storing of our wonderfully iconic artful resources.

• Sharing money with nations and regions, to spend as they need. Some of this will help support local groups with leaflets, posters and other resources.

• Providing, updating and supporting our communications platforms, meeting tools, email lists and website.

• Running trainings and talks to spread the news about the climate and ecological emergency and our three demands.

• Amplification of complementary messages of our allies and partners.

The more funds we have the more effective we can be in the face of the climate and biodiversity crises. Money helps us work towards achieving our three demands and building this movement of movements.

Should you raise money for XRUK? Your Region/Nation? Or your Local Group?

Regions and Nations ask XR UK for the level of funding that they need and then hopefully there is enough available to meet those needs.

There are pros and cons to each option:

• If regions and nations raise their own funds (some areas find this easier than others) then they should need less funding from XR UK. If local groups raise their own funds, then they will need less financial support from individual rebels and from their region or nation.

• If XR UK holds funding centrally, then it can prioritise budgets across the whole organisation.

• Fundraising by regions, nations and local groups may reach rebels that fundraising by XR UK cannot.

What does the XRUK fundraising team do?

• Make grant and other funding applications
• Public fundraising using our email list and social media
• Support national, regional and local XR groups to fundraise for themselves
• Engage 'high net worth' individuals as supporters
• Remain open to new ideas!

As well as the team that works on UK-Wide fundraising for XR, many Regions, Nations, and Local Groups have their own fundraising people or teams. This book should help you to feel more confident in developing these skills!

How to get involved with the XRUK fundraising team

If you have fundraising, data processing or admin experience of any kind, or fundraising is just something that you would like to help with, then please do apply for a Fundraising role (tick the 'Fundraising' box on the left hand menu to see just Fundraising roles).

You can contact us on our Mattermost reception or by emailing fundraising@rebellion.earth.

Managing Your Finances

Bank Accounts

It can be useful having a bank account for fundraising, particularly if you want to create Chuffed fundraisers or use card/contactless payment devices.

If You Already Have a Bank Account

It is really important to make sure that the wider group (e.g. your Local Group, or Community Group) knows about the account, who is managing it and who the signatories are.

Ideally, a summary of the finances should be easily accessible to the group it belongs to, even if that is just a verbal report from time to time, or showing bank statements to others in the group. Keeping everything transparent is helpful because then it is less likely misunderstandings will occur and also adds credibility and conviction for fundraising outreach conversations with the public. If you can tell a member of the public who wants to donate the kinds of things the group tends to need money for, they will be much more likely to donate!

If the account is managed online, then the person managing the account can be a completely different person to the signatories.

Setting Up an Account

Unfortunately, it is now very hard to set up a bank account in the name of Extinction Rebellion, simply because most banks refuse to accept us. In the past, groups have set up accounts with Triodos Bank, but unfortunately Triodos is not accepting any new accounts. This could change, so it is worth checking their website.

However, there are ways around this problem, which you can learn about below.

Credit Unions and Community Banking

These may be a way of setting up a bank account for your local group. Find out more about this here.

Using your Region/Nation bank account

Your Region or Nation might be able to process your local group income and expenditure and keep a separate note of your balance. This method is used successfully by a few regions/nations already, but it does depend on the Region or Nation having a bank account, and having somebody on the regional team prepared to do the extra admin involved.

Sharing Bank Accounts With Another Group

A nearby local group that already has a bank account may be happy to allow another local group to use the bank account as well. The same admin burden mentioned above could be an issue, but generally there are not many transactions for local groups, so this sharing is a practical solution if the goodwill and capacity is there to make it work.

Individual or Joint Bank Accounts

An individual who already has an online current account may find it very straightforward to add an online savings account that could be used exclusively for XR funds. Or an individual may have a dormant bank account that could be used for their XR group.

Online only banks are another option. It can be more straighforward to set up a bank account for an individual and maybe for a climate community group.

This arrangement is not ideal, however, in that the responsibility rests with one person to look after the group’s funds.

Obviously, it is also a risk because if that person steps back from XR the group would need to ensure that the funds are passed back to XR. But many groups do work this way.

One way of mitigating the risk of a person stepping away and the group losing access to the account is for two long term members (who are not a couple!) to set up a joint account together and use this to manage to group's money. Therefore if one person steps back you will not lose access to the money and can transfer it to a new joint account with a different pair of people named.

Managing Money Without a Bank Account

There are other options if you are finding it hard to apply for a bank account, or would like to manage your money in different ways.

The Social Change Nest

A Fiscal Host, or Sponsor, is a legal entity that offers themselves up to hold funds for another group, manage the legal/financial side of things, and empower the group to get on with their work.

In the UK, OpenCollective has the “Social Change Nest”. It’s a Community Interest Company that specialises in supporting groups organising for social change. This is a great option for XR Local Groups (although please note that they charge £42 set up fee- paid after you’ve started collecting donations) and charge 5% on donations (not expenses) to cover their administration costs. They also offer trainings, support, access to specialised grants and more.

For more information you can watch this short presentation about the benefits of this system, or read more about The Social Change Nest on their website.

Request Funding From Your Nation/Region

XR Nations and Regions who are represented in The Hive (the biggest circle of XRUK) recieve funding from XRUK on a monthy basis.

This funding is used differently by each Region and Nation (because they are autonomous and self-organising), but most use it for some of the following:

• Volunteer Living Expenses (VLE) for activists who do lots of work for XR in their Region or Nation
• Regional or National Actions
• Transport or postage of regional resources to local groups who want to use them
• Running a local Art Factory (only a few Regions or Nations have these)
• Bulk ordering outreach materials to distribute to local groups
• Hosting Regional or National websites

Local Groups can request funding for projects and actions from their Region or Nation. Each Region or Nation is set up slightly differently, but money should be requested through the Local Group Coordinators circle, Anchor circle, or equivalent. If you are not sure how to contact these circles, please email LGsupport@extinctionrebellion.uk.

Most Regions and Nations have limited budgets, so will have their own policies on what they will or won't fund, and this varies depending on the Region or Nation. For example, XR Midlands tend to approve funding requests for Actions or activities that will involve multiple local groups, or are being organised by a Regional team, but don't tend to fund things that are only for one local group, e.g. leaflets for a specific local campaign.

Fundraising Methods

Embedding Fundraising in your Outreach & Emails

Fundraising during Outreach

Watch this video showing how to do outreach followed by a fundraising ask.

Then check out the Fundraising Methods pages for ideas on how to fundraise on the street.

You could also download this DONATE QR code (Google doc) It links to XRUK's crowdfunder and you can incorporate it into your own posters, fliers etc.

How to ask for donations

Whether you are on the street doing outreach, speaking on a video or writing an email, asking for donations can feel difficult! Here are some words to help you communicate and encourage donations.

• 'It’s only thanks to small donations from individuals like you that we can continue to fund actions, outreach, equipment and more.'

• 'Every single donation helps us demand change. Together, we are unstoppable.'

• 'Extinction Rebellion runs on love, rage, and donations! Give now to keep the rebellion alive!'

• 'Thanks to donations from people like you, XR UK can continue to demand change.'

• 'The climate emergency is now! We need to take local grassroots direct action to make change happen. But we can’t do it without your support.'

Asks in the build-up to large-scale actions

• 'Without your help, there won’t be a rebellion. Your local XR group urgently needs your help to keep resisting and rebelling. Can you donate now or help organise a fundraiser?'

• 'We need your help to fund the rebellion! Support local volunteers' fund essentials and you’ll be directly helping to fight back against climate emergency inaction.'

If you're asked 'What does XR UK spend money on?'

'A monthly or one-off donation helps us:

• Support volunteers with essential costs
• Carefully plan attention-grabbing actions
• Pay for safe storage of equipment
• Maintain our website and communication tools
• Manage our finances with accounting software and professional bookkeeping
• And so much more'

Importance of our Action Network email lists

Our network of Local and Region/Nation email lists all build one big XRUK email list. As well as using it for emails about actions, training and ways to get involved, this list is very important for fundraising.

Regular donors from our XRUK list provide a steady income for the movement and campaigns, particularly leading up to big actions. The emails also bring in money from one-off donations.

The more people there are on our Action Network mailing list, the more successful our future fundraising will be.

It is important for fundraising that local groups are using Action Network (rather than their own systems like Mailchimp or other systems) so that new sign ups are also added to the overall XRUK list. More information about Action Network is here.

Promoting fundraising for your Local/Community Group through your emails

Tips on linking to fundraisers from Action Network emails (see 'Promoting your Chuffed Fundraiser').

Activities and Events just for Fundraising

You might have people in your group who are up for running fundraising activities.

The following can be fun and successful ways of raising money, broadening the people we reach out to and a way of building your own rebel community by working together towards an event. Here is a shortlist of ideas:

• Quiz Nights
• Sales of of plants/cakes/artworks/crafts
• Musical or poetry evenings
• Supper clubs
• Art Blocking for donations
• Art auction - donated artwork or specific work made by XR
• Busking
• Sponsored walks, runs, swims etc.

Support

You can get training and support from the Fundraising Team or by contacting your nation/region 'Gardener' for advice.

Donating money raised to XRUK

If would like to read more about pros and cons of what 'campaign' to raise money for - read more here in the intro to fundraising.

If you decide to donate the money raised at your event to XRUK's current crowdfunder, then please use: joinxr.uk/donate-lgs or if it is a large amount, contact the Fundraising team directly by emailing fundraising@rebellion.earth.

How to enter you details to this crowdfunder

When using joinxr.uk/donate-lgs link for a larger sum of money, you could use the contact email address of your local group instead of your personal one.

QR Code to print and use at an event

You could print this out around the venue to allow people to donate directly.

Examples of successful local group activities

Nottingham 'yard sale'

This raised £345 and was donated to XRUK

Whilst a spontaneous garage sale/yard sale could work, it is perhaps even better when linked to an advertised local neighbourhood event. One rebel decided to join the ‘Lady Bay Safari Sale’ - by emptying out the contents of their loft and enlisting the help of a few other rebels on the day. The event raises money for a local school, just from the registration fees of the people taking part, then any other money made was kept by the person taking part, and in this case they donated it all to XR.

Calderdale music/poetry/club nights

The latest event raised £682 for XR Calderdale and £341 for Healthy Minds Calderdale (in recognition of the impact of the climate and ecological crisis in mental health).

XR Calderdale have held a series of very successful music nights, using a sympathetic and well known venue. These have been organised as solidarity events, splitting funds between climate action and other causes. This has helped to build community relationships, brought in very different audiences, and given us a platform for outreach. It’s also energised our group, brought in people who don’t do meetings, and given us a fun night out.

There have been two models

• a mixed night of music or spoken word performances and (short) speeches.
• A club night with DJs, and art blocking.

Elements to make this work well

• Someone with energy, commitment and a sense of what would make a good event to make the whole thing happen.
• Links with local musicians and performers (consider if you can pay a fee to them). They don’t have to be professional or famous, but if they have a local following (or a big group of friends!) that will really help ticket sales.
• Good publicity. Well designed paper fliers are needed to reach beyond the normal audience - and energy to distribute or flypost them.
• Volunteers. This is a good way to bring in people who don’t do meetings. A direct ask may be needed!
• A system for ticket sales / donations and managing the door. An online booking system can encourage advance donations and give a very vague idea of numbers.
• A date. Do your best to make sure that the date does not clash with other events that will take away your target audience or your volunteers!
• A big, clearly labelled donations bucket and someone to shake it persuasively!

The Venue

A sympathetic music venue is ideal - they will have the equipment you need and also might include your event in their publicity. They might let you use the venue for free if they support the cause - they will still get bar takings so if you pull in a big crowd they will want to host you again!

Otherwise look for a good, accessible and well known community space, preferable one with the equipment that you need on site, and a hire price that will not risk you running the event at a loss. If you use a venue where you will be organising your own sound, make sure you have someone on board who knows what is needed and how to use it!

Refreshments

Depending on the venue and the type of event you might need to organise your own refreshments. This can be a lot more work, but can also bring in a lot more money and create a more welcoming atmosphere.

There are lots of decisions and possibilities that you can consider and all have pros and cons. Eg. alcohol or no alcohol? Home made cakes? Hot food? You will have to think about volunteers to buy/bring/make the refreshments, serve them, and the equipment needed. Remember that although for some alcohol is a key part of a good night out - and may increase your donations - others (in particular many Muslims) may not come to an event/venue which serves alcohol. So the decision probably depends on your local situation and event. You’ll also need to figure out how to organise your space to serve and prepare refreshments.

Some more tips

Make the room shout ‘XR’ by using your beautiful banners and other visuals. You might need some ingenuity in hanging them up, so leave plenty of time to figure this out, and bring plenty of string and gaffer tape. (But don’t upset your venue by damaging their fixtures!) The venue may have a screen that you can use for displaying relevant visuals electronically.

Decide if you want to have donations or a fixed ticket price. (An audience that is more sympathetic and tuned in to our cause is likely to respond better to donations,, and an audience that is just there to have a good time with a fixed price).

A lot of people come out with no cash. Make sure you have a card machine or at least a QR code so that people can donate with online.

Get some good photos or videos and follow up with social media posts. Tag your solidarity partner, the venue and the artists who performed. Make sure you include your online fundraising link for late donations.

Everyone loves art blocking!

We found the club night needs a rota of firm and confident door people to make sure people aren’t sneaking in without paying.

Contactless/Card Payments

Contactless/card payment devices are very helpful for fundraising, now that fewer people carry cash. People can make payments easily using their cards or their phone and the contactless/card payment devices are very easy to use.

Obviously you need a bank account to receive the funds taken via these devices.

Organisations like Zettle and SUMUP provide the interface platform between a bank account and the payment device. For this service, they take a fee deducted from your takings. Of course, they also sell you the payment device in the first place too! Some devices that are free upfront end up taking more in the long run via percentage revenues raised by you.

Cheaper devices (some cost as little as £20) do not have SIM cards built in, so these need to be paired with the smart mobile phone of the person using the device, and that person must have an account set up for them beforehand. If a different person uses it, then that all needs to be done again for the new phone. This is very fiddly and needs dedication! The drawback of these devices is they do not work so well when mobile phone coverage is less than perfect.

Our strong advice is to buy a contactless/card payment device with a SIM card already in.

Which Platform?

SUMUP is straightforward to set up with an online account. Their Solo device, which costs about £90, has a built in SIM so it can be used by anyone, anywhere.

Be aware that you do need to:

• Answer questions about what you are taking payments for
• Give the name of the person who is content to be named as being responsible for the group
• Link to website, social media page, or other page, to show them that you are a real group

Presumably these actions deter criminals from using the platform, but also instill confidence in potential donors.

Other platforms can require a higher level of proof of your reason for collecting payments.

Raise Funds for XR UK with a Contactless/Card Device

If you want us to provide a contactless/card payment device that is set up to direct funds into the XR UK bank account, please contact the fundraising team.

Get in touch through the Mattermost Fundraising Reception channel or email fundraising@rebellion.earth.

Using Donation Tins and Buckets

You can buy donation tins and buckets online, or make your own. Metal or plastic coffee or hot chocolate containers work well, with a slot in the top and some paper wrapped around and decorated.

If you buy a tin or bucket, it is best to get one with a chain and small carabiner (or add this yourself) so it can be anchored to a table. These can then be used at all your events and meetings to collect cash.

When counting donations, you might prefer to count the cash in a pair so there are no misunderstandings about the amount collected and who has taken it to bank/to look after.

Lots of people do not carry cash these days so having a QR code printed on the donation tin can be very useful.

You can create one yourself for your own crowdfunder or use this QR code below that directs people to the XRUK crowdfunder:

• Either drag this image to your desktop or click to download
• Print it out and use it on donation tins/buckets or posters/flyers)

Note: Please take care not to use the XR logo (hourglass shape inside a circle) on fundraising kit as its designer has asked that it is not be used for commercial purposes. However we can use the name Extinction Rebellion and graphics other than the hourglass logo.

Creating a Crowdfunder

Chuffed is a fantastic way to raise funds, as long as you have a bank account to receive the money.

Setting Up a Chuffed Fundraiser

Chuffed makes money by taking a cut of the money that is donated. You can either set up the fundraiser so the cut is taken as a percentage of the money donated, or you can set it up so that the donors can decide how much to give Chuffed in addition to their donation to XR (including an option to give nothing at all).

Setting up a Chuffed account and your first fundraiser takes about an hour and Chuffed guide you nicely through the process. If you are nervous about this, then consider doing the set up with someone else supporting.

Before starting the set up you will need:

• A bank account
• A named individual as the account contact
• An email account to link to the Chuffed account

Why You Need a Stripe Account Too

Stripe is a platform that processes payments from debit and credit cards, Paypal, ApplePay GooglePay, etc. Stripe sits invisibly behind Chuffed and manages the process that transfers the money from a donor’s account to your bank account. As part of the Chuffed setup process you will be prompted to set up a Stripe account, so it is very straightforward.

Promoting Your Chuffed Fundraiser

QR codes linked to online fundraisers can be a great alternative to a card/contactless device. They enable people who don't carry cash to donate, without the need for the group to have a card/contactless device. Get more info here on creating QR codes to link to your fundraiser.

Here is some guidance if you want to use links or buttons to crowdfunders in Action Network emails.

Regular Giving Via Chuffed

You can also set up your Chuffed fundraiser to allow people to donate monthly. This can be a lot easier for people to set up than manually creating a Standing Order via their bank. Find out how to set this up here.

Further Support

You can get support from the XRUK Fundraising team if you need help with any of this. Contact us on our Mattermost Reception or by emailing fundraising@rebellion.earth.

Business Cards to Order or Print

Business Cards

Little cards (the size of a business card) with a Sign-up QR code on one side and a Donate QR code on the other are a great idea because:

• They are very cheap
• They are small and easy to carry for outreachers, stewards and fundraisers. You can even keep some in your wallet at all times to give to people when XR comes up!
• They are multi-purpose and can be used for both sign ups and donations
• If people are in a hurry, they can take them away to use later
• Our XR leaflets usually only have a QR code linking to the general website, the QR codes on the business cards are more specific

Download artwork for the current XRUK business cards

These cards can be used by anyone for XRUK fundraising.

You can get some of these by contacting the fundraising team or downloading the artwork below and getting your own printed. Of course, you can also create your own artwork and QR codes and make your own cards!

• Sign up side of business cards (Google doc)
• Donate side of business cards (Google doc

Someone wants to donate, but you have no QR codes or materials...

The DONATE and JOIN OUR MAILING LIST buttons are always at the top of our website when accessed from a phone, so just ask people to search for XR UK if you do not have any cards!

Training and Support

Further support

We can offer bespoke support to groups who need it. Some of the things we've supported groups with in the past include:

• Getting & setting up card/contactless payment devices
• Creating personalised sign up/donate QR code cards
• Helping set up donation QR codes
• Advice on dealing with cash

If you would like further help with any of the above, or need support with something not covered in these Rebel Toolkit pages, you can contact us here:

• Join the Fundraising Support Telegram chat
• Ask a question in our Mattermost Reception
• Or email fundraising@rebellion.earth