A. General information

Why do we need money? What fundraising do we do? Monthly giving. Sign ups are crucial. Who do we fundraise for?

1. Why Does XR Need Money?

Extinction Rebellion UK spends around £1m 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, with: resources, training, strategies, regional and national coordination, fundraising, etc.

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

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

• Running trainings and talks to spread the news about the climate and ecological emergency, our three demands and amplification of complementary messages of our allies and partners

• Providing financial and budgeting processes

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

Please bear in mind that Extinction Rebellion can only ask for donations which will be used to fund legal activities.

2. What Fundraising Does XR Already Do?

Fundraising is a crucial role 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. Our fundraising team support each other to get results. We are proud of the difference we make to the movement.

What does the fundraising team do?

Want to get involved with the XR UK 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.

You can find all the XR volunteer roles here

Or just contact us through the Mattermost Fundraising Reception channel.

Or email XXXXXXfundraising@rebellion.earth.

We look forward to hearing from you!

3. Funding for Specific Activities

There is often ringfenced grant funding for certain activities in XR.

If we do not use this grant funding it will be lost, so it is important to prioritise these funded activities whenever we can.

Funding for Community Assemblies

For example, through summer and autumn 2023 there is funding to run Community Assemblies.

This funding was won because Community Assemblies are a key part of our strategy. They are wonderful for extending and strengthening alliance building, as well as demonstrating to local communities the power of deliberative democracy and spark conversations on how our Third Demand of a Citizen's Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice might be achieved.

Do you want to find out how to run a Community Assembly in your area? Consider tying in a Community Assembly to an event that you might already have in mind and talk to the Assembly Strategy Working Group about what support you might need.

Fill in this JOT form to be contacted by a member of the Community Assemblies support team. There is help available, so do get in touch.

4. Why Regular Monthly Giving to XR is So Important

In the run up to The Big One in April 2023 some 50,000 people gave one off donations to XR raising £400,000. This was a fantastic response focussing on a specific event.

Until now this has been our fundraising routine, to raise lots of money in the run up to the next big London Rebellion. However, now we know that there is not going to be a single big Autumn 2023 rebellion, so we need a new fundraising plan.

There are costs that we have every month, so a regular monthly income allows us to confidently provide a good level of UK wide services and support for key activists.

We are, therefore, asking everyone, especially those who kindly gave a one-off donation to The Big One, to consider setting up a regular monthly donation to XR.

It does not take many people giving a small amount each month to secure our organisation through to 2024. It would be wonderful if those who can afford to give a monthly donation to XR now sets one up.

How can local groups increase their number of regular donors?

Encourage your local rebels to consider setting up a monthly “regular giving” donation.

If we had an extra 5,000 regular monthly donors each giving £5 to £10 per month then we would generate about £500,000 in a year, which would be wonderful!

Putting it another way, we would love about 5 people in every 100 rebels on your local group mailing lists to become regular monthly donors. Many people are very happy indeed to give money to XR when asked, as we see from the large amounts raised in the run up to The Big One.

If you are able to ask, the words below might be helpful.

Could you become a regular monthly donor to XR?

Our wonderful XR organisation needs money every month to keep doing its amazing work.
We spend money supporting people in crucial UK-wide roles, fund regions and nations, create and store our iconic artwork, run our I.T. and financial systems and much more.
Until now, one-off donations just before rebellions have seen us through the whole year. Now we do not have a big London rebellion event Autumn 2023, budgets are very tight. So, we are asking people who might previously have given XR a one-off donation before to now consider becoming regular donors.
If lots of rebels each donate just a small regular amount, then that will make the difference we need.
Can you support us as a regular donor so that we achieve everything we hope for in 2024?

Here is the link to become a regular donor.

Thank you so much.

5. Why Outreach to Get Sign Ups to XR's Action Network Mailing List Helps Fundraising

XR uses its Action Network emailing lists to send information to people who have previously 'signed up.'

We also send emails asking for donations. Email is a hugely successful way of generating funding.

In the run up to The Big One people responded to these Action Network emails by generously added £400,000 to our Chuffed fundraiser.

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

When local groups do Outreach, then add new people to their local group Action Network email list, those people are automatically added to the Regional/National and UK email lists for XR.

So, it is important for fundraising that local groups are using Action Network (rather than their own systems like Mailchimp or other systems), so that they continue to build their lists over time, which in turn supports the wider movement and our ultimate goals of bringing more people into support.

Video showing outreach followed by a fundraising ask

6. Should you Raise Money for Your Local Group? Your Region/Nation? Or For XR UK?

All local groups, regions and nations are autonomous and will make their own decisions about where to direct the funds they raise. Here we just set out the broader situation to help you decide what to do.

XR UK spends it funds on:

If funds are tight, budgets for all the above are squeezed, including the funding given to nations and regions.

The XR Budgeting Process 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.

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.