Running UKWT Can Feel Like Being On A Rollercoaster That I Can’t Stop, Sometimes…
I set up UKWT because every wildlife casualty / orphan is a person: they’re struggling and we can help them, so I try and offer them a second chance. It’s that simple...
The work that goes into getting them into the hands of someone who can help them, is the tricky bit…
From automated running costs for the Wildlife Care Badge & UK Wildlife Transporters pinging out of the account (web costs, databases, map software, phone bills, communication software, exam software, paying our Wildlife Care Advisor & lots more) and then fuel costs needing to be reimbursed almost daily, it often feels like a constant race to keep on top of it all so that we can keep saying “yes” to the next animal who needs help.
It’s been a super busy year & I am, if I’m honest, very tired now :-)
I haven’t taken a day off since March, I don’t think. In part that’s been because we have been supporting a lot of new Vet Practices & Wildlife Rescues AND we have had LOTS of kind new Drivers, so I have had to really dedicate myself to enabling UKWT to run as smoothly as possible, this spring/summer. The main reason though, since it’s become a bit quieter, in September, for not taking a day off yet, is because we had to catch up on funds that I’d borrowed to keep us going over the summer AND then, still, when that was pretty much achieved, every day we had more costs to cover, and often not the ready funds in the bank to do it.
That has meant that most days I wake up to a small funding target to achieve that day, to keep us going AND especially to pay for fuel costs for our Drivers. Yesterday, today, tomorrow: I have fuel reimbursement costs to meet.
I’m not asking for sympathy here: I chose to set up UKWT and I am choosing to try and do my best to set it up for success. I won’t always - or that’s the plan - have to put in this level of quite gruelling work (up to 100hrs a week, some weeks) to make sure UKWT is doing the best that it can.
What I DO need to do, now, as a BIG priority, is get our funding a lot more settled and sorted. I need to make sure that we have the solid, regular funding that we need, for at least our basic running costs - and my salary, of which I have taken a tiny % of what I hoped to, leaving as much in as I could, to cover our UKWT costs - and then to anticipate most of our expected fuel costs.
[If you want to know about my salary, which I only started taking after running UKWT free for 5 years, you can see about it on our RUNNING COSTS page].
MY SOLUTION…
I have been working on a way to fund UKWT without relying on donations. Well, here it is... I have called it the Play Your Way Game.
Check it out HERE.
We have more than 6000 followers, across our social media channels. If everyone gave the PYWG a FREE go (it’s ALWAYS free) we could raise A LOT of money to keep us going, through sponsorship, instead of donations.
The Play Your Way Game is a brand new idea: a never before done Game, as far as I am aware. It's a way to fund non profit ventures that enable our planet to thrive, without you paying a penny. In fact, you can even WIN free prizes…
[I have trialled it twice and it did very well and now I've extra streamlined it and it's ready to be launched in a BIG way, bringing in, I hope, the funding that we need to keep going & growing].
Every player (by simply browsing for FREE PRIZES, without your info ever being passed to anyone, that’s not how we make money) helps us to raise between £5 - £20 to fund our work.
It’s that simple.
All of our Sponsors, that you can choose FREE PRIZES from, are UK small/medium businesses - vegan & cruelty free - so you’re supporting UK businesses by playing too: even just by finding out about them.
I hope very much - I would be REALLY excited - to see your names start to pop up on the ‘Players List’. [You'll never receive any advertising from the PYWG. That's a promise! You can also unsubscribe yourself from the Players List at any time.]
Here’s to a bright, fun & funded future, helping as many little lives as possible to thrive!
