UKWT, Keeping On ‘Going & Growing’: An Update…

On 26th February I put UKWT onto a temporary ‘transport pause’ because demand for our services had exploded but donations had dropped a lot too, and we were really struggling.

[See the pic below].

I wanted to be responsible (and not be constantly out of funds or even overdrawn, throughout this year) so I put us on pause to focus 100% on bringing on specifically Monthly Donors, to get us up to £2000 a month in regular funding in advance of Spring, so that we could more comfortably say “yes” to the transport requests, for up to 1500 animals, that we’re expecting this year...

When I ‘paused’ us, we were at £260 a month in regular monthly donations.  I wanted us very much to be open by April again, as we only needed another 178 Donors at £10 a month each (or 356 Donors at £5 each) to get us to our target, and we have helped almost 1400 animals over the years, picking up from over 1200 people, as well as having 5000 online followers.

Our monthly donations rose - very kindly - to £305 and then dropped back down to £255, when we lost a £50 a month donation, due to the organisation, who was donating, encountering their own funding issues. This has now, I’m grateful to say, gone back up to £296 a month…

But now, on 11th March…

For UKWT, Spring has now officially sprung... 

Transport requests starting with “I know you’re temporarily closed, but [animal] needs help…” are creeping in.  We have said ‘yes’ to transporting 3 of them already, despite being on ‘pause’.  Wild babies are popping up all over the place and I think that our Teams are soon to be inundated with requests.

So, I’ve had to assess what to do, for the best…  I’ve had to make one of 2 choices…

A. I’ve had to decide whether to stay ‘on pause’ until May or maybe even June (maybe even July!) sticking to not re-opening UKWT until I’ve brought in the £2000 a month that we need: if I did that I could end up turning away over 1000 transport requests, in 2026!  And what if we don’t reach £2000 a month even by July, should we stay closed all year?

OR….

B. I could reopen us on shaky ground (we’re only on shaky ground funding wise, all else with UKWT is going fairly well) but I’ll at least know that we’re saying ‘yes’ to as many transport requests as we can.  I can do this, hoping that I can find a way, before it gets too busy, for us to be more reliably funded and/or I can hope that, every day, I can keep fundraising to draw in at least the minimum funds that we need, to get by.

I’ve been debating what to do for 3 days…

After a long call with one of our longest serving UKWT Drivers, this morning, to chat it all over (and after saying “yes” to transporting a little Bat) I have decided to ‘unpause’ UKWT and just do the very best I can this year, with UKWT, to help all of the animals that we can.

We are ALSO at least ‘unpausing’ in a stronger position than we were in on 26th February…

• We have been getting spots on local radio stations, as part of a national ‘Wildlife Volunteer Driver’ Appeal, to help us to bring on lots more Drivers.

• I have been reaching out to new Sponsors, to support UKWT, through the ‘one of a kind’ Play Your Way Game (a totally unique way of funding our work, as far as I know).

So, we’ll just have to see how this year goes.

• Every new Driver = more wild lives got to emergency care.

• Every bit of funding keeps us running, helps us to bring on new Drivers too (through adverts) & covers our fuel costs.

UKWT was started as a passion project: it was set up to stop the needless loss of life, that was occurring simply because a wildlife casualty/orphan couldn’t be got, by those who had found them, to emergency care.

It is STILL a passion project, because we ALL matter.  What’s more honest or purer in intention than recognising a fellow creature in trouble and taking the time to help them to a second chance?

Please do support us this year, if you can.  Please do become a Monthly Donor, to get us through 2026: HERE.