Recent updates

A touch of gold ..

An update for St George's Bristol Crowdfund

Feb 8 2017

Many congratulations to our first two Golden Ticket winners, Katie McConochie and Patrick Royston, whose names were drawn from a top hat of all eligible crowdfund backers as part of our new season launch reception at our Soloists of the OAE concert on January 20. We will be in contact by email regarding all outstanding rewards in the course of next week.  

A touch of gold also applies to a forthcoming announcment that our main project contractor, Midas, is about to start construction work on our new extension.. on February 20.

As well as the crowdfund about to reach its next milestone target of £50,000, a further £100,000 has been raised towards our overall capital appeal in the last two weeks. This includes a further major contribution to our matching fund, which enables a second phase of the crowdfund to go ahead with an increased match from the current 50% to 100% on every donation made. That means for a future donation of £100, this will secure a further £100 matched funding, which together with gift aid on the original donation makes for a total gift to our appeal of £225.  

Look out for further updates as we count down to this second phase launch to co-incide with the start of the building works, and please do continue to spread the word about our campaign, as we aim towards our next milestone target of £100,000. Remember that once we reach our final crowdfund appeal target of £200,000 we will have secured the remaining target for our overall Building a Sound Future appeal, so fully funding the new extension and transformation for all visitors to St George's Bristol. 

Thank you again for all your support. 

We've raised our target after an amazing weekend of Stories and Songs for Syrians!

An update for Stories and Songs for Syrians

Feb 7 2017

Dear friends and supporters of Stories and Songs for Syrians,

Thank you so much for your generous donation to our fundraising appeal for Hands Up Foundation's urgent humanitarian and medical support to Syrian victims of war.

Our Stories and Songs for Syrians event last weekend was a great success, with many participants asking us when we’ll run another!

Babel Babies founder Cate Hamilton got everyone singing and doing the actions to songs in French, English and Arabic, impressing the Syrians with her music group's own version of Arabic classic children's song Has Sasan and getting all the kids doing the animal actions to Emily Gravett's Monkey and Me, in Arabic as 'Ana wa qirdi'. 

Nadine Kaadan gave an animated reading of The Jasmine Sneeze in Arabic, with Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp reading the English version, followed by a tutorial on how to draw Haroun the sneezy Damascus street cat, and how to render emotions with his huge, expressive eyes. Many in the audience were deeply moved by her reading of Ghadan (Tomorrow) in Arabic with Ruth reading the unpublished English version, and there were countless requests about when it would be out in English. Watch this space! We finished the session with Nadine teaching the children how to draw a traditional Damascus house and the children creating a mural together celebrating the ancient heritage of the 'Jasmine City', which has been hung in the window of the Suffolk Anthology bookshop.

We were overwhelmed by the generosity of guests, bringing Haroun-shaped biscuits, falafel and baklava, and also by local cafe Baker & Graze, who donated a tray of delicious rose and pistachio donuts! Over the course of the weekend and at Monday's Babel Babies session we raised £400 for the Hands Up Foundation. All the buzz around the Stories and Songs events among friends and in the local paper, The Gloucestershire Echo, clearly boosted the visibility of this online appeal, and we exceeded our £2000 target with a fortnight still to go!

Please help us raise as much as we can for the Hands Up Foundation: this UK-based charity funds many humanitarian and development projects for displaced Syrians in refugee camps, including emergency relief to survive the harsh winter and a prosthetic limb clinic for Syrian victims of war.

We achieved our target of £2000 and have now raised our goal to £3000. Perhaps with your help and the support of your friends we can raise even more to help Syrian refugees to rebuild their lives.

Thank you! Shukran! شكرا

Ruth, Hanan and Nadine

Back to work but you can cheer everyone up!

An update for Outdoor Cinema in Teignmouth

Feb 6 2017

Hello

I hope you had a very good weekend… but its Monday so its back to work now

BUT  why not chat to your work colleagues and your boss to see if they would like to take advantage of these rewards designed to treat customers and staff?

Group Reward

12 tickets for use by YOUR customers, staff OR for a large group of friends. Aimed at large groups of friends and companies or organisations who want to treat their staff and customers

Corporate One Reward

25 tickets for use of YOUR customers and staff. Aimed at companies and organisations who want to treat their staff and customers or for a large group of friends

Corporate Two Reward

50 tickets for use of YOUR customers and staff PLUS Your organisations name on the big screen. Aimed at companies and organisations who want to treat their staff and customers with some promotion of your brand

The ONLY way to obtain tickets is to make a pledge by visiting  www.fundsurfer.com/outdoorcinema

Regards

Paul

We have now reached a very important funding

An update for Outdoor Cinema in Teignmouth

Feb 4 2017

We have now reached a very important funding level which means one of our main costs has been covered which, make this project a very realistic possibility!

However, some people (obviously, those who have not made a pledge) think that they will be able to get tickets on the night. THIS IS NOT THE CASE

The ONLY way to obtain tickets is to make a pledge by visiting  www.fundsurfer.com/outdoorcinema

If you could please can you kindly suggest to 5 of your friends that they make a small pledge that would make over 300 people who we can contact.

It would help enormously if you could forward this email 5 friends to ask them to join you on these special nights

Regards and a very big thanks

Paul

Proceeds will go to the Helen Foundation and the mayor’s charity fund (which will be to help local people

what charity will benefit from this project

An update for Outdoor Cinema in Teignmouth

Feb 1 2017

TEIGNMOUTH OUTDOOR CINEMA - your questions answered

A number of people have asked what charity will benefit from this project -- the answer is the HELEN FOUNDATION

and the mayor’s charity fund (which will be to help local people)

FOOD – we want to make this a fun event for all and welcome people brining their own picnic food and snacks plus a blanket /chair to sit on. Alcohol will be available via the Rugby Club who will also be offering a variety of delicious foods

Thank you for supporting this project ... please could you pass this message on to your friends becaues if they want tickets they need to hurry  

The deadline is FRIDAY FEBRUARY 10th @midnight

Thanks 

Paul

ps:dont forget to nominate your choice for the films  for the chance to win a goodie bag!

The Teignmouth Outdoor Cinema Project crowdfund finishes at midnight on 10TH February 2017

Heading in to the last month – a final push!

An update for Safer off the Streets - Help Bristol's homeless night shelters

Jan 31 2017

What a way we have come – we are close to hitting £34,000 with over 600 generous people donating towards this important campaign.
Thank you Bristol and the wider community. Your generosity and compassion is going to directly help people off the streets and into somewhere warm and safe.

We would like to ask for your help again to help push us closer to the £100,000 SOS Bristol target by sharing the campaign again. Please post the campaign on your Social Media accounts and share the videos - the more people in Bristol who see this the more chance we will have of reaching it. It will really demonstrate how much of a community we are.

So far we have raised enough to cover the average cost of the whole Bristol night shelter programme for a month. Your donation helps to make a direct change. A night shelter is the beginning of longer term support from frontline staff and volunteers who really help people make a life away from the streets.

Thank you for your support,

SOS Bristol
 

Into 2017 with £50,000 in our sights and a new season ahead..

An update for St George's Bristol Crowdfund

Jan 12 2017

A big thank you to all of you, our crowdfund backers to date … not only did we meet our first milestone of £25,000 by Christmas, we have now raised £37,000 and counting!

We have achieved this impressive total with just 156 backers. If each of you can continue to support us by sharing our campaign to fellow music lovers, everyone you know with Bristol connections together with friends and colleagues, we are sure to reach our next milestone of £50,000 by the end of January. This will secure a very significant 25% of our final target. With your continued support by promoting the campaign further, together with matched funding and gift aid which add a combined 75% to each donation, we can reach what is undoubtably an ambitious final target for this crowdfund of £200,000 in the months ahead.  

Together with further ongoing fundraising, we are on course to complete the final 10% of our Building a Sound Future appeal, transforming the visitor experience for everyone to St George’s, from artists to audiences to school groups and local students. All will benefit from the new extension which is about to start construction. The new entrances, flexible new spaces and step-free access which the new extension delivers will also encourage more of Bristol’s diverse audiences to access and appreciate the fully resourced world class concert hall we will be, from our relaunch in spring 2018.

Ahead of then we have a packed new spring season ahead, getting fully underway next week. Now is the perfect time to take full advantage of the great rewards on offer. If you haven't done so already, there is still time to be entered into the draw to win a ticket to all our new season concerts programmed by St George’s (have a look again at our rewards for all the details). Our first two 'Golden Tickets' will be drawn at our spring season launch reception preceding the Soloists of the OAE concert here at St George's on Friday 20 January (6-7pm).  

We look forward to seeing you at St George’s in the new season ahead, and thank you again for your continued support.

Album being sent out

An update for Original punk blues album by Bristol-based duo Husky Tones

Jan 8 2017

 The album has arrived and looks great, we are in the process of sending it out to everyone who sent me their address, and arranged meet ups with Bristol friends to hand copies over. We've already had some incredible feedback on a whole different level to the first album which is wonderful and a relief. When you create something you're really proud of its very exposing sending it out. There will be reviews coming out on various blog sites, including non blues related, radio show, in magazines and some interviews. I'll post them live as they come out officially in the next few weeks via our social media. If you enjoy the album yourself please feel free to spread the word. We only ever make money from actual physical CD sales which is why we've made the first run limited edition and included a lovely 10 page booklet. People can buy the album now via our website and shop page. 

I don't have some peoples addresses so please if you dont get a copy in the next week send me your address. I will chase people up as well. Thank you again from us both. Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year. Victoria and Chris xxx

Your compassion counts

An update for Safer off the Streets - Help Bristol's homeless night shelters

Jan 5 2017

~~Happy New Year and thank you for helping us keep the #SOSBristol campaign running over the Christmas period. We were delighted to see people were still donating on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

Our night shelters are free for clients to stay but they cost us £17 per bed per night. We also rely heavily on the good will of our amazing volunteers who give up their time to help people be safer off the streets. Over the Christmas week, Caring at Christmas run the Julian Trust night shelter. This year more than 900 volunteers took part, offering a minimum of four hours of their time. That is an incredible amount of compassion.

We have raised a little over £28k and would ask you to tell three of your friends, family or work colleagues about this campaign. Share our films:  Two sides and Safer off the Streets  where you can.

Thank you for your continued support.
 

Huge Thank You and a Happy New Year!

An update for Safer off the Streets - Help Bristol's homeless night shelters

Dec 29 2016

We hope you all had a wonderful festive break and are looking forward to the New Year!

Over the past week, we raised over £27k thanks to you, Bristol and the wider communities’ generosity. Reaching over £25k means we have enough to cover the average cost of the whole Bristol night shelter programme for three weeks.

That’s all down to your amazing support.

Your support helps keep a rough sleeper warm and safe off the streets while trained staff work and volunteers support them with longer term goals. The night shelters are just the beginning.

It looks like we will hit £30,000 in the next few days but please do keep sharing www.fundsurfer.com/SOSBristol with friends and family to help build the momentum of the campaign and help us reach our £100,000 target!

Your donation and support helps to make a direct change – thank you for your incredible support.

Wishing you a Happy New Year, from all at Safer off the Streets.

#SOSBristol