£1.8 million Recovery fund for Scout groups in need
We’ve been working on a recovery fund to support the groups hit hardest by COVID-19 and are delighted to now announce the final total.
Through our virtual fundraising appeal, #RaceRoundTheWorld, and thanks to generous grants, funders and donors, we’ve raised an absolutely astonishing £1.8 million to help save our Scout groups at risk of closure.
We want to say a huge thank you for the philanthropic support of Pears Foundation and Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), who’ve contributed £1 million towards Scouts, as part of Government’s £750m charities package. Pears Foundation is a long-term strategic partner of Scouts, supporting us to reach even more communities.
The Recovery fund also includes all the money raised by the amazing participants and donors in #RaceRoundTheWorld – an incredible total of £350,000, which has been match funded by a generous Scouts alumni (up to our target of £300,000) taking the full amount to £650,000.
Finally, we ringfenced some of the membership fee income last year for this purpose. All of these funds together will make our Recovery Fund that we committed to in the Autumn.
We know many Groups/Units have struggled to cover the fixed costs of keeping Scouts going locally, as it hasn’t been possible to run the usual local fundraising events. Through the Recovery Fund, funding will be provided to the 10% of Groups/Units most in need. Pears Foundation and DCMS funding will support local groups in deprived areas in England with the rest of the funding available to all Groups/Units in the UK.
Groups can apply to the fund through the census. It includes a section about the funding and a short set of questions on how they've been impacted.
We’ll process the requests as quickly as possible so that they can be distributed by the end of March 2021.