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We have now submitted our application to the Charity Commission to register a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). This is a key step in our campaign - once the registration takes effect the charity will become an independent legal entity which can raise funds and hopefully buy and own the wood!
The Charity Commission estimates that the registration process will take about 8 weeks, so our activities now are two fold. Firstly, we'll work with experts to help review the viability of the project - for example reviewing the risks involved in owning the wood to confirm that they are manageable. Secondly, we need to plan how we'll go about raising the money we'll need to be able to make the purchase.
The administrative and legal side of running the charity will be done by our board of trustees, but to raise the money we need we'll need to activate a much bigger group of volunteers to help.
We're calling this group our project team, and it is open to anyone who is interested and prepared to roll up their sleeves and help out! It'd be great to have a wide mix of people involved in this, so that we can do a range of fundraising activities that appeal to people across different generations and different backgrounds. So whoever you are, if you have good ideas about how we can raise money to support the project, we'd love to hear from you. It doesn't matter how big or small a contribution you can make - whether it's helping deliver some leaflets, speaking to local businesses, staffing a stall at an event for a few hours, creating a social media video to promote the project, organising a sponsored event or an even bigger idea - you can help!
We are going to have a meeting to kick off our project team on Wednesday 30th April - if you can help please contact us online or email goitstockwood@gmail.com and we'll share the details with you. (And if you can't make the meeting, don't worry, this is just the beginning - so please get in touch anyway!).
Even if you don't think you can help with our project team, maybe you know someone who does? Your family members, neighbours, friends, colleagues? Everyone is welcome so please keep talking to people about the project - remind them the can find out more on our website goitstock.org.uk, which is also where they can sign up to our newsletter to receive these updates.
Thanks for your support!