About our ‘Pay it Forward’ Tickets

We are deeply grateful to various participants in our recent ‘EcoCraftland Crediton’ workshops who have made ‘Pay-it- Forward’ Contributions. A few questions have arisen that we thought were excellent points – that we didnt realise werent clear… so we thought we’d share our answers.

Our Pay it Forward tickets are a donation that enables us to give support to others when they approach us. We sort of see it as people in our community being funded to participate by a government short term scheme helping us ‘move’ that funding to the moment and people who most need it, when they need it.

We have people approach us interested to attend things but in financial difficulty. (So many people take reduced income during vulnerable times in order to handle what they must, but of course, it adds burden, and the pressures add isolation and stress.) It is a priority for us to be available to them then. Your pay-it-forward helps us have resource for them when they need it.

Historically, we have had waves of funding to keep our things low cost and free. It probably goes without saying, but our funding has become more precarious in the last few years so we have concerns about sustaining all aspects of our work. These gestures of support are immensely appreciated.

We rather expect we will need to charge more often, and higher rates given the way everything seems to be going unfortunately. That said, we have found we have a lot less no shows when people pay, even a very small bit. (This reality doesn’t stop government schemes from insisting on free in many instances.)

It may be worth mentioning that we fear/find the cost of our work is perhaps undervalued/not well understood when it is generally free/low cost, making moving to charging an unsubsidised rate all the trickier! In a pragmatic way, your pay-it-forward contributions also help us understand what people feel able or inclined to pay. That is not to be sneaky or anything, but to learn. We get asked for learnings by funders all the time – and things that leave many scratching their heads. We’ve come to appreciate that our learning disposition, and rigorous evaluation builds trust – with funders, with participants. We are earnest about positive impact on people’s lives, and thank you for your engagement with our work to make it sustainable!

To see what we currently have open for booking, visit our eventbrite page HERE.

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