Green Hive recently held our Annual General Meeting in Seaman's Hall in Nairn. As part of the discussion around the organisation's finances, we were asked to make more people aware of how you can support Green Hive with crucial fundraising.
Neil Mapes, Chief Operations Officer, shares his fundraising suggestions and shared resources for anyone wishing to help Green Hive grow and sustain our impact.
Summarising Green Hive
Here are a couple of summaries of Green Hive - one shorter and one slightly longer that you can share with anyone wishing to support Green Hive financially as well as a one-sentence mission statement.
100 - word summary:
Green Hive is an award-winning local charity based in Nairn with ambitious growth plans. Our Green Hive Growth plan outlines our mission to become a local exemplar taking action to address global environmental challenges.
We strengthen and build the community of Nairnshire through our values of being Inclusive, Collaborative, Engaging, Solutions-focused, and Sustainable.
We act as a local community hub supporting local people to design solutions with a focus on environmental challenges and empowering them to deliver a wide range of activities, products and services that benefit the people and places of Nairnshire.
One sentence mission:
our mission to become a local exemplar taking action to address global environmental challenges.
We are always looking to improve - how would you sum up Green Hive in one sentence? How would you summarise Green Hive in 100 words?
200-word summary
Green Hive is a charity based in Nairn. We bring people together to improve our local green spaces. Our name sums us up quite nicely.
Green: because we support a wide range of environmental projects such as beach cleans, removing invasive species, and community tree and orchard planting. We also recycle and upcycle plastics at our community workshop and fabrics at Seaman's Hall.
Hive: because we like to work together, a bit like bees in a hive, to get stuff done to make things better. If Green Hive is doing well as a charity both the people and places locally will be thriving and happy.
You can find us on the Scottish Charity Regulator website where we are listed under our formal registered name of Nairn River Enterprise. But everyone locally knows us as Green Hive. Our work started in 2015 with a community project on the river Nairn and over 10% of the town of Nairn (over a thousand people) have volunteered with us since then. In 2022 we were shortlisted as a finalist in the Scottish Charity Awards, so must be doing something right.
You can join us or support us and easily find us online by searching for Nairn’s Green Hive.
Our Charitable Aims, Objectives & Outcomes
Our founding aims remain our overall focus which are:
to enhance well-being
to promote regeneration in the town
to provide civic pride
to enhance the local environment
to provide local employment and skills pipeline
Our charitable objectives are:
The advancement of citizenship or community development (including rural or urban regeneration),
the advancement of environmental protection or improvement and the relief of those in need by reason of age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage.
Our Impact
We use our impact tracker which outlines our dual charitable purposes and 6 outcomes as a result of our work. Three outcomes are environmentally focused and 3 community focused. This tracker, see below, guides everything we do.
Ten Suggestions for Fundraising with Green Hive
Legacies: A member at the AGM reminded the group that it is an easy process to set up a legacy and leave a gift to Green Hive in your will. Some families find this a fitting way to support their local community through a lasting legacy.
Individually donate: You can donate in person at our community workshop or at Seaman's Hall, both of which accept cash and card payments. It helps us if we can put your donation to a wide variety of projects but if you wish your donation to go to something specific please let us know. You can also share this link with anyone wishing to support us with a one-off or regular donation online.
Corporate donations: If you work at a local or regional business that is interested in partnering with us your organisation can donate financially as well as support us through staff volunteering time at a variety of local environmental improvement projects. Do you know a local business that might be interested in partnering with Green Hive? Please share this post with them.
Run a fundraising event: Local care homes have been working with our Trike Nairn project and are keen to run fundraising events to support the project's growth with the purchase of a second trike and by training more volunteers. If you are interested in running a fundraising event do contact us so we can provide you with the right information to give to your event participants. Look out for more news soon on our big fundraising event coming up in November with a Sustainable Fashion Show in Edinburgh.
Find and share a grant funder: About 80% of our funding comes through applying for grants to various charitable trusts and foundations. Organisations like Garfield Weston and the Rank Foundation are two examples who have supported Green Hive in recent times. If you come across a grant funding opportunity don't assume we know about it - do share your suggested grant funding opportunities with us.
Invest in a new recycled plastic bench or table. Commission our community workshop team to make a bespoke recycled plastic bench or table. Get in touch with our team today.
Buy a recycled fabric item: We have some recycled fabric items for sale at Seaman's Hall and through various shops on the high street. Every purchase supports our fabric volunteers. If you want to specifically help with our fabrics workshop at Seaman's Hall please contact caroline@greenhive.co.uk. We are now taking orders and commissions for various recycled fabric items - such as fabric bunting for events.
Hire one of our e-bikes: Over the recent months our 4 e-bikes have been heading out of the doors from Seaman's Hall much more regularly. We are exploring an app-based system to make these available 24/7 but until then you can hire them by placing an e-bike hire request. They are a great eco alternative to car driving, are great fun, and are easy to use. Once you try them you will either end up buying one or come back for more. They are a game-changer for traveling around Nairnshire. As well as the e-bikes we also have a trailer for hire. You can hire for as little as an hour or a week or longer.
Book Seaman's hall or the Green Hive community workshop for your event: With the holiday season approaching you can hire our community workshop for a crafting or making session if you want to make your own creative Christmas presents. Seaman's Hall also now has a public entertainment license. To place a booking request and for terms and conditions please email fiona@greenhive.co.uk
Recommend a professional fundraiser: We are occasionally able to work with fundraising consultants and would like to have enough funds to hire a fundraiser as a new job creation at Green Hive. If you know a professional fundraiser who would be a brilliant fit with the Green Hive team then drop your suggestions to neil@greenhive.co.uk
Charity fundraising is ever more challenging and with resilience, sustainability, and impact ever the watchwords we need your help to meet the rising levels of demand for our activities.
Please pop in and see us at Seaman's Hall or contact us (scroll down to the bottom of our home page for a contact form) if you would like to support our fundraising in any way.
If you want any more information on our work, our finances and reports are all published on our website.
Thank you for your support :)
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