Play Area Crowdfunder Update: We did it!
- Online donations received: see above
- Offline cash donations received: £13,492
- Gift Aid: £2,027
- Grant Funding: £10,000
- Offline play equipment sponsorship: £10,679
- Total (as at 25 May 2021): £46,864
We did it! Thanks to you we managed to raise a staggering £46.9k! This means we were only £3.1k short of our target of £50k for the whole play area project.
We want to thank everyone who supported us over the last few weeks – whether you made a donation, shared our social media posts, talked about the project to friends, family and work colleagues or sent us messages of support. We could not have done it without you all – thank you so much.
Photos of our donor recognition wall to follow.
Please click HERE to view our Virtual donor wall
We are excited to let you know that we’ve paid the initial deposit for work to begin on the play area and we’re hoping work will start in the summer holidays. We look forward to sharing pictures as the project progresses.
We will continue to fundraise for the remaining £3.3k offline so please do get in touch if you would like to contribute or know of a company that might be willing to support a small charity (business@springboard chippenham.co.uk).
If you would like to find out more about our plans there is lots of information below, on our Crowdfunder page and in our campaign video.
Our Project
We recently acquired an outdoor play space which has great potential but it was not designed for children with special needs. Some of the existing play equipment is in desperate need of renewal. Sadly the play area becomes unusable due to the amount of mud and surface water that collects on both the grass and hard surfaces.
Our grand plan is to completely transform the outdoor area to make it into an exciting, inspiring and most importantly safe space for children with special needs
Why is this outdoor area so important?
At Springboard we love being outside and having fun in the fresh air. We also understand how important outdoor play is for young children’s development. We believe passionately our children (all of whom have additional needs) should be able to have greater access to outdoor learning and play experiences. We want all the Springboard children to have an exciting and stimulating play area regardless of their individual disabilities. Above all want to be able to create that WOW factor for them!
How much will this all cost?
In order to make our dream a reality we need to raise £50,000. Springboard as a charity does not hold funds for large scale projects such as this; we already need to raise £140,000 per year to remain operational. Although we have been successful in obtaining grant funding for some aspects of this play area project, we need your help to raise the remaining £40,000.
For the purpose of this Crowdfunder project we have split our fundraising into 2 parts:
Phase 1 – Initial Target £22,000
Phase 2 – Stretch target of a further £18,000
Total target – £40,000
The Detail
If we are successful in raising the money our plan is to:
Phase 1
- Join our existing play area to the new play area to create one large, brand new, open, free-flowing space.
- To re-landscape and resurface the grass covered space to make it both accessible for children with additional needs (wheelchair users, visually impaired etc.) and to address the safety issue of the surface water and mud.
- To install new, fun, exciting and inclusive play equipment to challenge and stimulate our children (e.g. the ‘Buzz Tower’ and ‘Mound Olympus’ – see below for photos) and to promote increased physical activity and well-being.
- To create a flexible, covered, outdoor classroom and meeting space that would offer all year round opportunities for outdoor learning and play regardless of weather conditions and a well ventilated outdoor space where staff can meet privately with parents/therapists/mainstream education settings or hold meetings and training session in a Covid Safe manner.
Phase 1 Total = £22,000
Phase 2
- To install a sunken Elliptical Trampoline within the play area.
- To resurface the areas of the playground covered by the existing wet-pour surface to address the safety issue of surface water.
Phase 2 Total (stretch target) = £18,000
How can you help?
Springboard is lucky to have supporters both in the local Wiltshire community and further afield so we’d love it if you would donate to help us out. To tempt you we’ve even put together a list of rewards, small gifts and sponsorship opportunities for you to consider. If you would like any further information about sponsorship opportunities please take a look at our specific sponsorship page HERE or contact Springboard directly at business@springboardchippenham.co.uk.
If you’re not able to contribute but like what we are doing please help us to get the word out. Shout about us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Please share the link far and wide to friends and work colleagues and talk about our project to family.
Thank you for reading AND thank you for your support.
Wish us luck!
