This year 2019 we have launched the project “Barcelona s’endolla!” (Barcelona plugs in!) in order to promote repair autonomous communities in each district of Barcelona. Initially, we started with 2 districts but the idea is that it could turn into a municipal network of neighborhood repair communities.
This project is 50% funded by the Barcelona City Council (€ 5,000) but we need to get the other 50% (€ 5,000) by the end of the year by other means. For this, we are looking for sponsors among companies, organizations and entities in the field of the repair, sustainability or development technology market that want to support us co-financing the project in exchange for advertising on our website, networks and dissemination materials; in exchange for the derivation of possible clientele, in the case of participants who need specific spare parts, tools or services linked to repair and reuse; or by other forms of collaboration that can be thought of between both parties.
It is for this reason that we are starting a co-financing campaign and we are asking you about any information, tip or contact about possible co-financing entity, grant or prize that could help us to reach the other 50%. Could you help us?
You are not the only one looking for support scaling in your city/region. Cool that you only need to find 50%!
If you’d like to approach companies, I would suggest putting together some slides, a sort-of “pitch” for sponsorship. I can share ours with you.
In past, we’ve had spare parts and tools companies support Fixfest and some of our work. But getting cold hard cash can be tough. Often they will suggest funding you in-kind. Will in-kind support count towards the goal?
Also in terms of companies, those invested in reuse, that make money from reuse, might be a way to go. We have a company reselling electronics on the high street (Computer Exchange actually has franchises in BCN), and we have a couple of online companies too. Have you seen that in Spain
The online marketplace Milanuncios worked with the Swedish Institute for Environmental Research to produce a report into the environmental impact of the 2nd hand market in Spain. They claim to have saved 1.7 million tons of CO2 in 2018 through people buying products 2nd hand on their site. https://efectomedioambiental.milanuncios.com
Look forward to hearing from others, if they have ideas about this too.
And watch this space if you are in the UK and want financial support to help others locally, as we’re going to have some really interesting news soon!
If you could share with us the slides-“pitch”, it could help us. Thanks!
The Barcelona City Council is a bit hard for co-financing as they don’t accept in-kind sponsorship. At least, last yearwe had to renounce to the same grant because we couldn’t “valorize” the volunteer work’s hours.
We can try with Computer Exchange and the Swedish Institute for Environmental Research. Good tips!!!
We have knocked on the door of some materials and spare components’ companies but we had not yet any response. Maybe summer time is not a good time…?
In case we don’t get enough money, we will try later with some crowd-funding campaign.
If any others have some ideas, let us know!
Big thank you!
Summertime is hard. But you will really need to chase regardless. Getting cash is not easy. Do your best to find the right person, calling on the phone, looking at Linked In, etc. I will send through our pitch deck too.
Yes and you probably want to contact Milanuncios, not the Swedish
Apologies for not having read the other comments… but I wanted to quickly mention that in Oxfordshire, UK, the Community Action Group worked with Oxfordshire County Council to put together a funding bid to Valpak to get about £25,000 to run a series of repair cafes for 2018. Here are some links:
Perhaps there are similar mechanisms in Spain? As in similar to those funded under UK WEEE Regulations as an implementation for the EU Directive 2012/19/EU.
Hi @Alexandra_Mates, thanks for sharing this, and congratulations for the recycling award! . We had recently stumbled on the article. It mentions that as part of the programme, “how-to guides” were created. Are these published anywhere? They might be useful for other groups too
Slightly off-topic - I’m just noting that while funds for scaling-up repair initiatives is very positive, we’re finding the implementation of the WEEE regulation in the UK problematic, as compliance schemes and distributor take back schemes are often not complying with the regulations, while providing support/funding to other organisations to compensate for this. Other countries took different approaches, I’m not sure what’s it like in Spain, @Blanca?
Thank you for this information, Alexandra!
I find that Spain funding context is harder than in UK, as the Sponsorship Law is much more restrictiveand this doesn’t help Foundations to give economic support to iniciatives as ours.
Nevertheless, we will keep the eyes open!
Right now, I’m not very connected to the legal context of Spain. In the case of Barcelona, the city council seems sensitive to repair initiatives and has adopted the “repair” discourse but the reality is that it does not give so much economic support for this specific field. The burocracies for getting money from the city council are quite hard and in the best case scenario, we can only get the 50% of funding. I think that there should be more direct contracts in order to include repair initiatives more seriously in the City Council Policies. In summary, I feel that in the best case of cities, there is still an enormous gap between discourses and applied policies. As far as I know, there still are many difficulties to follow up the waste flows in between the WEEE system.
Thanks for sharing! Copying @Club_de_Reparadores here as they might be interested. They are looking for international sources of support for their work in Argentina, having been hit hard by the crisis there.
. We had recently stumbled on the article. It mentions that as part of the programme, “how-to guides” were created. Are these published anywhere? They might be useful for other groups too
Alex