Help secure a future for our insect education and outreach programme with the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023.
We are blown away by the generosity of our supporters. Thank you to everyone who donated or spread the word about our Big Give Christmas Challenge. with your help, we successfully raised over £6,300 during the week of our campaign and every penny will go towards supporting our education and outreach programme, introducing new internships at the Society for young people to work with our conservation team and expanding our grants and bursaries programme to support students wishing to study undergraduate and postgraduate entomological degrees.
Thank you for supporting the next generation of insect scientists.
During the week of 28 November – 5 December, we’re working with Big Give, the leading online match funding platform that runs campaigns to make an extraordinary difference to the world’s big challenges.
The Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest match-funded campaign. For seven days, the challenge offers supporters of participating charities the opportunity to double their donations.
The Christmas Challenge uses a ‘pledge’ model with public donations match funded by pledgers and Big Give Champions. We are delighted and extremely grateful to have secured match funding pledges from our own community and the Reed Foundation.
Together with Big Give, we are asking for your generous donations to support the education and outreach programme.
Campaign Aims
- We will provide a greater number of funded learning opportunities at our new Insect Science Garden Stratford Cross, next to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic, East London. The garden will provide an ideal study site for all ages, local schools and communities, with a focus on support for children with barriers to access nature and science.
- We will introduce new internships at the Royal Entomological Society for young people to work with our conservation team who have successfully reintroduced the Large blue butterfly to the Daneway Banks nature reserve after it went extinct in the UK in 1979.
- We will expand our grants and bursaries programme to support students wishing to study undergraduate and postgraduate entomological degrees to enable as many students as possible to learn vital research skills across all aspects of insect science and the world of insects.
Campaign Budget
- £4,750 – Funding would go towards our grants and bursaries programme for students.
- £2,375 – Funding would support our internship programme, giving young people first-hand experience with us.
- £2,375 – Funding would go towards our relocated Chelsea garden and public engagement with insect science.
Understanding the Target
We will still use all the funds from this campaign to go towards growing our support initiatives for the entomological community and those keen to learn more about insects and insect science. With our multi-year education programme on our Insect Science Garden commencing in 2024 funding will also support our efforts there.
We have the opportunity to raise £4,750 from public donations which will be doubled by our generous pledgers and the Reed Foundation, raising £9,500 in total for this amazing resource.
