We’re delighted to announce that The Greenwich Wire has beaten its fundraising target in our first ever Indie News Week fundraiser. That means we now have some cash to put towards looking at the housing crisis in and around Greenwich borough. A very grateful founder and editor DARRYL CHAMBERLAIN has more details.
When we were invited to take part in the first Indie News Week earlier this year, we jumped at the offer of some match-funding – if we can raise a certain money, that gets matched from a central pot, doubling our donors’ donations.
I wasn’t quite sure what target to set – our only experience with fundraising being a NHS charity appeal in the early stages of the pandemic, which smashed its target within five hours.
This would be different, so I set a target of £1,200 for stories about the housing crisis – judging that we got half that, it would be a result and we’d have more than a thousand pounds to spend.
But our readers’ generosity has bowled me over – we’ve raised £1,530 in new donations this month. Many of those have joined us as new regular supporters. Add to that the £1,200 in match-funding from the Public Interest News Foundation’s Indie News Fund, and we’ll have £2,730 that’ll be ring-fenced for digging into what’s gone wrong with housing in and near our borough – and why.
It’s gratifying to know our readers have got such confidence in The Greenwich Wire – especially those who gave us the most generous donations – so thank you ever much.
The money won’t be matched any more, but if you’d still like to donate or join us as a new supporter, you’d be very welcome.
(If you’re already a supporter and want to add a one-off sum, you can log in to your account here – thank you!)
What happens next?
I’ve already got a list of ideas after years of thinking “I should look into that” or “someone really should write something about this but I wouldn’t be very good at it”.
So once the election – and the post-election busy period – is over, I’ll be asking freelance reporters who specialise in housing issues to dig into what’s going on.
There are lots of issues – from the simple fact that there aren’t enough homes to house people on our waiting list, to asking why certain big housing projects that will affect our borough have gone nowhere. Why is Greenwich’s housing waiting list so big compared with other boroughs? Where are the new schools, bus routes and GP surgeries? And yes, why is Croydon Council housing people at a shut-down pub in Charlton?
If you’ve got ideas, please send them my way. We’re looking for bigger issues rather than individual cases, although these can help us tell a wider story.
A final thank you
The Greenwich Wire was featured in Press Gazette – the website for the journalism industry – this week, with me talking about the lack of local reporting in southeast London and the capital as a whole.
Without your support, Greenwich would be marked as a zero on the map for news outlets, rather than one. Your support means we’re punching well above our weight for a website with one part-time staff member. So thank you again.
To find out more about the Indie News Fund, and the other publishers taking part – many of whom would appreciate your support – visit the Public Interest News Foundation website.