DiS Community Hardship Fund

  1. The Drowned in Sound Community Hardship Fund (‘the fund’) is a collective fund created by members of the social board to provide discretionary financial assistance to each other in times of need. It is based on four core values:
  • solidarity
  • non-judgement
  • privacy
  • equality
  1. The fund is distributed by a small committee of social board users (‘the committee’) who assess eligibility and determine how much will be paid to recipients.

  2. The committee will be guided by the core values and make decisions on a case-by-case basis according to the following criteria:

  • Is this person in financial need?
  • What level funds are available at present?
  • What is the overall level of demand for the fund at present?
  1. Applicants are not required to provide proof of their financial need but should state their level of need and, where relevant, when they need the money by e.g. “I need £30 by next Friday”.

  2. ‘Financial need’ is to be interpreted broadly to include shortage of funds to pay for wellbeing related activities as well as utilities bills, food, and other ‘essentials’.

  3. Committee members will operate non-judgementally at all times.

  4. Any user of the social board who has been active for 6 months is eligible to apply to the fund and be considered for financial assistance.

  5. The maximum amount that will be paid to a recipient within a one month period is £100. In exceptional circumstances, a larger amount may be paid.

  6. The fund is limited and applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

  7. Recipients are not required to pay back money received. However, if a recipient is later in a stronger financial position, any contribution to the fund would be very welcome. This reflects the spirit of mutual assistance which the fund was created in.

  8. To apply for the fund, an applicant should send a private message to a member of the committee. Although committee members will aim to respond as soon as they can, it may not always be possible for them to provide an immediate response and processing any payments could take a number of days. If you do not want all committee members involved, please say this in your message. We will always meet requests for additional confidentiality measures. Committee members will never share any details of your message or anything that could identify you without your permission.

  9. To donate to the fund, you can make ad hoc payments or set up a direct debit. Please PM @wewerewerewolvesonce to get the information on how to make a transfer. If you would prefer to use another method to donate, please get in touch with a committee member to discuss this.

  10. The fund will be considered to be in surplus when it reaches £500. When this happens, the surplus amount will be donated to a charitable cause(s). The exact charitable cause(s) will be determined by a poll of fund contributors (according to the principle of ‘one person one vote’).

  11. A decision to grant under £50 must be approved by at least three committee members. A decision to grant £50-100 must be approved by four committee members. A decision to grant over £100 must be approved by all committee members. A decision to grant to any committee member must be approved by all committee members.

  12. On the first day of every month, a committee member will give notification of: how many individual donations have been made, how many grants have been made, whether the fund is in surplus, whether the fund is running low (under £50) and how many grants have been made to committee members (if any).

The current committee:
@Aggpass
@otto
@stupidsexyflanders
@wewerewerewolvesonce
@nemrac
@aboynamedgoo

all members will have the legend DiS Rainy Dayer next to their usernames.

For general suggestions regarding the way the fund currently functions you can contact the fund organizers and supporters by sending a message to @RainyDaySuggestions

For requests to the fund you can also contact the Central Committee by sending a message to @DiSRainyDayFund

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on behalf of the comittee i’d like to thank everyone for helping us to set this up. you are truly a GBOL.

to anyone who is struggling with their finances but who may feel uneasy or embarrassed about the fund - i really hope you will make use of it. there’s no shame in needing a hand. i know there have been loads of times in my own life where something like this would have been a godsend & i can’t imagine there are many people here who could say different.

we will be posting in this thread to let you know whenever the fund is used (keeping things anonymous) or whenever another issue arises that we think needs some input. as we go through the first few months of this there will be a bit of a learning process. if we feel any of the guidlines in the statement need changing or adapting we’ll ask for your opinons. if and when any members of the comittee wish to step down we will be asking for volunteers to take their place.

if you have any further coments or questions please ask in this thread or over pm to one of the commitee members as you prefer.

cheers mates.

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I’d like to request £55 for a crate of DAB Dortmunder lagers and forty Regal.

I jest, of course.

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sooooooooooooooooooooooooo how does 1 contribute to the fund?

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Fantastic idea.

Could never actually imagine asking for money (some issues need addressing there I think) but there will be people in much more need than myself in any case.

Is there to be a monthly update on how often this is being used/what the balance is etc? If it’s popular and is serving a purpose I think people will be more likely to join in.

the plan was to post in this thread whenever the fund is used, or when we hit the threshold for giving some to charity, not to post the balance publicly otherwise, but to have the fund committee be updated on what’s in the pot.

the thinking behind not posting the balance was that we don’t want having a lack of funds in place making people hesitant to use the fund when we could possibly ask around for donations.

if you all aren’t happy with that want to know the amount in the fund i think that’d be fine too. @DisRainyDay *

anon poll

  • post running total in thread
  • don’t post running total in thread

0 voters

*if anyone is reading this who wants to be part of things and didn’t get notified by the group @ there please add yourself to the group here Drowned in Sound | Community xx

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I’d be okay with just:

  • a brief update each month stating that the fund had been used x times (not interested in any further details).

  • an occasional bit of info about when we’ve donated any surplus to a charity (i think it would be an idea to have a set percentage of the pot - 25% maybe - each month rather than a lump sum less regularly, but happy to go with the flow).

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yeah i think a monthly update whether or not it’s been used is a good idea, for visibility if nothing else.

currently we’re going with 20% of the pot when it hits the upper limit, see how that goes for now. gonna need to see where the balance is - i’d be hesitant to do a percentage of the pot no matter how much is in it just in case we’re at the lower end and don’t have enough for someone who wants to use the fund iykwim.

think a good idea is to set a date for having a talk through how things are working and if we want to change things up… call it 2 months from now - 01/06?

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Ah yeah, good point, can definitely see how reporting the balance might put people off using the fund.

I don’t think it’d hurt to post a monthly/quarterly figure of how much has been used, would definitely help to evidence its usefulness and might attract non-regular posters to get involved.

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I really want to, but I don’t know how good I would be at it. I am particularly worried that there are some times when I might not be able to do things in a timely manner. Maybe PM me with a bit more detail about what my role would entail and I can get a better idea of whether I could do it or not? (or write it here, whatever works best).

I guess if people are happy for me to be involved in this capacity I will try, I should be able to do that much and certainly would never compromise any confidentiality.

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as this is the first statement it’s covering a little over a month. will be monthly from now on.

the fund has received 24 donations, made 5 grants, none of which were to committee members. it is neither running low, nor in surplus.

thanks very much to you all for your generosity.

a couple notes on anonymity to anyone wishing to use the fund -

if you wish to be known to as few people as possible it would be best to approach a member of the committee other than myself. as we are having a 3rd party confirm when the transfer has gone through, contacting me necessitates two members of the committee knowing your username. (please feel free to contact me if that’s what you’d prefer though).

also - as I found out when I accidentally misspelt someone’s name on a payment last week (sorry about that), I do not need your full name to transfer money, just the sort code & account no.

:+1:

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Well done, mates.

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may

the fund received 10 donations & made 3 grants, none of which were to committee members. it is neither running low or in surplus.

said upthread that now would be a good time to discuss any suggestions or changes people might like to see… please do say if you can think of anything that would improve things or have any concerns.

thanks all.

I was thinking about this last night and specifically if there’s a way we can ensure a steady level of donations and interest.

Maybe just stuff like permanently stickying it, a monthly group PM, trying to encourage new contributors (whilst maintaining the spirit of the fund), or doing the odd thing to raise extra funds, like auctions, etc?

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if I had regular income would happily regularly donate.

Sadly that’s not the case.

sorry everyone.

Really happy this is being used to help people though :slight_smile:

Not at all, mate. The whole idea of the thing is that people who can spare a little bit can do so as and when it’s possible or they see fit.

Mainly wanted to bump it for new members and float the idea of secondary ways to raise money after someone i follow on Twitter raised over a grand for a good cause by raffling a prize they’d won. The thing was worth about £50, but over a thousand people gave £1 to have a chance of winning it. Just seemed lile a really good simple way to raise money.

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Is it in need of a top up?