A Letter to the Saffron Community from Lizzy & Laura

Last week marked the end of our first-ever public fundraiser. In response, our Interim CEO, Lizzy Ellis, and founder Laura Lewis-Paul would like to share the following message.

A LETTER TO THE SAFFRON COMMUNITY FROM LIZZY & LAURA

Dear Saffron Community, 

In March, we asked you for help. 

It wasn’t an easy thing to do. We have never openly asked for financial support before. Unveiling the challenges we were facing felt vulnerable, and we couldn’t have imagined the displays of compassion and solidarity we would be met with.

It has been a really hard year. Seeing other admirable organisations and non-profits shutting down has hammered home the realities of the funding and the cost of living crisis, but you gave us hope and reminded us why this work matters. 

Now, we want to be transparent with you about where we’re at and what the GoFundMe means to us.

We didn’t quite reach our fundraising target, but we did incredibly well to reach £42,243. We’ve also had some private donations that have been crucial to sustain us. This money has literally kept the wheels turning and our team salaries paid, allowing us to take a breath, reflect and take action. 

During the fundraiser, we have been busy researching and applying for more funding. A couple of these applications have been successful, although most have not. This process has shown us that we do not fit into the priority boxes of many funders, which is giving us all sorts of learnings for the future.

The volatility of funding has also highlighted that we cannot rely on it exclusively, prompting us to start developing our financial model to generate our own income streams from the value we are providing to our community and the music industry. 

It has also reinforced the urgency of mobilising the wider music industry towards creating a more inclusive future and got us thinking about how we can lead the way in shaping meaningful and progressive collaborative partnerships. 

So, where does this leave us? 

There isn’t a simple answer to this question – our long-term outlook will depend on a number of factors. What we can say is that we are now in a position to prepare for a refreshed programme of activities for Autumn onwards – and we are excited to share these with you soon.

Tough times help you discover who you are, and it is now even clearer to us how we are best placed to continue solving music tech’s diversity and inclusion problem. We are committed to delivering social justice and artistic excellence through offering knowledge and community – and moving forwards we want to empower more of you to act in line with our core mission. 

Inclusivity needs investment. We can’t do this work alone – and we trust we won’t have to. If you’d like to stay on board with our movement towards a fairer music scene, we’ll be sharing more detailed information for both individuals and companies very soon.

With endless gratitude and optimism,

Lizzy & Laura

Help us continue our work transforming the music tech industry, donate now.