Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for your trust and your support in this first experiment. Our goal was to provide financial help to young activists in an open and transparent way. While we cannot say it was a big success (more on that below), we learned a lot. As they say, it’s only by doing that we get to learn. So we are very grateful for the opportunity!

Before closing this first travel fund, we wanted to give you an update, shared what we've learned in the process and also ask you what you'd like to do with the money that hasn't been used.

Despite our efforts, we only had 6 expenses that have been submitted for a total of 10 train tickets, total cost: €97.78

What could explain this?

Many things. First, it was very last minute. We started fund raising 2 weeks before the event and we started communicating about this travel fund just a week before. That was way too late.

Second, there was also already some fears about the Coronavirus, many people probably didn't come because of that.

Lastly, and related to the lack of time that we had, we couldn't make sure that all the people who needed to know about this fund, knew about it.

What would we do differently next time?

We need to announce the travel fund as soon as the event is announced and not later than 2 weeks before so that people can prepare.

If you organise a strike, please ping us in advance so that we can prepare (given the coronavirus, we don't expect any such gathering in the coming 2 months though)

If you have more ideas of what we should have done differently or things we should do for next time, please share them on our collective as a new conversation.

What to do with the remaining fund?

Only €100 was spent, so 1%. 

There are 3 options:

1. We can keep your money in this fund and we will donate it to the next travel fund for Fridays for Future in Europe (eurozone)
2. We donate it to the Fridays for Future Europe collective (https://opencollective.com/fridaysforfuture-eu) and they will be able to use that money at their discretion (but in all transparency)
3. We reimburse you 99% (minus the transaction fees)

Tell us what is your preference. If we don't hear back, we will pick the number 2 for you since there is no certainty as of when we will be able to travel again.

Resources

Video of the march: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqoaIoi2OQA

Photo album: https://www.facebook.com/francoisdvorak/media_set?set=a.1242156472660405&type=3