Boost The Budget 18-19

The Supporters Group is hoping to raise £80,000 by inviting fans to pledge what they can, with proceeds raised added into Tommy’s budget for the Quakers’ assault on the 2018/19 National League North. Launching Boost The Budget now will allow Tommy to get his ideal squad into place as soon as possible and steal a march on our opposition which is why we’ve set a deadline of 30th April to get all pledges in – don’t forget that you are just making a commitment at this point, the payments can be made weekly or monthly.

More than 180 people boosted the playing budget throughout the 2017/18 season raising £40,000, mostly via affordable weekly or monthly pledges. Since there are no major fundraising demands for infrastructure development at Blackwell Meadows next season and with Tommy currently putting together an exciting team with a mixture of established senior players and emerging young talent as current results demonstrate, we would like to double that figure for the 2018/19 season. The easiest way to double that amount is to get twice the amount of people contributing. Crowdfunding is reliant on a large number of people contributing fairly small amount and if we could all forego a pint of beer or a single coffee a week and contributed the cash saved to the scheme not only would we be healthier but we'd also have a better team to support on a matchday. As an example just £3 a week for half of the fans that turn up to watch us each week would see us smash the target - it really is that easy if we all club together.

Pledges can either be made as a one-off amount or as a regular weekly or monthly Direct Debit. If choosing to pay weekly or monthly please pledge the amount you want to commit to on a regular basis not the total amount. This will then be multiplied and added to the totaliser to show the amount over the course of the scheme.

Payments will start to be taken as soon as you commit to a pledge – it usually takes around 5 days for GoCardless to take the funds and you will be billed on a recurring basis each week or month depending which option you choose. The last payments will be taken in April 2019 so if you pledge in March 2018 you will have 14 recurring monthly payments, in April 18 you will have 13 and so on.

We will contact existing Boost The Budget participants who chose to pay by monthly Direct Debit directly to discuss options on whether you would like you defer the last payment of the original Boost The Budget scheme which is due to be collected in April 2018.

Whilst the level of playing budget is no guarantee of success – it is always possible to under or over achieve based on a number of factors across a season, it does help give an indication of the teams that it is expected we’ll be competing with in terms of similar budgets.

As a guide we would expect the following:

No boost the budget: A reduction in current playing budget of around 40% leaving a playing budget that would see us amongst the clubs who would expect to face a battle for National League North survival. Such a large decrease in budget would have severe effects on the balance of the squad due to existing player contracts which must be honoured.

£40,000 raised: A reduction in current playing budget of around 25% allowing us to compete with the teams who historically finish around mid-table with the risk of a poor season bringing the threat of relegation of a successful season giving an outside chance of a play-off place.

£80,000 raised: Would allow us to give Tommy a competitive budget which should be adequate to make a good challenge to both finish in the play-off positions and have an reasonable chance of success in the end of season lottery. The form on the pitch over the last two months are a clear indicator that if we can sustain the current playing budget and Tommy can make some small alterations to the playing squad we can look forwards to a successful season.

Rewards

In order to reward those who help us supplement the playing budget we have come up with a range of rewards that we hope will appeal to you whilst not placing a financial burden on the Club. These types of rewards will also strengthen the bond between the fans and the players, management and officials of the Club – something they are committed to in the coming season.

A list of the rewards can be found in the attached document: https://fundraising.darlingtonfcsupportersgroup.org/attachments/DFC_BTB_Rewards.docx

In addition some notes around financial planning for next season can be found here:https://fundraising.darlingtonfcsupportersgroup.org/attachments/DFC_BTB_Financial_Planning.docx