Crowdfunder - Update.

Some of you may know that a few weeks ago, Melissa Harrison and I started a Crowdfunder to raise money to get 10 copies of Greta Thunberg's book of speeches into 100 different schools across the UK.
1,000 copies was an ambitious target, we thought.  

The Crowdfunder "ended" two or so weeks ago, and, thanks to your incredible generosity, we raised over £12,000!

(you can still donate money though, as the lovely people at Crowdfunder have decided to keep the option open for the forseeable future)

Not only was over £12,000 raised, but the publishers, Penguin, agreed to match however many copies we raised money for. So effectively, over £24,000 was raised!

We asked schools to get in touch with us to request copies for their schools. This was really important, as we didn't just want to send copies to random schools. We wanted the schools to be engaged in the project. 

So far we've had over 900 UK schools request copies!

The great news is that, because of all the money raised, we're able to send copies to the majority of schools who requested them. 

So what started off as an ambitious project to get copies to 100 schools has now turned into a phenomenon, and we're able to supply well over 800 schools with copies. 

That's over 8,000 copies of Greta's book, getting into the hands of school kids all over the UK!

Trying to organise the distribution has been a right laugh and i've spent MANY, MANY hours going through all the emails we got, deleting all the spam, contacting some of the schools asking for their full addresses, getting details of the right teacher to send the books to, and then adding all this information onto a huge spreadsheet!

I am now the king of copy and paste. 

The good news is that today, on the day of the Global Climate Strike, after midday, the first 400+ packages are being packed up to be sent to schools next week!

This is the most exciting bit of the whole project for me, because it means that very soon, what we've set out to do, is actually going to HAPPEN. 

We're so grateful to everyone who donated, shared and supported the project, and I hope that it will inspire a few young people to realise that they can make a difference. 

Another 400+ parcels are going out next week and then, as and when anyone else donates, I'll carry on supplying schools. 

YOU LOT ARE ACE.