Garden Organic Funding Shortfall

[bluemoon]

Many charities are struggling at the moment, largely due to the current financial situation, but of these a fair few have not only found their revenue fall, but the needs for their services increase due to the credit crunch; the RSPCA and The Samaritans are two that spring to mind. I can understand that Garden Organic may have a donation shortfall, but I wouldn't have thought that the situation required any actual increase in their spending, therefore it does seem to be, at least in part, poor management strategy. I'd be a little dubious about contributing more to them

[TEB]

Many charities are struggling at the moment, largely due to the current financial situation, but of these a fair few have not only found their revenue fall, but the needs for their services increase due to the credit crunch; the RSPCA and The Samaritans are two that spring to mind. I can understand that Garden Organic may have a donation shortfall, but I wouldn't have thought that the situation required any actual increase in their spending, therefore it does seem to be, at least in part, poor management strategy. I'd be a little dubious about contributing more to them

I thought the RSPCA were rolling in it! So much so that the Charities Commision wanted them to reduce their reserves to £45 million. One of my clients are a Registered Charity, they pay their staff over the top, they spend thousands on IT and their mobile smart phone monthly bill must be enormous, they receive a lot of money from the Goverment and from what I can work out isn't really managed properely by the relevant Goverment/local Office. To my mind its the small charities that are getting hit the hardest that has little or no Goverment funding.

[bluemoon]

You're probably right TEB, I was more meaning that a link between the credit crunch and an increased need for a particular type of charity's services could be seen. RSPCA deals with more abandoned pets when times are hard etc, I wasn't meaning that I had any real knowledge of their finances (or those of the Samaritans) and I chose them simply because everyone has heard of them and knows what they do without lengthly explanations. I can see that Garden Organic will have a loss of revenue due to the financial situation, but don't think that they will be coming under added pressure because times are hard was my point, and just threw in the other examples to explain what I was getting at.

[Alison]

I had a feeling something wasn't right, as I've emailed them with a problem (can't log in as a member, although I've since remembered the 'override' option) and had no reply.

I e-mailed them with the same query at lunch time today and have already got a response with my login details confirmed so sounds like you were unlucky.

[kentvegplot]

Have a look at the website, they've announced a new commercial parnership for Ryton, so perhaps this is how they've solved the funding crisis?

[StephenH]

Spam folder? Do you get the updates by email?

It may have gone to my spam folder. That occurred to me after posting the above, so I checked. I didn't find it, but I did find two other emails there which were from charities I support, so I clicked on "not spam", which will hopefully mean that their future stuff will go to my in-box. I may have deleted the GO one without realising it, by emptying my spam folder in one fell swoop. I'll have to check it before deleting its contents in future.

[seasprout]

The Following is taken from a Trade Publication.

For your perusal.

Garden Organic restructure hits researchers and admin staff at charity
by Matthew Appleby
HortWeek.com
24 November 2009

Garden Organic's 90 staff face an organisational restructure at its Warwickshire head office with the charity's four researchers believed to be having to reapplying for jobs on new projects while other staff have undergone a 30-day redundancy consultation.


The charity has also transferred 30 of its 90 staff to Webbs Garden Centres, which has taken over the retail, catering and conference Organic Enterprises arm of Garden Organic at Ryton, Warwickshire, which will now be known as Webbs Ryton Gardens.

Garden Organic may also be looking to outsource its administration to save money but a representative said there were no details available on this.

The representative said the restructure was a result of the current financial climate and dwindling research and development funding streams and "will affect both administrative and research posts". The charity could say how many people could face redundancy because it said some are likely to be re-employed in new projects.

It said Master Gardeners, Sowing New Seeds, Gardening Therapy and the LEADER project "will create several funded new posts at the charity's headquarters, Ryton Gardens, for which staff at risk of redundancy will be invited to apply".

The visitor attraction — Ryton Gardens — will remain under the management and ownership of Garden Organic.

Garden Organic's Chief Executive Myles Bremner, said: "As an organisation we have done all that we can to safeguard as many jobs as possible. These are difficult times and we hope that those staff affected will be redeployed in the new roles created through funding we have recently secured.

"We are hugely optimistic about our new charitable programmes and their ability to reach out to more people. At a more local level we are also excited about our developing relationship with Webbs, which will help secure the future of Ryton Gardens as a visitor attraction, helping place us in a stronger position to move forward with our aims to get more people in the UK gardening and growing sustainably."

Bremner said membership has stabilised at between 30,000 and 40,000 after declines of up to 1,000 a month earlier this year.

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(A source has stated that the 1,000 membership loss was just for 1 month only & its now stabilized)

[Alison]

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good news at all