We’d like to share the following statement made on behalf of The Room at our launch event, kindly hosted by the Gradel Institute of Charity at New College, Oxford on 10th October 2024. 

 

“We are absolutely thrilled to have so many friends, supporters and Founding Members joining us here in New College this evening. Without the enthusiasm, generosity and countless kindnesses all given pro bono by you and many others, The Room would not have become the remarkable and growing collective it already is today. And we are only just getting started.  

 

The Room is, essentially, a collective giving circle where members pool their membership donations and other resources for the benefit of small charities working locally with marginalised women and children. 

 

The collective giving model is so incredibly powerful. There is such huge potential when a group of like-minded people pool their individual knowledge, skills and resources for the benefit of their community. We strongly believe that, by investing together, we can act more thoughtfully, efficiently and effectively, and maximise our impact. 

 

But don’t just take our word for it: time and time again, research shows that collective giving can shine a light on pressing local issues, magnify resources to traditionally underfunded groups, and connect members to their communities and to one another. 

 

There is so much to say about how The Room will operate. Our website has set out how our grants process will work, the partnerships we are already building and fabulous free and subsidised member events we are organising. We have a FAQs page here but do reach out to us if you have any other questions or if you’d like to hear more.  

 

But what we’d like to focus on now is: why are we doing this? 

 

Well, Oxfordshire is not all dreaming spires and beautiful countryside. Look a little closer, and the urgent and growing need for resources and investment at the local level is quite clear. Local organisations often act as “first-responders” providing life-changing and sometimes life-saving services but many have had to reduce or put up barriers to their services over the last few years. 

 

Here today in Oxford, one in six children today lives in poverty with potentially long-term and far-reaching repercussions. As for marginalised women, we know that organisations supporting women are, traditionally, massively underfunded even though the social value generated by them is far greater than the amount of money invested in them. [If you’d like to learn more you might find these facts and figures from UN Women interesting].  

 

We know that investing in women and children has multiplier effects across communities and that thriving communities benefit us all. We also know that pooling our resources and giving as a collective is a force magnifier and will maximise our impact. 

 

Taken together, the case for giving collectively to small charities supporting women and children locally seems, to us, unarguable. Doing so together will allow us to invest thoughtfully, strategically and at a scale that can make a real difference. 

 

Before concluding, we’d like to talk for a moment about connection and about stories. The power of sharing them and the importance of being able to access them.  

 

We all carry so many stories of our own, we collect them – the good and the bad – as we go through life, but it’s when we hold space for and connect with the stories of others that we feel the most value and connection.

 

Reaching out and listening to other people’s stories is what gives us humans so much potential for positive change. It is vital for a healthy community.

 

We could share some of the tremendously challenging stories that we have come across during our research into The Room: stories of sexual assault, domestic violence, devastating gaps in mental health support, hidden homelessness, modern slavery… it’s all here in Oxfordshire and the list really goes on.

 

But stories aren’t very helpful if they leave us feeling useless or fearful or disconnected. So instead, we look for the stories that inspire us. Stories of courage. And we try to understand what we can do collectively to show up in a compassionate way. 

 

Across Oxfordshire the guardians of these stories of courage are most often our small local charities working at a grassroots level. These are the organisations supporting our community in the most essential and inspiring ways, ensuring that these stories aren’t simply survival stories but become stories of empowerment.

 

The aim of The Room’s grants process is to find and identify charities such as these where our collective donation can have the largest possible impact. As a community we’ll be able to see what we’ve all managed to achieve together.  We’d like every Member to be able to look at what our donation has enabled and say ‘I was part of that!’ 

 

We hope that it might end up being the most inspiring way you have ever made a charitable donation. 

 

We’d love you to join us in The Room. We’re inviting our Members to donate a meaningful amount of money which will be magnified by the total number of Members. This will form a grants pot, with Members deciding collectively on the recipient charities. We will then track the impact of our grants, providing our partner charities with a platform and inviting them – if they wish – to stay engaged with our Members. 

 

The Room is, above all, about connection. Connection with one another through our brilliant  range of events, and connection with our community through The Room’s grants process and beyond. Meaningful connection is so powerful.  

 

This is The Room’s inaugural cycle. We’re super excited to see where we can take it, and we’d love you to write this story with us. 

 

Thank you.”