Thank you for your generous support

Jeremy Payne, Director of Fundraising and Bruce Russell, Director Scotland

(Above) Guests enjoyed a virtual tour of the Englefield Estate, as enjoyed in previous years by the Cotswolds Grey Partridge Group. (Below) The New York Auction went online and raised a fantastic £133,000. England & Wales

Major donor income of £1.14 million. £133,000 from the New York auction (subject to exchange rate). County committees projected at £477,000.

London events at £105,000.

The fundraising department has worked very hard to deliver the above numbers amidst a difficult year for so many in 2020. To have received our best ever response from major donors, is a testament to this group’s generosity and recognition of both our contribution and our need.

The major donor total includes some acts of conspicuous generosity from key supporters, but also represents a widening and deepening of support for the GWCT, and the widening is crucial as it reflects our success in getting in front of more people. We asked for support for our Challenge Fund (a response to the headwinds that amassed in 2019), but also for our Special Appeal which was based on the impact of the virus on our wider income, and both were generously supported. The New York auction successfully went online thanks to hard work by Ron Beck and Robyn Hatch and the main limiting factor was the understandable reluctance of donors to give us days to auction amidst such uncertainty. County committees suffered from the end of normality in March by which time only a few events had taken place. The online auction was proof of everyone’s determination to do what they could despite the restrictions, and we are very grateful to auction lot donors and buyers alike. Northamptonshire also held our first ever online shoot walk which was a great success. The only London event we held was another excellent dinner at Le Gavroche dinner hosted by Michel Roux Jr. As with all the counties, everything else was first postponed and then cancelled, so we put a few special lots that would have been sold at the Ball into the online Big Auction. This auction, which was put together in less than a month, was a resounding success due to everyone who supported it. We would like to thank you all – we couldn’t do this without you. Finally, we didn’t allow lockdown to stop us from having our usual annual lecture, so more than 100 people were treated to a very insightful and highly personal talk from Richard Benyon in July.

Scotland

Major donor income of £194,000. Scottish online auction income of £172,000. West of Scotland dinner & auction income of £79,000.

In Scotland, we asked our supporters to help with the shortfall that was inevitably going to transpire following the cancellation of both the Scottish Game Fair and our programme of events. We were delighted and humbled by the incredibly generous support we received and continue to receive from individuals and family trusts. With increased political pressure north of the border, we need enhanced funding more than ever in 2021.

The regional committees in Scotland were affected much in the same way as their English counterparts with all but one live event having to be cancelled. Even the one that went ahead, the West of Scotland dinner and auction, had several call-offs on the day of the event but still managed to raise more than the projected total for the evening. As always this is due to the generosity of the donors and attendees, as well as the experience of Fred MacAulay as auctioneer.

When everything ground to a halt in March, our two northern events (Highland & Grampian auctions) were in full planning mode, so a swift decision was made to incorporate their auction lots with our regular Scottish Auction which was moved online. Given the time constraints in organising our first ever fully-online auction, the result was truly magnificent and a testament to the generosity of both the donors and regular supporters of all three events.

We also launched the first-ever Scottish ‘Big Four’ raffle which ran from May to October and was a huge success. One hundred and eighty eight tickets were sold, and the raffle raised £25,630 in total. It was touch and go whether the day would happen, but we managed to squeeze it in between restrictions and a big thank you must go to the four estates, owners, keepers and their teams who enabled such a smoothly run day.

On behalf of all at the GWCT, sincere thanks to all of you who did whatever you could in 2020, we can’t wait for the resumption of normality.

(Above) Our auctions moved online and were a magnificent success and a testimony to your generous support. (Below) The team enjoying the prize of the ‘Big Four Raffle’ in Donside.