For over 76 years, we have been at the heart of theatre in the city, with several notable (and now famous) names working with us.
As a registered charity, we work hard to not only put on shows that our members and patrons love, but to safeguard the future of our club. This has been tricky over the years, with increasing maintenance of our club premises and higher production costs.
For the last two years, however, things became even more difficult as COVID-19 removed our main source of funding – the ability to put on shows and make a profit. Now, in May 2022, our latest production of The Odd Couple has been cancelled at the last minute due to COVID within the cast.
We love theatre and we love our club. We want, more than anything, to be around for the next 76 years to do what we do best.
Please please support us in protecting our future. Every small donation will help. Please help us spread the word.
SPORTS league start-up UKFL is uniting fans, players and coaches to launch an elite American Football league in the UK – one of the few countries in Europe without a professional league.
Based out of headquarters in the North East of England, UKFL was created by a senior team made up of UK American Football coaches, players and fans.
UKFL’s first season is set to launch in May 2023, with 8 fully professional teams based in cities across the UK and the goal of delivering an authentic American gameday experience to UK fans, from exciting gameplay featuring home-grown and import players to traditional American food and drink and authentic gameday entertainment like cheerleading and tailgating.
After a soft launch in February, the UKFL has generated high levels of interest amongst UK American Football fans, with thousands signing up for social media and newsletter updates.
Now, UKFL’s senior team is in discussion with investors and corporate sponsors to secure funding for the project and is also calling on fans to offer their support via a crowdfunding campaign set to launch in September.
UKFL CEO Mick Tyler explains that fan experience is core to the league’s vision. “Right from the start we’ve committed to building the UKFL with fans at its heart. We’re committed to building something that gives our fan base real ownership and control.”
The popularity of American Football has grown rapidly in the UK in recent years, with over 4 million UK fans tuning in to the 2020 Super Bowl. In spite of this, the UK remains one of the only European countries without a professional league.
UKFL’s Director of Football Operations Jonathan Rooney believes that the lack of an elite professional option in the UK is severely limiting the sport’s potential in the UK:
“For UK players, the only opportunity to play and train at a professional level is in Europe. This forces our best players to look for opportunities abroad because there are none at home. Many do achieve success in Europe, but others choose to leave the game entirely.
“The lack of a professional league also limits the quality of the game at a lower level. We want to create something for young players to aspire to, and to work with schools, colleges and universities to develop a new generation of athletes, some of whom could even go on to play in the NFL.”
American Football in the UK: Key facts and figures
NFL has over 13 million fans in the UK, and is watched by more than 20 million unique television viewers per season.
Since 2007, the UK has hosted sold-out NFL International Series games at Wembley, Twickenham and more recently at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Most major European countries have established professional leagues. Games in Germany’s GFL and Austria’s AFL leagues regularly draw crowds of over 10,000 fans.
The UK is one of the few European countries without a professional American Football league, leaving UK players with no option but to relocate if they wish to play professionally.
There are currently two major non-professional American Football leagues in the UK: the British Universities American Football League, made up of university teams, and the BAFA National League, which does not permit players to receive a wage.
To find out more about the UKFL, head to teamukfl.com
Graphic design student raises funds in memory of Jack
Rachel raises more than £700 for mental health charities
An Edinburgh Napier graphic design student has raised hundreds of pounds for mental health charities after developing a series of prints in honour of a late, close friend.
Student Rachel Cartledge, 19, from Edinburgh, developed a series of four prints in memory of her close friend Jack Dore, who sadly took his own life in December 2020.
Rachel met Jack through working together in Edinburgh. He was also an Edinburgh Napier student, studying International Tourism Management. He was due to graduate this year.
Her prints – which were developed as part of University coursework that aimed to get students to create something they were passionate about – featured a range of her own illustrations alongside uplifting quotes such as “You matter”, and “Everyone grows at different rates”.
The theme of the prints was to advocate good mental health alongside brightening people’s day.
Once the designs were finalised, Rachel sold the prints through her online Etsy shop and Instagram channel. Within the first 30 minutes, she had raised more than £100. Two print runs later, Rachel had raised a total of £704.28.
The funds raised were split between CALM – a charity that campaigns against living miserably – and a JustGiving fund set-up by Jack’s family to help people affected by depression and other mental health issues. As things stand, the fund is nearly at £20,000.
For Rachel, being able to do use her creative skills to help give people something to remember Jack by was a key driver of the entire project.
She said: “Last year, one of my good friends and work colleagues, Jack sadly took his own life. His family had set-up a JustGiving page in honour of him to raise awareness and get more people mental health support. I wanted to create something to help them in their goal.
“Jack’s death made me so upset and it is obviously something very personal to me. My idea was to create a series of mental health prints that I could sell online to raise money for the fund. I also liked the idea because whoever buys a print would get a little piece of Jack with them so his memory never fades.
“When my shop went live, I was so shocked at the response. In less than 30 minutes I had raised more than £100 for Jack and hundreds of people were sharing and commenting on my Instagram post.
“Overall, I sold more than 300 prints. I even had to restock which is something I never thought would happen. I went into this with a passion for making a difference for Jack and designing prints to make people’s day a little brighter.
“It just shows that when you put your mind to something and work really hard, anything is possible.”
Gemma Skelding, Associate Lecturer in Graphic Design at Edinburgh Napier, said: “I set the students the Passion Project to give them the opportunity to explore a brief that is inspired by a deeper meaning, a mission, a desire for a better way and ideally, has a real-world result.
“Rachel’s project delivered this in abundance, and I applaud her strength and drive to create such a wonderful tribute for her friend.”
If you would like to donate to Jack’s fund, you can do so by visiting:
Edinburgh based enterprise Sustainably is crowdfunding to transform ‘giving tech’.
Sustainably, voted Richard Branson’s Start-Up of the Year in 2019, have announced the launch of their crowdfunding campaign on crowdcube.
The mother-daughter team are looking to raise £300,000 which will enable them to market to new users and charities as well as improve functionality and launch a B2B platform.
Now supporting 40 charities, including Macmillan, Shelter and the British Heart Foundation, Sustainably is a free app that lets people easily and safely give to their chosen good causes by rounding up cashless transactions and donating spare change automatically, every time they shop.
Loral Quinn, Co-Founder and CEO of Sustainably, said: “We believe that many of us want to support charities but don’t want to commit to one cause and face the hassle and guilt of later cancelling.
“People want convenience, flexibility, transparency and control. With services such as banking, transport and music becoming more automated and frictionless, we aim to do the same for giving.
“86% of Gen Z and millennials (the UK’s biggest givers) want to donate via mobile and see their impact. And while 50%+ of donations are still made in cash, we live in an increasingly cashless society.”
Inspired by fintech, augmented reality, gamification, the internet of things and big technology businesses who had become part of everyone’s daily lives, Loral and her daughter Eishel merged their combined experience in FTSE100 digital strategy and ethical retail, to come up with the idea of Sustainably.
Current investors include Skyscanner’s co-founder, Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman’s Founders Factory. The duo also won the WeWork’s Creator Awards – judged by Ashton Kutcher and Monzo’s co-founder scooping £140,000 further investment.
Sustainably’s app lets individuals and corporates effortlessly make a positive impact every day and sends charity updates showing you the difference you’ve made. You set your donation limits and can stop, start, pause or change them at any time. We’ll never pressure you or share your details. Simply connect your card or device to the app and shop as usual.
Eishel Quinn concludes:“We’re not just the co-founders of Sustainably, we’re also mother and daughter, and we started Sustainably because we wanted to make a difference.
“We exist to enable people around the world to have a positive impact every day. We’ve created Sustainably so that every financial interaction can have a positive social, environmental and economic impact.”
Creative Scotland has launched Creative Scotland Crowdmatch 2021 in collaboration with Crowdfunder – the UK’s largest crowdfunding platform – offering expert coaching and match funding, to support Scotland’s creatives to run successful crowdfunding campaigns.
The second iteration of the programme will launch with a series of introductory, free to attend webinars:
From Monday 25 January, interested parties will be invited to express their interest in participating by noon Monday 8 February.
A shortlist of projects, selected by Crowdfunder and Creative Scotland, will receive tailored coaching support from the expert Crowdfunder team to set up their campaigns.
Jason Nuttall, Programme Director, Crowdfunder said: “We were blown away by the successes of the projects involved in Creative Scotland’s 2020 initiative.
“The range of ideas and the creativity shown in things like the rewards offered was fantastic to see. We have high expectations for this competition, and are looking forward to supporting the chosen projects to being their campaigns to life in 2021.”
Jackie Stewart, Creative Industries Officer, Creative Scotlandsaid: “This is a fantastic opportunity for practitioners and organisations across Scotland to raise funds for creative projects as well as grow awareness of their work and foster meaningful relationships with audiences.”
Expressions of interest are invited from all artforms, and shortlisted projects will be announced on Tuesday 16 February.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Creative Scotland will contribute a total of £75,000 of match funding, and entrants can receive up to £10,000 towards their projects.
Eligibility criteria, information about the initiative and about Crowdfunder is available on the Crowdfunder website.
The first phase of the programme which launched last year, saw 18 projects achieve their target crowdfunding campaign figures with many stretching beyond their original targets.
The recording and production of experimental focus musician James Lindsay’s second album, Torus was made possible through the first iteration of Creative Scotland Crowdmatch.
James Lindsaysaid: “I couldn’t have done a pre-order self-release like this independently to the same effect.
“The crowdfunding process gave people the drive to help the project and the tutorials offered by Crowdfunder were very helpful in helping me bring some shape to the campaign”
Eligibility criteria, information about the initiative and about Crowdfunder is available on the Crowdfunder website.
Ski instructor marketplace aims to raise £400,000 in second crowdfunding campaign, to complete £1.4M raise
Tech start-up Maison Sport – founded by a trio of former members of the British Ski Team, including Edinburgh-based CEO Nick Robinson – has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs in a bid to raise £400,000 as part of a larger £1.4M raise.
Covid-19 has undoubtedly hit the ski industry hard, but the challenges have accelerated the trio of founders’ determination to make the start-up flourish.
The funds will allow the independent ski instructor platform to grow, evolve and expand into new countries across the globe. Having already raised £1m at the end of the summer 2020 from a collective of investors, the additional crowdsourced funds will complete their fundraise, enabling the three co-founders to take the marketplace global.
Maison Sport was created to connect people with the very best independent and passionate ski and snowboard instructors, reducing costs to the customer, and providing a more profitable practice for instructors, affording them more control over their earnings and teaching schedules.
Started in 2016, the tech company was founded by three former British ski champions – Edinburgh-based Nick Robinson, CEO and Co-founder and his brother Olly Robinson, COO and Co-founder, and Aaron Tipping, CFO and Co-founder.
Starting in The Alps, the market leading platform has since grown rapidly to include more than 350 resorts and over 1000 trusted and fully qualified instructors across France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. The new round of funding is expected to help the business expand into more than four new areas across the globe over the next six months, including Scotland, Norway, Sweden and Japan.
Co-founder and CEO Nick Robinson, former member of the British Ski Team explains; “Myself and co-founders Olly and Aaron are all passionate ski instructors at heart, which is why it’s so important to us that this business grows but grows in the right way to ensure the best possible experiences for our customers and for our instructors.
“The funding we’ve secured to date, along with the funds we hope to secure on Seedrs, will give the business the boost it needs to go truly global, and importantly, support independent ski instructors who have been hit hard in the current climate.”
Maison Sport raised £786,000 from a combination of an initial Seedrs crowdfunding campaign in 2018 which exceeded target by 135%, as well as two angel funding rounds in January 2016 and December 2016, which allowed them to launch their innovative concept and facilitated early growth.
Last year, the founders raised an additional £1 million and have brought serial entrepreneur Lorenz Bogaert on board, to join the company as a non-executive director. Bogaert joins non-executive chairman Graeme Gunn, and an impressive advisory board including some well-known fund managers and Kevin Byrne, Founder of Checkatrade.com.
Early funding also allowed the founders to attract some of the best tech talent to ensure technology remains at the forefront of the business and that the user experience for both the customer and instructor is accessible, fast and seamless. Over the course of the past 6 months, the business has gone from 7 employees to 15 and expects to grow to 21 once further funding is secured.
As the only platform dedicated to independent instructors, Maison Sport has proven to be a game changer for ski and snowboard instructors who can significantly increase their earnings using the platform.
The marketplace has recently surpassed 20,000 hours of lessons taught and prides itself on the site’s 3,100+ individual instructor reviews left by over 70% of customers, placed on instructor’s profile after their lessons, over 90% of which are rated 5 stars.
A rarely-seen Second World War flying boat is back in the sky after its engine failed while attempting to take off from Loch Ness in Scotland.
The PBY Catalina seaplane ‘Miss Pick Up’ suffered severe engine failure after a day of filming at the loch – famous the world over for the legends of the mysterious Loch Ness Monster.
The beautifully-designed flying boat, developed by the US Navy, was lifted out of the water by a crane. Engineers then discovered the engine was severely damaged and needed to be replaced.
But now, thanks to donations from aviation enthusiasts throughout the world, the RAF Duxford-based plane is once again soaring through the skies of Britain.
The plane is maintained by the not-for-profit Plane Sailing, a Cambridge-based team of dedicated pilots and volunteers whose sole mission to keep the much-loved aircraft flying.
In total £31,390 was raised by just under a thousand well-wishers donating to the gofundme page.
Former RAF Harrier pilot Paul Warren Wilson, the leader of Plane Sailing’s Catalina operation and The Catalina Society, said: “She flies! We can’t thank the people who donated enough. It is thanks to them this venerable old veteran is once again in its natural element and we are incredibly grateful to them all.
“After being towed to safety by the Loch Ness RNLI, the Catalina was carefully lifted onto a private quay where an engine change was carried out by her engineering crew.
“This is a complex enough operation in the warmth of her Duxford hangar where suitable equipment is available. So, doing it in the open during a Scottish winter took a lot of grit and ingenuity.
“It’s wonderful to see her up and running. I admit I was holding my breath during take-off but everything went smoothly.”
When the engine work was finished the pilots had to wait for suitable weather and light winds so that Miss Pick Up could be lifted back onto the waters of Loch Ness.
After further checks and refuelling at Inverness-Dalcross Airport, Miss Pick Up headed south for an overnight stop at Tatenhill airfield in the Midlands before flying on to the Imperial War Museum airfield at Duxford on December 2.
Miss Pick Up is one of the world’s only airworthy Catalina flying boats and is largely self-funding as it appears at up to 20 air shows a year – but because of COVID, it has been to just two in 2020.
All the funds raised were used on crane hire, transporting the spare engine from Duxford to Loch Ness, workshop facilities, and scaffolding.
The plane was stranded on the west side of the Loch at Urquhart Bay and was lifted onto the quayside by crane using a pair of lifting points on the wings.
The Miss Pick Up has two engines and each lasts for 1,200 hours flying before it must be refurbished.
Catalina quick facts:
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was produced for the US Navy but was also flown by the RAF and the air forces of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union.
Catalinas were used in anti-submarine warfare, patrol bombing, convoy escort, search and rescue missions, and cargo transport.
The aircraft was involved in almost every major operation in the Second World War – notably combatting the dreaded German U-boats in the Atlantic, locatingthe German battleship Bismarck, and the sighting of the Japanese invasion force heading for Ceylon.
It was produced in San Diego, New Orleans, Quebec, and Vancouver during the war.
There are just 20 still flying throughout the world. Miss Pick Up is the only one located in Europe.
Donate to the crowdfunding page and receive a Christmas gift bundle!
Offering unique tours to thousands of customers across the country, Invisible Cities trains people who have previously experienced homelessness, to become walking tour guides of their own city – Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, and York.
Following a year of country-wide lockdowns and a huge dip in the tourist industry, the social enterprise has announced a crowdfunding page where individuals can donate to Invisible Cities and its cause.
A social enterprise that doesn’t believe in labels or stereotypes, Invisible Cities’ mission is to show that everyone has great potential. Training focuses on confidence building, public speaking, and customer service, which not only offers the prospect of a better future, but also the skills to undertake these innovative walking tours. Each Invisible Cities recruit partners with a professional tour guide to build bespoke tours, practicing their routes and gaining further knowledge of their beloved city.
Zakia Moulaoui Guery, Founder & CEO of Invisible Cities CIC comments: “The safety of our guides and guests will always be a top priority for us. Due to the devastating effect of the global pandemic, we have had to pause all activities and tours, whilst of course continuing to support our guides, trainees and volunteers.
“Having all experienced homelessness, trauma, substance addiction, poverty, a history of poor mental health or learning difficulties, it is key that although the tourist industry may have all but stopped for now, our support of them, has not.”
Invisible Cities relies on the income from the walking tours to support its guides and trainees, so the national lockdown has seen a huge decrease in available resource.
The Crowdfunder offers the chance to donate to your chosen location, ensuring that the team in that city, benefits. Donations each coincide with a gift bundle that will arrive in time for Christmas, starting at just £5 and going to £30 or more.
Those who give £5 will receive a thank you video message from one of the guides in your chosen city, whilst top donations of £25 or more will receive a bundle of goodies including hand-written postcards, poetry, books and items from the local area. There is also a ‘Kids Bundle’ for £12 or more, for the little ones.
According to Shelter, an estimated 320,000 people are homeless in the UK. This equates to one in every 201 people living in the UK and was an increase of four per cent on the previous year’s number.
Shelter says its figures, which include rough sleepers and people in temporary accommodation, are likely to be an underestimate of the problem as they do not capture people who experience “hidden” homelessness, such as sofa-surfers, and others living insecurely in sheds or cars, for example.
Crowdfunder is making community and charity crowdfunding projects completely free during the coronavirus crisis.
Invisible Cities have put together a Crowdfunder to allow the same level of support to their guides and the wider community to continue. A donation for Invisible Cities this Christmas means security and comfort for these individuals.
An Edinburgh doctor has started a campaign to raise £50,000 to help provide much needed PPE equipment for his fellow healthcare workers risking their lives across the city.
Dr Nestor Demosthenous, who has his own medical and cosmetic centre on Dundas Street, has started a Just Giving page to raise funds to supply healthcare workers across Edinburgh and the Lothians with the necessary protective equipment such as masks, visors, gowns and gloves.
With the eventual scale of the pandemic in Scotland still unknown, Dr Nestor has started the campaign in the hope that it will go someway in preparing for what other countries are currently experiencing such as Spain and Italy, with healthcare workers significantly affected across the board.
Dr Nestor said: “Having spent many years in surgical training with the NHS, I fully understand the sacrifices that my colleagues are making every day for the safety of others.
“There’s been so many amazing examples of people in the community supporting our local health workers and we were keen to do our part to help protect them.
“The rate of PPE use is at an all time high. Supply is an increasing concern. This makes it harder to get out to healthcare workers fast enough. We’ve seen these issue in other countries. We hope that this campaign can at least help make a difference at a local level.
“We have so far managed to raise just over £6000 thanks to our clients and friends, however there is still a lot of work to do to reach the target. We know the people of Edinburgh and the Lothians will do their best to support this campaign and we urge anyone who wants to help protect these amazing workers to donate something, however small it is, as it will make such a difference.”
As well as starting the fundraising campaign, Dr Nestor has himself applied to support the NHS on the frontline and is currently waiting to be deployed.
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