The Future Of My Cause UK

Blog » The Future Of My Cause UK

Covid-19 may have affected us all in different ways but the one thing that is true for us all is that 2020 has NOT gone as we had planned. This looks to continue over at least the next few months, effectively laying waste to our plans for the summer.

With each week that passes, I continue to receive calls with more bad news from our festival partners who have taken the difficult and heart-breaking but well-considered decision to cancel their 2020 events or reschedule to 2021. Our latest August and September events are still scheduled to take place, at least for now but each announcement, although anticipated is bitterly disappointing.

I consider myself to be exceptionally lucky that through My Cause, with the love, support, and hard work of my amazing team and backing from visionary festival directors and ops managers across the industry we have managed to achieve so much. We have helped thousands of volunteers raise over £150k for more than a thousand charities- something I will forever be proud of.

Our volunteers are my family, festival fields are our home, and we change the world with our actions by supporting the causes we care about. It’s what makes losing this summer so hard. With the cancellation of these events I feel I am losing my family, my home, my purpose. Festivals are how I make my livelihood and form so much of my identity.

This is likely to be my first summer in 17 years without working with volunteers at festivals, a truth that has really hit home this week. This week we should be welcoming back hundreds of friends, and welcoming hundreds more new members of the family home at Love Saves The Day, Shindig Festival and All Points East, raising thousands of pounds for charity, helping hundreds of thousands of people enjoy some of the best music and DJ’s on the planet. No amount of live stream gigs and virtual pubs can match what this week could have been, and that hurts.

The challenges affecting the festival industry have put us in a really difficult situation. 100% of My Cause UK’s funding comes from our festival partners paying for the services we deliver with our volunteers. We had been working flat out preparing for the season, recruiting volunteers, and traveling all over the country to get set for our biggest and busiest summer ever, and obviously had spent a significant amount of money doing so. All of this has meant that with so many clients canceling festivals our income had disappeared and we have had to make some very difficult decisions as a team to help reduce our overheads and help preserve the organisation in “hibernation” until festivals are able to go ahead. We have done this with a heavy heart, but we know it is the only way to stand us with a chance of welcoming you all back to festival fields in 2021 and beyond. We have spent the last couple of weeks, and are likely to spend the coming weeks refunding the thousands of volunteer deposits for volunteers who we will sadly not be meeting, talking to, hugging and being proud of this summer. This is not how we would have ever imagined spending the ever anticipated end of May, which should be the start of our summer.

I have been truly humbled by your staggering generosity. You have already collectively donated over £6,000 to help our organisation survive the challenges we are facing! Sadly, despite months of searching, we have fallen through the cracks on Government grant funding and this donation has been such an essential lifeline giving us hope and I cannot thank you all enough for your overwhelming support. Your messages have also been a huge inspiration to me and the team, reducing us regularly to tears. It is clear you all believe in what we have built together as much as we do and we promise you, with your continued support and love we will fight with all we have to get our family back together, at home in our festival fields, with renewed energy and purpose once more.

If you or anyone you know is in a position to support us, please do feel free to share https://mycauseuk.com/support-us/ or just drop a message of support to us at hello@mycauseuk.com as it really does keep us going!

So, I wanted to let you all know where we hope to be going- back to a field as soon as we can! Right now it may feel that we are far away but always remember that we are still here for you if ever you need us on our social channels and email, and our volunteer group is here for you all to share memories of festivals past- new volunteer projects you are working with, Live streams and DJ sets and other activities keeping you sane or just to say hi! To be honest we need you there too to keep our spirits up, and remind us that family is still family, no matter how far away they are.

I miss you all more than words can express, so please stay safe and try to keep smiling. I cant wait to see you in a field again soon.

Love

Rob Wilkinson

Director and Founder,

My Cause UK