Using the EuroFaeries Fund

Please read the current guidelines on this page.

Background
When EuroFaeries first started organising annual Radical Faerie Gatherings at Terschelling Island in northern Netherlands in 1995, they were faced with a couple of challenges:

• How can we organise together so that no individual must take total (financial) responsibility for this gathering?
• How can we organise together so that we can share our finances collectively?

A small Stichting (Netherlands-based non-profit organisation) was founded. The organisation opened a bank account, and all EuroFaerie gathering responsibilities and finances were facilitated through this organization and account for many years.

Today, nearly 30 years later, many new organised Radical Faerie Circles have emerged in different European cities and countries, and permanent Radical Faerie spaces and Sanctuaries have been established, where the majority of Gatherings are now organised so the EFF is not needed for every single Gathering in Europe.

However, when faeries organise a new or temporary Gathering in a new or short-term space, the EFF can be very useful for financing. This is especially true for Gatherings organised at rented facilities: the EFF can support you with up-front cash to pay for these expenses.

How we can help

• The EuroFaeries Stewards are here to help you facilitate connections between Radical Faeries in Europe. One of our roles is in helping to make Gatherings happen. This can mean using the EFF small working capital for Gathering financial underwriting (underwriting = loaning the gathering organisers a part of the money that they need for the early costs of the gathering), and other kinds of guidance or facilitation to help you make your magical vision manifest.

Concretely: 

• Please feel welcome and invited to reach out to the EuroFaeries Stewards for advice about Gathering organisation or financing! We have all pledged to help you with our own various talents and experiences. Whether you are just playing with an idea, or have a worked-out gathering concept, please do contact us! We would love to meet you over a cup of tea (or via the internet, tea optional) to help you prepare a good proposal.    

Please give us some time to do our work, too 🙂 

• EuroFaeries Stewards don’t meet often or quickly for decision making. If you seek support from the EFF for your gathering, then it’s good to contact us 2-3 months minimum before your start. (When you publish a Gathering Call, faeries need lots of time to plan their travel to your gathering anyway). Good Gatherings start with good planning.
     
• EuroFaeries Stewards come from many countries, but English is the one common language shared by all stewards at this time. It is extremely helpful if your communication and proposal is composed in English. If this is not possible then please tell us, we will try to find a faerie to volunteer to help with translation.

What do we need to know? 

1. A Gathering Call. This is how you will announce your gathering to the wider radical faerie community (before it is sent out, if you are needing financial support). Do you mention that it’s for Radical Faeries? Are you using NOTAFLOF as a principle of the gathering? (No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds = if a Faerie has no money because of their situation you will not say that they cannot come to be part of this gathering).

2. Your Gathering Proposal. The basic information about your gathering: Who? What? When? Where? Why?

3. Your Gathering Budget.  It is essential that you make informed calculations about your gathering finances. How many faeries do you expect? How much will your gathering cost? What will it take for your gathering to “break even.” ( = enough income to pay for all the costs)
If you do not have experience formulating a budget, we can provide advice and help you to prepare one for your Gathering. Like any good plan, this needs to reflect actual research of costs and realistic estimates about unknowns.

• Send your proposal by email to info ( at ) eurofaeries (dot) eu  It will be forwarded to the entire EuroFaeries Stewards Circle when you are ready, and we will read and discuss it. We will stay in open communication with you, and it may be helpful to organise an online or in person meeting. There may be questions from you or from us, and suggestions. We’ll work together to agree on the way forward and make it happen!

Boundaries

The EuroFaeries Fund has existed for decades to fulfil specific roles in the community of Radical Faeries in Europe. A combination of traditions and experience helps us to identify the things that we can and cannot do.

Before you contact us, it is helpful to keep a couple of boundaries in mind for the EFF : 

• The EFF can only be used to finance gatherings or activities of Radical Faeries in Europe
• Think “loan” not “donation”. Funds are limited. We commit to make best use of them for all.
• The EFF cannot underwrite a gathering that cannot reasonably be expected to break-even.
• The EFF cannot underwrite a gathering or activity that results in financial profit or payment to an individual. Legitimate, unavoidable, organiser expenses can be included.
• Discrimination against lack-of-wealth must never be a barrier to faeries gathering with each other: your Gathering must operate under the Radical Faerie principle of NOTAFLOF (No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds). You are suggested also to apply the faerie tradition of GAYABAGS to your gathering finances (Give As You Are Able But Always Give Something).

Example

It might be helpful for you to consider an example of how the EFF has been used to underwrite gatherings in the past, to understand how you could request the EFF to support your gathering.

You can think of the EFF as a very “low-barrier-to-entry” Community Bank to help remove financial burdens of organising Gatherings from single individuals, and share these responsibilities throughout the wider Faerie Community. 

This includes three concerns that face Gathering organisers:

a) the need of up-front cash to organise events (for example, renting a gathering location, a fee for its reservation, etc.)
b) despite all efforts a Gathering does not collect enough contributions to pay all the costs = incurring a financial loss
c) after the Gathering, there is more money left than what it cost to do: how can you avoid that individuals profit from a faerie gathering

Here is an example how a Gathering that gets underwriting from EFF can proceed:

1. A faerie or group of faeries decides to have a gathering, and tries to find a location for it.
   The faeries publish an open “Call” for faeries to join this gathering.
   The faeries make a budget for their gathering: cost of venue, place where it happens + the cost of food + other costs (eg. 1000 euros)
   They estimate how many faeries have to donate to “break even” on these costs.
   (for example: 10 faeries give 10 euros for 10 days = 1000 Euros)    
      
2. The faeries present their gathering proposal, gathering call, and budget for the gathering to the EFF.
   The EFF agrees to underwrite their gathering! Yay!
   The EFF transfers 1000 euros to the organizing faerie (Gathering facilitator or     Gathering Money Faerie). They use this to pay for the venue and food and all other advance costs keeping all receipts.    
      
3. YOOOOHOOOOOO!
   The Gathering Happens! Yay!
   During the Gathering, everyone contributes to support the cost of the Gathering as they can. How this is done is up to the organisers–it is their responsibility.
   
   Then, one of three things will take place:
   
   1) Exactly 1000 Euros are collected during the gathering. Yay! The gathering was a great success! The organisers pay the EFF back the 1000 Euros that they borrowed.
   or,
   2) More than 1000 Euros are collected during the gathering. Yay! The gathering was a great success! The organisers pay the EFF back the 1000 Euros that they borrowed, plus the extra money and help support the next Gatherings, as your gift to future faerie Gatherings.
   or,
   3) Less than 1000 Euros are collected during the gathering. Yay! The Gathering was a great success! The organisers pay the EFF back whatever they managed to collect. The EFF says: “Great! Thank you so much for your energy of organising the Gathering, we are so glad you did that! We don’t want you (the organiser/s) to be personally in debt or that you have to pay for this gathering out of your own pocket, so we don’t expect any more money to make up to the original 1000 Euro — ideally, another gathering in the past had extra income which they donated to the EFF, so we and the wider Faerie Community did not loose too much. If we still have it, then it is now written off, and de facto given to you as a gift from past faerie gatherings.”
   

Conclusion
   
As you can see with the above example, there are many good ways to organise Radical Faerie gatherings. 

Now it’s your turn :  We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Community Funding for EuroFaeries: a working document by the EFF stewards circle

How to organize a Gathering using the EuroFaerie Fund (EFF)