As many politicians like to say, “We have been working tirelessly, night and day”… in our case, to raise more funds for The Steading. Last week we had a virtual meeting with the William Grant Foundation and they have generously pledged £30,000 to the Trust if we can raise the remaining funds. They have also pledged a further £20,000 for after we have bought The Steading to help with the development of activities there. This is a wonderful boost to our belief in the future life of The Steading and it was tremendously cheering to see a board of Trustees waxing so enthusiastically about Tim’s work. So make sure you enjoy lots of the right sort of whisky over the New Year!
And as if that wasn’t enough, this week we heard from Baillie Gifford’s philanthropic fund in Edinburgh that they will donate £20,000 to the Trust and wish us to highlight how important they consider the rescuing of The Steading to be and our work to preserve it for the future.
These, along with some other generous help (you know who you are), now means that only £95,000 remains to be raised to purchase The Steading. What a change from a month ago.
Our appeals are being considered by some other trusts in the New Year. So we are getting within sight of the exciting point at which we can start our crowd-funder. We’ll let you know …
In the meantime, have a lovely, if different, Christmas and New Year
Nichola Fletcher