In our first blog of 2025 our Chair Tom Brock OBE looks ahead to what promises to be another exciting year for #TeamKSB and explains why your support is needed now more than ever.
As we step into 2025, it’s vital that, as a charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful builds on our vital work in 2024 and achieves even more to help Scotland’s environment and communities. The previous 12 months saw us clock up some fantastic achievements and we know we must keep the momentum going. Keeping Scotland beautiful is not a part-time commitment, it’s full-time. Not just for #TeamKSB and those, like me, who volunteer their time but for everyone who loves and cares for Scotland. We can all play our part, no matter how big or small.
There is no hiding the fact that charities are facing a tough financial time. Resources, finances and capacity are stretched across the sector. We’re not going to shy away from the reality that we need funding to continue our current activities, to improve them and to reach more people. We are humbled by the number of funders, organisations and people who trust us to get the job done – to support practical action on the ground in the places people love – but funding for coordination of this action is difficult to attract year after year.
We’ve been very successful at securing some funding and selling our services in recent years, but as the charity landscape becomes more challenging, we have to be more confident and less apologetic when asking for money to be able to continue doing what we do and doing it well.
We know Scotland is facing a climate emergency; a nature emergency; and a litter emergency.
It could be easy to feel disheartened as we approach a new financial year, with significant gaps in our budget. But that’s not an option for us, and we know it isn’t for you either.
This year marks a significant milestone for Keep Scotland Beautiful as we celebrate our 25th anniversary as a Scottish charity. To mark the occasion, we have launched “£25 for 2025”, our public giving campaign to raise funds to ensure we are in the best place possible to continue our work for the next 25 years.
We’ll be fundraising internally as well as inviting others to fundraise for us and we’d be grateful for your support. We’ve not asked on this scale before, but the time is now. There’s lots of ways that you can help. For example, your school could organise a sponsored litter pick or your office could pledge to donate money for every 25 emails deleted – another step on your net zero journey! Any donation will strengthen our position for the future and support our work. Some members of #TeamKSB have already come up with their own inventive ideas, which we look forward to sharing in the months to come.
We know that we also need to share what we have known for years, but perhaps not told people about: the value of what we do to build community capacity, to link people together, to build a more environmentally aware generation. Two of our long-standing and highly rated activities, Spring Clean and our Climate and Nature Friendly Communities Network, both need financial support for 2025/2026.
It was just September that we made our way to Aberdeen for this year’s Climate and Nature Friendly Communities Network awards and celebration event. Being on stage, delivering certificates and handing out trophies to some of the amazing groups we work with really drives home just how vital this valued network is. These groups do so much for their communities and their local environment, and we want to continue to build their capacity, to support and champion them for years to come. But we need funding to do that.
We’re already well underway with our plans for this year’s Spring Clean Scotland. Last year we had more than 45,000 people take part – including 24,000 young people – and we want to do even more this year!
The 2024 Scottish Litter Survey showed once again there is a huge appetite for positive action on litter, so let’s capitalise on that. Our team are determined to make this year bigger, better and more inclusive, reaching out to new audiences.
In the sponsorship brochures below, you can learn more about why we need funding and the key benefits that working with us can bring you as well as what your money will allow us to do.
A new year brings hope and positivity. Our call for funding from you, and from individuals and organisations across the country, is to help us improve Scotland’s environment, benefiting our current and future generations as well as anyone who visits our wonderful country. Charities are facing unprecedented challenges and there is a real need for financial support. Any help that you can give to support our important work as a charity would be greatly appreciated.
Scotland is beautiful. In 2025, and every year to come, let’s try to make it even better!
