Secret Projects Community Benefit Society is one-year old!

Secret Projects Community Benefit Society is one-year old!

 23rd Sep 2020 |  Blog |  Margaret Ring


It seems like only yesterday that Secret Projects founder and CEO, Fritha Mason, made the decision to put the business up for sale, meaning that anyone, whether old or young could purchase shares and... Secret Projects Community Benefit Society sprang into life! We are now owned by a body of 264 Shareholders and are proud to count a group of young people among our numbers - the next generation of social and ethical investors!

What a year it's been! We can only describe our journey over the last 12 months as almost surreal, not least that within 5 months we found ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic with countries around the world in lockdown. As soon as the reality of the situation became clear, we made a firm decision that we were going to survive and adapt the organisation to ensure that when lockdowns began to ease, we could get our bearings once more and thrive.

We knew that to survive, immediate action was needed and we put a raft of measures in place to protect Secret Projects, going into lockdown as a business to protect our Maker Community and team. In the UK, we took advantage of the government's furlough scheme for employees and applied for a government backed loan offered to businesses to assist during such an unprecedented time. In India we explored what help the government might be able to offer and put plans in place to sell 45% of our India subsidiary company's share capital to Shareholders who want to help grow the business and support our mission to empower women.

Our major concern was of course, for our Maker Community and we took great pains to contact the women to update them about our situation and to assure them that we were going to survive, with plans to begin production as soon as possible after the easing of lockdown. Fortunately, prior to the pandemic, we had made changes to our payment methods to Makers and began to send their money via bank transfer, rather than by cheque. This was invaluable, as obviously we couldn't travel to hand out the cheques and it also meant that we could get money to the women at this critical time.

At the forefront of our minds we kept believing that somehow, we could find a way to 'future proof' Secret Projects against other similar situations in a way that would still give us good access to our Maker Community, regardless of travel or other restrictions. We hit on a concept to deliver our training virtually and we are busy putting product training videos and materials together to be delivered to our Maker Communities via courier. We are planning to carry on this with this method for the foreseeable future - and so, our thriving began!

The thriving continues... our on-line retails stores are now open for shopping with customers being able to make purchases in Euro's, Rupees, GBP as well as US Dollars. We believe that this can only lead to the story of Secret Projects spreading to a wider and wider audience - our dream! Gorgeous new Secret Projects have raised their heads - from blankets to kimonos and one of our Maker Groups in West Bengal is back in production, with others to follow. The thriving list gets longer each week!

Our Shareholders are a massive support to us and we continue to give others the opportunity to purchase shares to join us on our journey to empower. And so, we begin our second year knowing that the world is still in an unpredictable position and it's not at all easy for businesses around the globe, but with a quiet confidence that our foundations are firm and will help us continue to thrive.

More

Our first destash!

Our first destash!

What to do on a rainy Sunday? Hold our very first destash! You may be asking what a destash is?  In short, it's a call out to people to go through old . . . sewing supplies and fabric etc. and donate it to a good cause. With that good cause being Secret Projects! We set up in the Pulborough Village Hall (which is close to where our Business Unit is), and, through various advertising methods, the word had spread and we were delighted to welcome scores of people who came along with their very gratefully received donations. Donations weren't just brought in on the day, we had parcels sent to us and others dropped supplies round to our CEO's house in Pulborough ahead of the official destash day. In total we collected 325 kilos of delici0us pre-loved sewing supplies. Much of the fabric donated has been sorted and will be made up into our ever popular and best selling scrap packs available through our eBay and Etsy Stores. In fact, we now have over 30 different scrap packs to purchase and more will be added, so do keep visiting our stores. We are still taking donations and if you do have any fabric or pre-loved sewing supplies, please do get in touch via fritha@secretprojects.org And of course the most enormous thank you everyone who donated to, and also helped us run our very first destash! More to come! Let's hear it for destashing!   Image: offering a cup of tea to all who came along to the destash was one way of us saying a big thank you.
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We would LOVE you to donate any unwanted sewing supplies to us!

We would LOVE you to donate any unwanted sewing supplies to us!

We can make such good use of your pre-loved sewing supplies We have added various items of pre-loved sewing supplies to our online stores, including . . . scrap fabrics and buttons for the past few years and it has developed into a small but very good source of income for our Community Benefit Society. The pre-loved sewing supplies market is only getting stronger and is something we are keen to develop and grow and are therefore putting out an 'ask' to our customers and supporters (and of course, anyone else who reads this!) for your old sewing items. We would LOVE them! Ideas for sewing supplies donations! From scrap fabric, to buttons, to pins, to needles, to embroidery equipment, we would adore to talk to you about what you have. Sewing items can often have sentimental value - in fact, our Comms Manager, Margaret was just telling us about a pin cushion she has of her mother's that she could only give away to someone who would really appreciate, and make good use of. Maybe this has resonated with you. So, if you do have sewing supplies you would like to donate, please email Fritha Vincent Mason at: fritha@secretprojects.org. We would just LOVE your pre-loved sewing supplies!  
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The 2024 AGM of SPCBS will take place on 24th January 1-2pm UK time

The 2024 AGM of SPCBS will take place on 24th January 1-2pm UK time

The 2024 Annual General Meeting of Secret Projects Community Benefit Society We are delighted to announce that 2024 The Annual General Meeting of . . . Secret Projects Community Benefit Society will take place on January 24th at 1-2pm UK time. All Shareholders are warmly invited and notification and the agenda plus financial information have been sent out. Please do check inboxes and junk folders and if not received, please email: invest@secreprojects.org. We very much look forward to seeing our Shareholders and providing an update on our progress over the last year.    
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