As many of you know, we started an affiliate scheme a while back - just for a few hand-picked Welsh organisations - and then we had a few hiccups with how quickly we were kicking people off the 6 month course for missing a few lessons - so we’ve fine-tuned that, and added a new, more supportive road into SSiW with the 1sentence materials.
So now we’re ready to start pushing on with the affiliate side of things again. Now, I’ve always felt a little uncertain about the standard ‘let anyone do it’ approach to affiliates - I think it can very easily lead in the direction of more noise than light - too much shouting.
But it struck me a while back that we could do something a little different - if you’d like.
We could choose a few of our most passionate learners and let you choose a Welsh charity you’d like to support - and then you would be the promoter for that charity - and everyone who pays for an SSiW course through your work would be sending 50% to the charity you’re promoting.
I think that feels better than individuals getting a few quid for themselves here and there - what do you reckon? Anyone want to give it a go? What are your favourite Welsh charities?
Or maybe we could do this a better way - I think it’s an important thing for us to do, in part because:
So… we could just go ahead and set up a list of links for particular Welsh charities, and then anyone who wanted to at any time could spread one of those links (instead of just pointing people at SaySomethinginWelsh).
hi aran, i’d be very happy to promote SSIW as i’m very passionate about how much this site has helped me - i routinely speak welsh now and consider myself a welsh speaker - not perfect, and still learning, but a speaker nevertheless. give me a shout if there’s anything i can do
i’d like to promote a charity that’s local to gwynedd, or dyffryn nantlle/caernarfon… something small but would make a real and visible difference in the community? what do you think? maybe something about social isolation (particularly in light of the bus service up here), or homelessness, etc, open to ideas…and i can ask friends and aquaintences for ideas too…
All sounds really good - I don’t want to be prescriptive - and I think local charity stuff is very powerful, because you can really see that you’re making a difference - have a scout around and let us know when you have one in mind…
yes ok ,i’ll come back to you asap on that, would love to help SSIW, encourage people who think they can’t speak welsh to learn welsh, and get the best out of this amazing area and culture (look, i’m at it already haha), and help a local charity
how would i do this promotion, do you have any ideas, is there something that’s been tried before, or would it be up to me after consulting with you, about any ideas i have?
We don’t have models in place, no - new idea and all that - but more than happy to talk stuff through! And if (fingers crossed) we end up with a bunch of people promoting local charities, we should start to see a kind of community sharing ideas thing going on…
I read this when you posted it yesterday but I don’t know of any charities in Wales OR if a person in the US can help. If I can I would like to promote SSiW. If this was the US, I’d pick a school classroom to support from Donor’s Choose.. Education can be a great equalizer to help young people succeed in life. In the United States, monies are not equally spread, despite funding formulas that work to eliminate disparities. Donor’s choose is a website where teachers can ask for specific items needed to help educating their students. It’s a great way to donate money to a very worthy cause.
Does anyone know of a similar type of charity in Wales?
My Daughter attends a well funded school district, but a mere 20 miles away, another school district cannot provide the same opportunities despite a government initiative to equalize funding. If we lived in that district we would send her to a different school because the quality of the education would not as good.
Everyone has the right to a quality education so I support programs that assist teachers provide those opportunities to kids who deserve a better education.
I can’t immediately see any reason why it shouldn’t work just as well for anyone - the only hiccup being that of course you don’t have access to as many potential learners in your social circle etc - but even very small numbers can be a hugely valuable bonus for smaller charities.
Donor’s Choose looks excellent - I don’t know of anything exactly the same in Wales, but I’ll have a look around - in fact, I think it might be helpful if I try to make a list of Welsh charities I’ve heard good things about…
Nope, hold your horses! We need to set up an affiliate link for the charity you choose, so that we can track how much we should be sending them… if you’d like, I could set up a link for both of those, and then you can change from time to time if you feel like it?..
I’m in, I get regular questions about how to start learning Welsh and through my work I’m set up as an affiliate in several places. I don’t know about Welsh charities as I don’t live there, but my heart would be in supporting the language first.
I would like to be a champion for SSiW and also for EMRTS Cymru if I may?
EMRTS is the Emergency Medical and Retrival Transfer Service. They work in partnership with the Wales Air Ambulance Service, do tremendous work and are a totally charitable organisation.
Here is a little excert from their website;
‘It is estimated that EMRTS Cymru could contribute to at least a 40% improvement in survival rates from major trauma in Wales and could reduce transfer times to specialist hospital care by more than 40%. The service will ensure that 100% of the Welsh population will be able to access doctor-led care within 30 minutes.’
I am PASSIONATE about Wales and the Welsh language. I am also passionate about the NHS. It gets an awful lot of flak but, we are so so lucky to have it. Where else in the world can you get this level of care for ‘free?’ I’m a nurse with an A&E background. I’ve worked with a few of the consultants that fly EMRTS, including the founder, Dr Gill. He transformed emergency care in Morriston hospital and obviously saved lives through doing so. It was a privilege to work alongside him and the others.
The same goes for SSiW. Where else can you learn Welsh up to the standard of the end of level one, for free and then go on to even greater things for nothing more than a token gesture really.
I have met and spent time with Iestyn, Cat, Dee and Nia Llywelyn and I have spoken with Beca Brown and yourself (briefly) Aran. The passion you guys have for the Welsh language is no less than that of the guys at EMRTS.
Two AMAZING services in my mind. Each doing their own thing to save what is precious and priceless!
