We opened a new Brownie unit at the beginning of the year, and obtained a grant from Leslie Sell Charitable Trust to help towards our subscription bill. Without this grant, we would have struggled to afford it.

I am a District Commissioner and last year we planned to set up a new Brownie Unit. The population in our area is growing due to new housing developments and the waiting list at the existing Brownies unit was increasing. Initially we were going to wait until after Easter to start as subscriptions were due in March, and we knew that it would be a large sum of money to find for a new unit.

I noticed another leader mentioning the Leslie Sell Trust’s grants on Facebook so decided to look into this further. It was a simple application form explaining the need for the grant – in this case to cover subscriptions for a new start up unit –  and giving the details of the unit. The application form was completed and put in the post.

We were delighted when a few weeks later we received notification that we were to receive £1000. That would almost cover the subscriptions and allowed us to start meetings with 24 girls at the beginning of January. The grant made starting in January possible – we were able to pay our subscriptions bill and resource the unit with activities and badges for the girls.

We all do it for the girls and the look on their faces when they attended the very first meeting was worth it. In March, we held a promise celebration and 16 girls made their promise. The girls are all loving their adventure in Brownies.

If you have success applying to a fund and would like to share your story please let us know at funding@girlguiding-scot.org.uk.