1. The Chiswick Book Festival is a non-profit-making, community event, bringing writers and readers together in aid of charity. Since the first Festival in 2009, it has raised more than £109,000 for reading and community charities.
2. Its primary sources of income are ticket sales and sponsorship. After costs, any residue is donated to three reading-related charities and to St Michael & All Angels Church, itself a charity, which hosts, runs and underwrites the Festival and promotes the arts as part of its church mission.
3. In addition to giving money, the Festival actively supports its charities by promoting their activities and need for volunteers throughout the year.
4. The Festival aims to maintain longterm relationships with its charities, because it takes place just once a year, for one week. This means it takes longer than more frequent events to build public awareness of its partnerships.
5. The Festival also recognises the importance of reviewing and refreshing its charity relationships every few years.
6. For its first six years, the Festival supported RNIB Talking Books & Books for Children; The Letterbox Club; and InterAct Stroke Support, as well as St Michael & All Angels Church.
7. After a Review in 2015, it replaced The Letterbox Club, which sends book parcels to ‘looked after children’ in some London boroughs, with Doorstep Library, another charity that provides reading support for disadvantaged children.
8. After a second Review in 2019, prompted by its then partnership with the Cookbook Festival, it replaced RNIB Talking Books with The Felix Project, a community charity which redistributes unused food to charities and schools. The Cookbook Festival team published recipes to accompany the food.
9. In 2022, the Festival is conducting a third Review, with the intention of changing at least one of its charities. It invites the public to nominate reading-related charities which could benefit from a partnership with the Festival.
10. The Festival has invited its three current charities to describe the benefits they have received from the Festival and how they have helped promote the partnership, and will do so in the future.
11. If you would like to nominate a charity related to reading, please tell us about it, including its website link, and whether you have a personal connection with it. Please email your submission to admin@chiswickbookfestival.net (and put ‘Charity’ in the subject box) by February 28th 2022.
12. Smaller charities may be favoured, as the funds will make a more significant impact and the relationship can be stronger. Evidence will be sought that the charity has sound governance and that donations are applied in full, or in very large part, to the services which are provided.
31.1.22