Hardship Fund

Ballater Community Trust set up the Hardship Fund back in February 2020 soon after the Covid outbreak when a high percentage of our residents were placed in Lock Down and employment was severely impacted. It faced a challenge as many residents and groups had come forward with offers of financial support, so it needed to offer help and confidentiality to encourage individuals to ask for support as help is often perceived as “charity” something, due to our personal pride, we often reject. 

For confidentiality we contacted our church leaders, who are all acknowledged as being able to respect the individual, we also contacted Community Councillors based on their work along with people who have through their actions a proven support track record. Initially the take up was slow as individuals tried every avenue before making contact and we had many conversations covering food stocks being depleted to bare shelves bringing our “faces” as we called the representatives to tears.

We also faced the issue of how to distribute the wealth of funds now flooding in from over 62 individuals or organisations, many insisting on confidentiality and the local Cooperative Society had a Student Card system that suited our need. This had several benefits as it enabled the Fund to place a sum of money in families’ hands whereby, they could procure what the family would normally purchase, not what was available from a Foodbank. It also enabled electricity credits to be purchased and from our point of view it made topping up easier as this was not envisaged as a one-off donation. [Please note we accept that Foodbanks do an amazing job of work]. Sadly, for the faces who are the mainstay of the system, we have had to revert to the Cooperative Gift Card, that offers the same benefit to clients but has to be renewed each time as opposed to topping up.

The project hoped to close in 2023 but World events meant that Hardship was still a major factor in the area as we are still receiving applications for funds, which since February 2020 has donated £100,620 to 103 family units in our area. 

We are still receiving generous donations, for which we are grateful but any offer coming forward whilst gratefully received, we ask, if possible, for GIFT AID documentation as this increases the donation without adding to the amount given. We do accept that we all have a call on our reserves and with this in mind Ballater Community Trust has guaranteed to underwrite the fund throughout 2026.

For those needing help our valued faces are:

Jenny Gow 0781 3720 963

Jo CROLL 0778 6432 350

Peter GORDON 013397 55202

John BURROWS 013397 53244