Join us as a member!

Everyone’s first meal is free (though you’re welcome to sign up as a member before your first meal!)

• If you’ve attended meals before - please click here to sign up as a member and let us know whether you'll set up a monthly donation. Afterwards, please visit your group’s ticket booking page to book onto your meal by selecting the free 'member' tickets (rather than the 'newcomer' tickets).

• If you’ve not attended meals before but would like to - you’re welcome to book a 'newcomer' ticket and wait until you’ve attended before deciding whether to/how much to donate monthly.

• If you’ve not attended meals before and don’t think you’ll be able to anytime soon - we’d love you to consider setting up a monthly donation as a supporter by clicking here.

Monthly donations (from our members who can afford to donate) help pay for your local group’s meal costs, and behind the scenes magic you won’t always see!

An average Local Welcome group costs about £300 per month to run:

• £150 on Local costs (food, venue and on-call)

• £150 on Support costs (Handbook, insurances, safeguarding etc.)

This is why our financial sustainability target for each group is to raise £300 per month through regular donations from members and supporters, where 50% goes on Local costs, and the other 50% on Support costs.

(Note: these are average figures, because venue hire fees vary regionally).

The certainty which comes from monthly donations (rather than one-off) also helps improve our financial resilience as a charity, meaning Local Welcome is more secure and less reliant on grant funding in the future.

Beyond supporting your local group, helping Local Welcome become more resilient also means we can launch more groups, and extend a welcome to more people across the UK!

You can read more about why we ask for donations, and how your donation will support Local Welcome here.

It’s important that our meals are open to everyone, regardless of how much money you have.

Our membership model therefore operates on a 'donate what you can' basis:

• Most members donate: £10/month

• Members who can afford to support others, as well as covering their own membership donate: £15/month

• Members with lower income donate: £5/month

• Members with no income donate: £0/month

Whether you’re a member who can afford to donate monthly or not, it’s important to remember that all members contribute something special and valuable to meals - from chopping an onion, to sharing a joke.

Beyond the ambitions of resilient, membership-funded groups, our vision is: "Diverse, resilient, and powerful communities, acting together for their common good".

When you sign up as a member, you'll belong not only to your group, but to the wider Local Welcome family too!

You’ll be able to come and cook and eat with your group monthly/as and when you’re able to.

We’re also working on developing some additional membership features, so stay tuned!

To book onto a meal as a member:

1. Find and visit your local group’s ticket booking page by clicking here.

2. Tick the ‘Member’ ticket option and click ‘Continue’ to confirm and book your ticket.

If there are no ‘member’ tickets left, please book on as a ‘newcomer’ and email us at: events@localwelcome.org to let us know.

We offer tickets on meal booking pages which are specifically for refugees and people seeking sanctuary so:

• Spaces are made available to (and protected for) refugees and people seeking sanctuary at every meal.

• Team members at partner refugee support charities we work with around the UK can easily find, refer and support refugees and people seeking sanctuary in booking onto meals.

We understand that monthly direct debits are a commitment which not everyone can afford to make.

If you’d like to donate sometimes, but not monthly, we firstly invite you to sign up as a member for £0 p/m.

On months where you’d wish to donate, you can make a one-off donation online, via our website by clicking here.

After you’ve made your donation, please email us at: events@local-welcome.org to confirm the donation amount, and which group you would like us to allocate it to.

We use a safe and handy platform called Donorbox to collect and manage our donations! One of the key reasons we chose to use it is because it offers several features which allow donors as much flexibility as possible.

Here are some handy links to documentation on Donorbox’s website re: managing your monthly donation:

• Change your monthly donation amount

• Pause, cancel or resume your monthly donation

• Update your card details as a donor

If you’d like to stop being a Local Welcome member…

• Because you’re moving somewhere new - take a look at where our groups are across the UK, in case there’s one in your new city which you can transfer to.

• Because you can no longer afford your monthly donation - you can still be a member without donating monthly! Please see question above ‘How do I manage my monthly donation?’ for instructions on adjusting or cancelling your monthly donation.

• Because of another reason - contact us at events@local-welcome.org to ask us to remove you from your group’s membership list. If you have any feedback on why you’re cancelling your membership (and you’re happy to share it with us) we’d really appreciate you including this in your email. Your feedback will help us improve Local Welcome for our current and future members.

Whether it’s signing up to raise money through a sponsored activity, organising a local crowdfunder, or directly supporting our team with a funding application; if you have any fundraising ideas to support Local Welcome please contact us at events@local-welcome.org! We’d love to hear all about it, and see what our team can do to support you.

Our leaders are unable to take card payment at the meals. If you’d like to make a donation without setting up a monthly payment, you can either find a leader at the meal and give them a cash donation, or make a donation before or after the meal via our website.