The BMC launches Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal

The award-winning, headline-grabbing campaign which raised more than £100,000 to repair Britain’s hills and mountains has returned – and is raising its sights ten times higher.

Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million aims to raise £1 million in total for a range of vital path repair projects within Britain’s entire family of 15 National Parks.

The major collaborative appeal coordinated by the BMC and funded by its charity (the BMC Access and Conservation Trust) embraces a sense of collective pride and responsibility for looking after our best-loved landscapes. It goes live today with the launch of a dedicated website: www.mendmountains.thebmc.co.uk.
 

Team effort

The projects supported by Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million will range from the high reaches of the Cairngorms to the gentle coast of the Solent; from England’s highest mountain to the fabled seat of a Welsh giant; from the roof of Dartmoor to one of Scotland’s most well-trodden Munros.

Read more about the featured projects and their supporters by navigating the homepage of the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million website.
To be run over the course of the year, the appeal will be a team effort by a diverse UK-wide coalition which aims to make a huge positive difference to the landscapes we all value and the paths we all use.

Overall coordination is provided by the BMC, funding comes from the BMC’s charity (the BMC Access and Conservation Trust), and headline sponsorship is generously provided by Cotswold Outdoor and Snow+Rock, two of Britain’s leading outdoor retailers and the BMC’s recommended retail partners.

Individual projects are backed by a range of National Park authorities, outdoor enthusiast groups and charitable trusts, and in Scotland the campaign is represented by the BMC’s sister organisation, Mountaineering Scotland.  
 

A proven success

The Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal follows on from the first Mend Our Mountains campaign, a two month crowdfunding drive which ran in spring 2016 and, thanks to the generosity of the outdoor public, raised £103,832 for mountain paths across England and Wales, garnering national news headlines and raising awareness of the challenges of looking after our most precious landscapes.
The funds raised in this campaign have since contributed to the restoration of seven badly damaged upland sites, with work on the eighth commencing next year.

The Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million website contains more information about the progress of work funded by the first Mend Our Mountains campaign here. The value of the campaign extended beyond the totals given, for example by funding repairs on Kinder Scout which would not otherwise have happened, catalysing a £27,000 repair drive on Dartmoor, and  helping to kickstart work on Snowdon’s Watkin Path.
Mend Our Mountains was voted ‘Campaign of the Year’ by the public in the annual awards run by The Great Outdoors magazine. Its proven positive impact and tangible success has laid the groundwork which Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million seeks to build upon.
 

Timeline

Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million will run over 12 months. It will employ a wide range of fundraising techniques in addition to crowdfunding, from harnessing the generosity of ‘ordinary’ outdoor enthusiasts to drawing in money and support from large businesses, corporate donors and charitable foundations.

Today sees the announcement of the intention to raise £1 million and the details of the supported projects made public. While members of the public can donate through the website from today onwards, the appeal is divided into three phases.
The first phase will run between now and the spring of next year, during which time our fundraising focus will be on drawing in large donations from high net worth individuals, businesses and grant-giving bodies. The start of Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million will be marked with a large parliamentary reception in Westminster on Monday November 20 aimed at galvanising support for the first phase of the appeal.
The second phase will run over the spring and summer of 2018 and will see the main drive to encourage the public at large to donate. The third phase will run in the autumn of 2018 and will see a crowdfunding ‘crescendo’ aimed at raising the remaining sum of money.
We encourage everyone to donate today if they are able, but also to keep an eye on BMC and National Park media over the course of the year for more information about how they can get involved as the campaign progresses and develops. 
 

The projects

The primary projects featured in Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million are:

• Lake District: Scafell Pike (Total sought: £100,000)
• Peak District: The Great Ridge (£140,000)
• Peak District: Cut Gate (£70,000)
• South Downs: South Downs Way (£100,000)
• Snowdonia: Cader Idris (£140,000)
•  Loch Lomond & Trossachs: Ben Vane (£40,000)
• Cairngorms National Park: Beinn a’ Ghlo (£60,000)
• Exmoor: The Chains (£20,000)
• Exmoor: Great Bradley Bridge (£20,000)
• Dartmoor: Nun’s Cross Path (£40,000)
• Yorkshire Dales: Whernside (£46,000)
• New Forest: The Lepe Loop trail (£25,000)
• Brecon Beacons: Bal Mawr (£20,000)

 
The National Parks of Northumberland, the North York Moors, the Norfolk Broads and the Pembrokeshire Coast will also receive funding from this appeal, but at a lower level than the projects above. By donating to the UK wide appeal through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million website donors will be benefitting these National Parks.