Climbing Hall Crowdfunder Success – thank you

At midday on 18 December our first ever YMCA Taunton Crowdfunder campaign closed after 6 weeks and we are delighted to announce that we smashed our target!

The original target of £3300 was reached within 3 weeks, so we extended our target to £6600 and are delighted to say we reached a grand total of £6771. We can not thank all our supporters enough for believing in our vision and for helping us build something that will benefit the community for years to come.

“We are absolutely blown away by the generosity and encouragement we’ve received from our community. This Crowdfunder has shown just how strongly people believe in our vision for YMCA Taunton. The new climbing hall will be a space where young people and families can build confidence, resilience and a sense of belonging, and we simply couldn’t have done this without our supporters.”

Clare Langley, CEO

Thank you to our supporters

We are amazed that we have raised £6771 in only 6 weeks and we could not have come this far without our kind and generous supporters, including:

Sport England for match funding half our original target – a fantastic £1650
Porter Dodson for a generous donation
Arty Rugs for a donation of rugs for our Rug Sale
Green Days Day Care for a generous donation
Nando’s in Taunton for a donation of Chicken Cheques!
The Monkton Players for a generous donation
Bargain Buys Taunton customers for donating pennies in the charity pots (£130)
Taunton Leisure for sponsoring a route and donating vouchers
Wrencon for sponsoring our climbing hall
The three generous families that donated £100 each for a private climbing session
Everyone that bought a rug
Everyone that booked a Quiz Night ticket
Everyone that supported our Christmas Fayre
Everyone that took part in our Christmas Quackers fundraiser
Every individual that has made a donation, big or small.

Rewards

One of the amazing ways that Crowdfunder enables non-profits to raise funds is by enabling a ‘rewards’ system so kind donators can get something back in exchange for their donation. This enables us to partner with generous local businesses who can offer a reward, and we were also able to offer sporting rewards at our centre.

Some of our most popular rewards included:

Nando’s vouchers
Taunton Leisure vouchers
Visit to see see Father Christmas in his Grotto
Quiz tickets
Rugs
Climbing sessions
Squash sessions
Table Tennis sessions

Events

We are fortunate at YMCA Taunton to have use of our centre to hold fundraising events and we made good use of this to specifically raise funds in our 6 week crowdfunder window.

Our Quiz Night raised over £500
Santa’s Grotto raised over £100
Christmas Fayre raised over £300
Our Christmas Quackers initative raised over £80
Our Rug Sale raised over £700

Watch the Climbing Hall being built!

Thanks to our successful YIF Grant, and our additional fundraising, we now have an amazing new climbing hall. We have appointed our new Climbing Manager, Logan McKelvie, and we will open to the public as soon as possible.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be part of a project with such strong community backing. This climbing wall isn’t just about climbing — it’s about creating opportunities, building confidence and making adventurous activity accessible to everyone. I’m really looking forward to welcoming climbers of all ages and abilities and helping make this a brilliant, inclusive space for Taunton.”

Logan McKelvie, Climbing Manager

Why it matters

This will be the only public climbing wall in Taunton, bringing affordable and adventurous activity to people of all ages.
Climbing builds more than muscle — it builds resilience, concentration, teamwork, and self-belief.
Importantly, it gives young people and local groups access to a facility they might not otherwise afford or reach.
It’s part of a wider vision: a refreshed YMCA Taunton site featuring multi-use spaces, a digital studio, and a training kitchen — all geared to support skills, creativity, connection, and inclusion.