Saffron Screen Hits Fundraising Target

We are thrilled to tell you that thanks to the generosity of our wonderful community in Saffron Walden, we have now raised over £54,000 to support Saffron Screen! We set out to raise £50,000 to help us navigate challenging times – we are so delighted to have exceeded that target and that you have shown our community cinema such an outpouring of support!

 We wanted to let you know how we will put the funds raised to good use:

• You may have noticed recently that we are showing films closer to their release date.  Due to restrictions imposed upon us by the distributors, this is not always possible, but we are focused on making this a priority to increase the size of our audiences. It is more expensive to show films at the time of national release (60% of ticket sales rather than 40%) but, with the money raised, we can do this without putting the cinema in danger of closure.
• We are excited to be improving our refreshments offering soon – offering a more authentic cinema experience with a greater and improved selection of concessions.
• We were devastated when we had to close for the month of October which severely affected our income. The auditorium seats were broken and we had to use some of our charitable funds to pay for the necessary repairs.
• We are investing in extra marketing activities e.g. a regular podcast discussing forthcoming films, again with the aim of increased ticket sales.
• To improve efficiency and reliability, we are upgrading some of our technical equipment including our ticketing system which now includes the sale of digital gift cards.  Funds raised will also cover ongoing training to make sure all our staff are comfortable with the new upgrades.

We hope you agree that we are making your donations work incredibly hard! Our priority is to increase audience numbers, so please do keep visiting the cinema – your support means so much and, of course, you can still make a donation, every pound helps to keep Saffron Screen alive!

Saffron Screen’s Business Manager, Jason Bond said:
“We’d like to say a huge thank you to every single person who supported our fundraising efforts. The amount of support for the cinema within the community is incredible and shows what an important asset Saffron Screen is to Saffron Walden.”

Paul Willmott, Chair of Saffron Screen said:
“The cinema is making the valuable donations work incredibly hard. As always, the priority remains to increase audience numbers so please do keep visiting the cinema – your support means so much and, of course, you can still make a donation – every pound helps keep Saffron Screen alive!”