FAQs
Kitsquad was set up at the beginning of 2020. It’s the only nationwide charity that supplies donated hiking and expedition gear to low-income individuals to enable them to get outdoors wearing or using the appropriate gear.
In 2015, Fran gave up work to become a full-time carer for her daughter, in doing so her household became completely reliant on benefits. This change in their circumstances was not foreseen and it didn’t feature in her life plan. As a single mum with two children, Fran was struggling to ensure they had the right kit to get outdoors. She had a realisation that she could not be the only person in this situation.
Understanding that many people, many families and children would be missing out on adventures with their friends due to poverty, seeing that no other charity was filling this gap she found her purpose – Kitsquad!
The concept is very simple. Generous members of our outdoor community send in their surplus hiking and expedition clothing and equipment. It is received, checked and logged onto the system. When requests for kit come in, if we can match the request with what we have in stock, it is sent out to that individual or family. That item then becomes the property of that person and long may they have adventures with it! Should they find that the item becomes no longer needed, we encourage them to return it back to Kitsquad to enable the next person to use it.
Our target group are people on a low-income. They must be in receipt of an income-based benefit (for example, tax credits, universal credit, income support).
The other beneficiary of this scheme is the planet. Recycling and reusing gear keeps it out of landfill. Shoes and boots can take up to 1000 years to break down and clothing 400 years. The Kitsquad concept supports the growing movement of moving away from a throwaway society.
We currently do not offer support for community groups or charities with a pool supply of gear. Our focus remains on supporting individuals and families. However, individual members of community groups are welcome to apply. If this changes in the future, we will update this website and our social media with the details.
We might be able to rent some items if we have them in stock. If you are interested in renting some items for a specific event, please get in touch and we can see if we can help.
Yes, our charity number is 1207172.
It’s currently operating from generous personal donations. I have applied for some grants and I will keep doing so. The overheads aren’t huge at the moment, with the biggest expense being the postage/courier costs. However, this scheme is currently being run from my lounge and in the first four 4 weeks, it turned over more goods than it had done over the preceding year! For this reason, requests for grant funding is to cover the daily running costs (phone, postage costs, cleaning products, website) and also to cover the rental costs for some storage facilities which will be needed very soon.
We try to cover day to day costs from our generous supporters, if you would like to become a supporter, please see how you can get involved here – For our regular Patreon supporters we hold a monthly raffle!
We have applied for some grants and these are generally tied to specific projects, see the Our Future section for details on how we hope to build a sustainable financial future for Kitsquad.
The biggest expense is postage/courier costs. If anyone is able to help with grant applications, fundraising or just donating, please do get in touch
Gear that we receive that is not suitable for our beneficiaries, or which we have a large stock of we do sell on our online charity shops, feel free to take a look:
We are based in the beautiful county of Shropshire, and we cover the whole of the UK.
Our address is:
Unit 49B
Atcham Business Park
Shrewsbury
SY4 4UG
Most donations are posted to Kitsquad and most items we send out are posted or couriered out to the recipients. Unfortunately, we do not have satellite drop off points. If you are able to host a donation drop off point, please let us know.
Our most requested items are waterproof jackets and waterproof trousers, followed by sleeping bags, rucksacks and tents. For a fuller list of what we do accept, please see this link
Our focus is purely on hiking and expedition gear. For a general idea of what kit we will accept, think Duke of Edinburgh kit list. We do not accept any technical safety gear, such as ropes/harnesses or helmets. We will accept watersports/swimming gear, cycling gear and the big family camping setups, though this is with the understanding that we will sell these items to help us cover our running costs.
Go to the Apply for Gear section of our website and complete the web form.
Tell us the kit you need and a bit about the adventures you want to go on, this helps us ensure you get the right kit!
You will be asked to provide evidence that you are currently receiving an income-based benefit.
We may contact you to discuss your needs and once shipped you will receive an email confirming your order. We cannot always fulfil all kit requested, as this depends on what we have in stock.
We store your data in accordance with GDPR and identifying information will be kept confidential.
There is no financial cost to the recipients of gear, it’s all covered by Kitsquad. In return, we request a non-identifying testimonial that we can share with our supporters and funders and a pledge to send back the gear if it’s no longer of any use to them.
There are several ways that you can donate funds to Kitsquad.
- Patreon – donate a small regular monthly amount via Patreon
- Make a one-off donation via JustGiving
- Donate materials and equipment via Amazon – here is our Amazon wishlist
- Sign up to easyfundraising and see your favourite brands donate to the cause you care about whenever you shop with them.
No, our focus is purely on expedition gear. This is lightweight gear that is designed to be carried in a rucksack. We do occasionally have the bigger tents in, but we sell these to help us raise some funds that goes towards our core running costs. Occasionally we have a warehouse sale, which we will advertise on our socials.
We host a parcel drop-off bin at the Kitsquad unit.
You can send kit to:
Kitsquad
Unit 49B
Atcham business park
Shrewsbury
SY4 4UG
We allow one application per person, per 12-month period.
If you have any further questions please get in touch we would love to hear from you.
