Support the work

Help keep the archive going.

Every supporter’s name lives on the page their gift made possible - not on a leaderboard ranked by amount, not as a logo on a corporate sponsor strip. The page is the wall.

Memorial gifts can read in memoriam. How memorial giving works →

§ 1 · Project-specific

Sponsor a Shoot

Fund the documentation of a specific maker, keeper, carrier, rememberer, steward, or gatherer. Your name appears on that person’s archive page in perpetuity. Documentation of [Subject] supported by [Your Name]. The page is the wall.

A documentary day costs £600 - the team on the road, fuel and travel, film and processing, the editorial pass, and the archival print returned to the subject. Today, that team is Mash with Bhavani as field producer, plus an occasional collaborating photographer; the third pair of hands at scale is what sponsorship funds. The three tiers below are one day, three days, or ten days of that work funded in your name.

In memoriam (optional)

If you’d like the credit line to read in memoriam rather than under your own name, write the line as you’d like it to appear. The founder will confirm the spelling with you before publication.

§ 2 · Organisations

Institutional Sponsorship

For organisations and brands whose own work aligns with documenting and supporting English heritage, three sponsorship tiers underwrite a meaningful piece of the archive’s Year One work in exchange for permanent association.

Each tier routes to a conversation, not direct Stripe checkout. Institutional gifts are shaped in dialogue: the recognition slot, the named pillar or programme, the editorial firewall, and the contractual terms are confirmed together before any payment is requested.

Pillar Sponsor

£15,000 - £25,000

Your organisation is named as the sponsor of one of the Six categories - Makers, Keepers, Carriers, Rememberers, Stewards, or Gatherers - or a single documented region for Year One. The credit appears on the category landing page, on every subject page within it, and on the supporters page in perpetuity.

Discuss the Pillar tier →

Programme Sponsor

£25,000 - £50,000

Your organisation underwrites a year-long programme - a body of work spanning multiple visits, places, or a focused theme. Named association on the programme’s landing page, dedicated profile on /supporters, and named on the publication if the programme produces one. Includes one editorial conversation per year on which crafts the archive prioritises next.

Discuss the Programme tier →

Founding Sponsor

£50,000+

The largest scale of institutional support, reserved for the brand or organisation that wants to be permanently associated with the archive’s first chapter. Named on the published book, on every published page from the sponsorship year, and on the project’s permanent record. Bespoke recognition shaped in conversation; the sponsorship is structured around the partner’s editorial fit with the archive.

Discuss the Founding tier →

Sponsors fund the work, they do not direct it. This is written into every sponsorship contract. The editorial integrity of the archive is the asset; preserving it is non-negotiable. The full standing commitment is set out in the Method page.

§ 3 · Recurring

Archive Circle

Annual membership. The recurring layer that lets the archive plan shoots a year out instead of project to project. Members are listed on the supporters page, receive an archival print each year, and get early access to new profiles before they go public.

In memoriam (optional)

If you’d like the membership to be given in memory of someone, write the line as you’d like it to read on the supporters page each year the gift recurs. The founder will confirm the spelling with you before publication.

Renews yearly via Stripe. Cancellable anytime via the billing portal link Stripe sends with each receipt.

§ 4 · One-off

General giving

A one-time gift, or a small monthly amount. Lower-friction than the sponsorship and circle options above - for the reader who wants the archive to keep going without committing to a particular shoot or a yearly subscription.

Other amount (£)

In memoriam (optional)

If this gift is in memory of someone, write the line as you’d like it to read on the founder’s thank-you note. For larger memorial gifts that fund a dedicated shoot, see the memorial gifts page.

Email (optional, applies to whichever section you submit)

Card details are entered on Stripe’s secure pages, not here. The archive does not see or store any card information.

Where the money goes

A documentary day - the £600 unit

The £600 figure that anchors the Sponsor a Shoot tiers is the actual cost of a single working day for the documentation team. The components, in order of size:

The team on the road. Mash as the primary documentary photographer, Bhavani as field producer, and (at scale) a collaborating photographer. Today the third role is most often filled by Mash himself; sponsorship funds the third pair of hands. Travel and a working day’s time per person.
Fuel and travel. Most subjects are documented several hours from London. Fuel for the car or train tickets when the location is rail-served. Far locations needing an overnight stay add £100 - £400 per night.
Film and processing. Two rolls of medium-format Bronica film typically (£20 + £25 lab processing each) plus the digital working frames.
The editorial pass. Several days of work after the visit - image selection, prose, captioning, archive ID assignment, page build, registry entries.
The archival print returned to the subject. Every documented person receives a signed, mounted Hahnemühle print of a frame from their visit. Cost is part of the work, not optional.

The three tiers stack day-multiples on top: £600 = one day, £1,800 = a three-day multi-visit body of work, £6,000 = ten days across a season. Far locations with overnights are documented per-entry on the page being sponsored, so the visitor sees the actual cost of the specific shoot.

Of every £100 received

Vernacular Archive CIC is small enough that every line is visible. Of every £100 received:

~95% Direct documentary cost Train tickets, fuel, film stock, processing at a working London lab, archival paper for the prints returned to subjects, the editorial time the work takes between shoot and publication.
~3% Stripe card fees UK Stripe pricing is 1.5% + 20p per European card transaction (higher for international cards). Blended across gift sizes and card mixes, the line averages around 3%.
~2% Admin overhead Site hosting, the email pipeline, file storage, the CIC’s annual filings. Kept deliberately small.

There is no fundraising department and no marketing line. The project is run by Mash, the founder, with editorial and partnership support from the institutional ring documented on The Ring. Every line above is a real receipt; if the proportions ever change materially, this page changes with them.

Tax and structure

Vernacular Archive CIC is a Community Interest Company registered in England and Wales (Company No. 16432951). A CIC is not a charity, which means contributions are not tax-deductible and the project does not issue Gift Aid declarations. The trade-off is operational simplicity: every penny goes directly to the work rather than to fundraising overhead.

Other ways to support

If a financial contribution is not the right fit, three other channels:

A subject referral. Tell us about a maker, keeper, carrier, rememberer, steward, or gatherer whose work should be on record. /contact.
An institutional partnership. If your organisation works in heritage, photography, or publishing, the named-pillar and named-programme tiers in section 2 above are the formal route.
The Bench. If you make something with your hands, contribute your own process photographs to the reader-led register. /bench.

Whichever route - thank you. Every photograph published on this archive is supported by people the archive will probably never name. The work is shared.