Help Keep FND Connect Running

Our little MacBook has helped us build FND Connect. Now, quite simply, we’ve outgrown it.

FND Connect CIC exists to support people living with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), their families and carers.

Through FNDConnect.org.uk, we provide information, practical resources, community support, grant funding, educational materials and technology designed around the real needs of people affected by FND.

Much of that work happens from one laptop.

It is where we manage our services.

It is where we build new resources.

It is where we create graphics and educational materials.

It is where we administer our grant programmes and community projects.

And increasingly, it is where we are developing the technology that we hope will make life with FND just a little easier — including our iOS app.

The problem is simple: our laptop can’t keep up anymore.

Our faithful MacBook Air has only 8GB of memory and limited storage.

When FND Connect began, it was more than enough.

But our organisation has grown, our services have grown, and the demands we place on the computer have grown with them.

We are now regularly working with graphics, development tools such as Xcode, large files, multiple applications and the day to day systems needed to keep FND Connect operating.

The laptop is increasingly struggling.

Applications freeze.

The machine crashes.

Work we have spent time creating is sometimes lost, meaning we have to start again.

Tasks that should take minutes can take considerably longer.

And time spent waiting for a struggling computer, or recreating work after a crash, is time we cannot spend developing resources and supporting the FND community.

It has become a genuine bottleneck to what FND Connect can achieve.

That’s why we’re asking for your help.

We want to purchase a reliable, higher-specification Apple MacBook that can comfortably support our work for years to come.

We don’t need the fanciest computer available.

We need a dependable machine with enough memory, storage and processing power to allow us to:

• develop and maintain our iOS application using Xcode;
• create graphics, videos and educational resources;
• manage FND Connect’s website and digital services;
• administer our community and grant programmes;
• create new tools and resources for people living with FND;
• work efficiently without repeatedly losing progress to crashes and slowdowns.

This is not just a new laptop.

It is a piece of infrastructure that helps keep FND Connect running.

Every resource we create, every new service we develop and every piece of technology we build needs equipment capable of producing it.

Could you help us fund it?

Whether you can contribute £5, £10, £25 or more, every donation will bring us closer to replacing the machine that is currently holding our work back.

And if you can’t donate, sharing this fundraiser with somebody who might be able to help would mean just as much.

Our existing MacBook won’t simply be discarded either.

Once replaced, we want it to continue doing some good. Although it is no longer powerful enough for the work FND Connect now requires, it remains useful for lighter tasks, and we would like to see it refurbished or passed on so that somebody else can benefit from it.

The laptop that helped us start FND Connect deserves another life, and FND Connect now needs the equipment to begin its next chapter.

Your donation won’t disappear into an abstract project.

It will help fund a tangible piece of equipment that we will use every single day to develop, manage and grow services for the FND community.

Please donate today and help give FND Connect the technology we need to keep going, and keep growing.

Thank you for believing in what we’re building.

FND CONNECT CIC

Connecting the FND community with support, tools and hope.

FNDConnect.org.uk