Supporter FAQs

• Why should I join? What's in it for me?
• I'm not a baker: can I join?
• How do I join?
• What happens after you join?
• Supporter levels
• How do I check if my Campaign support is up to date?
• Where do I find my supporter number?
• Can I use the Real Bread Campaign logo?
• Why do supporters have to pay to use The Loaf Mark?
• How do I update my contact details?
• Payment methods
• Can I pay more or less than the regular rates?
• How do I move up to a higher supporter level?
• Why did a supporter payment go from my account automatically?
• Cancelling automatic subscription payments
• I joined you so why isn't my bakery on the Real Bread Map?
• How do I access the Campaign supporters’ forum?
• Back issues of True Loaf
• Campaign supporter, member or friend?
• Can I join the Campaign from outside the UK or start my own?

See also

• List of supporter benefits and levels
• Gift supporter package
• Who we are and what we do
• General FAQs
• Contact us

Start or renew your support

I'm not a baker: can I join?

Yes! We welcome everyone to become a Real Bread Campaign supporter.

How do I join?

To become a Real Bread Campaign supporter, please:

1. Visit the 'Join the Real Bread Campaign' page.
2. Choose your level of support.
3. Let us know if you would you like to make a one-off or recurring payment.
4. Add your contact details.
5. Make payment.

What happens after I join?

You'll receive a payment confirmation email from PayPal pretty much straight away.*

We'll follow this up (usually within about a week) with a welcome email, which includes some information about being a supporter. If you're in the UK, we'll also post a copy of True Loaf to you. If you're outside the UK (or just can't wait) you can download the PDF version.

* If you don't, please check your email account's spam or junk folder, in case your service provider diverted the message.

Which supporter level should I choose?

We leave it to you to choose an amount you're comfortable paying.

As this is the main source of income that enables the charity Sustain to keep running the Campaign, we encourage you to pick as high a level as you can.

This particularly applies if you run a Real Bread business - please help us to help you. We're THE organisation flying the flag for Real Bread and people who make it, and challenging obstacles to your rise. We also ask you to encourage your customers and employees to join us.

Supporter level	Discounted rate
Level 1	£24.30
Level 2	£49.50
Level 3	£73.80
Level 4	£108.90

(If you choose to pay by card each year, rather than setting up automatic subscription payments, the standard rates are £27/55/82/121)

Level 1

To encourage as many people as possible to join us we've set the lowest level of support at under £25 a year, which works out to £2 and a few pence a month.

We strongly encourage people who can afford it (especially Real Bread business owners) to support our charity at higher level. 

Higher levels

From time to time, some of the discounts and offers we secure are only available to people who support us at Level 2 and above.

Updated rates

We held our supporter levels at the same rates for well over a decade. In August 2023 we finally accepted that we had to raise them slightly to help fill the shortfall between our charity's income and ever-increasing costs. The increase ranged from less than £2 a year at Level 1 subscription rate to £11 at Level 4 standard rate.

How do I check if my Campaign support is up to date?

1. Log into your Real Bread Dashboard.
2. If your Campaign support is up to date, the date the next payment will be made (or is due) will appear in the box at the top left corner of the page.

Where can I find my supporter number?

1. Log into your Real Bread Dashboard.
2. If your Campaign support is up to date, your supporter number will appear in the box at the top left corner of the page.

Can I use the Real Bread Campaign logo?

We LOVE people using the following versions of our logo:

The 'Proud to support the Real Bread Campaign' badge
This is for Campaign supporters to use on blogs, email signatures, websites and ephemera (y'know, leaflets, stickers and that) to show their pride in being part of our charity's network. Supporters can download the badge here

The Real Bread Loaf Mark
Want to give your customers an at-a-glance assurance that a loaf you bake is what the Campaign calls Real Bread? Read all about this scheme here.

To avoid confusion with the above, we reserve use of the basic version of our logo (the roundel with the words Real Bread Campaign) for ourselves.

Why do supporters have to pay to use The Loaf Mark?

The main reasons are:

• Running and promoting The Loaf Mark scheme takes staff time, which costs money.
• The majority of supporters aren't bakers, while not all of those that are want to opt-in to this scheme. We think it's better to charge those who can and want to benefit from it, rather than increase supporter rates across the board.
• We believe that using The Loaf Mark can be of financial value to a business, and that it's fair for our charity to charge for running the scheme.

How do I update my contact details?

If you change your email or postal address, please let us know so that we can stay in touch.

1. Log into your Real Bread Dashboard.
2. Look for the 'Your contact details' panel and click 'Update'.

Payment methods

We accept two means of payment:

By automatic subscription

This is the way that the majority of our supporters pay.

You simply set up the automatic payment via our website using a debit/credit card. Your subscription is made automatically on the same day each year. As a thank you for making things easier for us we give you a 10% discount each year on the standard supporter rate.

We use PayPal as the provider of this secure payment service. If you don't have a PayPal account, you can simply set one up during the application process.

You can get more information, assistance and advice about your PayPal account/payments in the PayPal Help Center

By online payment each year

Your other option is to re-visit our website each year and pay by credit/debit card. We'll send you a reminder when it's due.

You don't need an PayPal account but it's processed by their secure payment system. Please note that the 10% discount doesn't apply.

Other payment methods

Sorry but we don't accept DirectDebit or have the facilities to process card payment over the phone. As a small charity, we don't have the capacity to handle payment by BACS, bank transfer, cheque, invoicing, standing order, cash, crypto whatsits, Green Shield / Co-op stamps, bartering loaves or anything else.

Can I pay more or less?

• Is £24.30 each year is a bit much for you but you still want to help our charity?
• Support us already but feeling flush this month and want to chip in a bit more?
• Loving our work and want to slip us some serious dough?

If your answer to any of these is 'yes', then we'd love you to make a one off doughation.

How do I move up to a higher supporter level?

So, you’d like to increase your support for the Campaign’s work? Fantastic, thank you!

When your support next comes up for renewal:

• If you pay a year at a time by card, simply pick a higher level
• If you set up automatic subscription payments, login to your PayPal account and cancel them. When it comes time to renew (we'll send you a reminder) you can then set up a new subscription at your chosen rate.

Alternatively, you can choose to cancel your subscription and set up a new straight away, effectively donating what you have already paid for the remaining months to our charity's work

And, of course, if you want to chip a bit more into the kitty at any point, you can always make a doughnation.

Why did a supporter payment go from my account automatically?

When you begin or renew your support, we give you the choice of:

• Paying by card or cheque to support us for just one year at the standard rate, or
• Setting up a PayPal subscription to pay at the discounted rate automatically each year

PayPal can ONLY send us money from your account automatically if you choose to set this up. 

PayPal does not (and indeed cannot) take any payment from you to pass onto us without your permission.

Communication

If you select the automatic payment option, we take great care to check that you understand and agree that you are instructing PayPal to make payments to us from your account each year.

The process includes you clicking to confirm that you understand and agree to the conditions. We also display the details on screen for your to note the annual payment date and amount in your records.

When you make your first and all subsequent supporter payments, you will receive a receipt from PayPal. We follow this up with an email to confirm that we have received it and to say thank you.

You can get more information, assistance and advice about your PayPal account/payments in the PayPal Help Center

Cancelling automatic payments

We understand that you might want or need to cancel your automatic annual subscription payments.

To stop any future payments being made to us automatically:

• Go to the PayPal website and login to your account.
• Click on 'Profile' or 'payments'.
• Click on 'My Money'.
• Look for 'My Preapproved Payments' or 'manage pre-approved payments'.
• Next to 'Manage the automatic payments, subscriptions, and instalment plan payments I send to merchants' click on 'Update'
• From the list of all active and cancelled billing agreements and subscriptions, choose the  automatic subscription payments to Sustain for Real Bread Campaign membership and click 'cancel' or 'cancel automatic billing'
• You will be asked to confirm that you want to cancel, so click 'yes'

You can get more information, assistance and advice about your PayPal account/payments in the PayPal Help Center

I joined you so why isn't my bakery on the Real Bread Map?

Being a Campaign supporter and having a listing on our map are independent of each other. To put yourself on the map, you need to login and add the details.

Back issues of True Loaf

Supporters can download PDF versions of past issues here.

In order to keep waste and costs to a minimum, we have a very tight print run for the magazine and so don't have hard copies of back issues.

Supporter, member or friend?

Rather than being a membership organisation with an AGM and everyone having voting rights and so on, the Real Bread Campaign is a project run by the charity Sustain. Instead of members, we have friends and supporters.

We see everyone who signs up to our enewsletter, adds their details to the Real Bread map, downloads a publication, follows/likes us on social media, or otherwise interacts with us, to be our friend.

Those of our friends who make a payment in support of our charity's work are (you guessed it) our supporters.

Not all bakeries listed on the Real Bread Map are Campaign supporters and, conversely, not all Campaign supporters create Real Bread Map listing for themselves.

Can I join the Campaign from outside the UK or start my own?

Wherever and whoever you are, you're very welcome to join the Real Bread Campaign! At times in our journey, we've had supporters in more than 20 countries outside the UK.

...but we know that the best way to make things happen is for people to take action on local issues themselves, so you might want to set up your country's own Real Bread network/campaign.