FBRT Friendship

“Nuptial love maketh mankind, friendly love perfecteth it...”

Francis Bacon, Essay 'Of Love' – 1612

The FBRT runs a Friendship scheme for those who are interested in the work.

FBRT Friendship is equivalent to membership, but rather than 'member' we have chosen 'Friend' to describe each member, as (a) we have more opportunity to be friends of each other, and (b) the word 'friend' is a meaning of the name 'Francis', which is derived from the Sanskrit word fri, or pri, meaning 'love', from which are also derived the words 'free', 'freedom' and 'friend'. This is why the name 'Francis' is usually interpreted as meaning 'Free' or 'Freeman'; but basically the name refers to a person who is a good friend.

Benefits

The main benefits of FBRT Friendship include:-

Access to the Friends Area website, with online archive of newsletters, essays, reports, and links to video recordings of talks for FBRT Friends only.
Newsletter (biannual) with in-depth information, philosophical insights, research, discoveries, ideas, news, details of upcoming events and reports of past events, written by Peter Dawkins.
MailChimp email with extra information, including from FBRT Friends, and announcements of upcoming events, new essays, videos and book releases.
Event reports and extra information about FBRT events.
Essays and study papers.
Bursary scheme.
Invites to talks or events for FBRT Friends only.*

* Talks or events for FBRT Friends only can be provided only when possible in an otherwise very busy schedule, so cannot be guaranteed.

Opportunities for FBRT Friends to meet each other, and for Q&As, discussions, insights and sharing of knowledge, is by participating in the FBRT events and online Zoom talks, and the FBRT Friends only events and online talks whenever available.

Subscriptions

To be a Friend of the FBRT requires a minimum annual subscription of £35, renewable at the beginning of each year.

This minimum subscription is purposely kept low so as to help everyone, whatever their means; but we always hope that those with greater means will subscribe more than the minimum.

So please, if possible, subscribe more than the minimum, as the FBRT – an educational non-profit charity – relies mainly on its subscribers and donors, who enable the Trust and its work to keep going.

The subscription can be paid by the following means:-

online via PayPal using a debit or credit card;
sent by mail to FBRT as a £ Sterling cheque made out to 'FBRT' and drawn on a UK bank;
by Bankers Order – please contact FBRT. (N.B. Automatic renewal of Friendship can be made by Banker's Order).

Joining

There are two ways to join the Friendship scheme as a FBRT Friend – online or by post:

1. To join online, please complete this Friendship Application Form in the Friends Area.

On the Friendship Application Form there is an "Instructions" PDF (click button to open) that tells you all you need to know.
Fill in the form online. Click the "PayPal checkout" button.

2. To join by post, please complete this Friendship Application Form.

Fill in the form online, download/save as pdf, and then:
either email the form to sarah@fbrt.org.uk if you have paid the subscription by PayPal or Bankers Order.
or print out the form and post with a £ Sterling cheque made out to ‘FBRT’ and drawn on a UK bank to the address given.

Donations

Besides Friendship subscriptions, the FBRT as a whole needs to be supported by donations and legacies. Therefore, if you can, please make a donation so as to support the work of the FBRT.

See Donations page.

Gift Aid

If you are a UK taxpayer, FBRT Friendship subscriptions and donations to the FBRT are eligible for the Gift Aid scheme. This enables the FBRT to recover from the Inland Revenue the basic rate of tax you have paid on the amount gifted to the Trust, thereby in effect donating an extra amount to the Trust at no extra cost to you (= 25p extra for every £1 you give).