In just over 9 months, we’ve opened the door to a new way of talking about the economy, and people are biting our hand off…

Less than a year ago, a few of us stayed up until about 4am adding the final pages to a website called Economy. Only a few days before had we been sat in central London desperately playing word association to come up with a name for the thing. "Everyone hates the economy. Let’s call it economy". It was settled, we'd tackle the problem head on and create a website for people that didn't like economics, and call it Economy!

"Isn't that a blob somewhere in Westminster?"

The sad thing is though, since launching we've polled thousands of people, conducted hours of face to face interviews, and chatted with dozens of people on the streets, in classrooms, at election time, in shops, homes, and bathrooms, and resoundingly, we were right: people really don't like economics.

But we know we're onto something, because when we dig a little deeper and talk about what the subject really means, suddenly everyone is a lot more energised. We can't transcribe interviews quick enough, or we're having to cut down hours of footage of people discussing their frustration with a topic that they know is important, but they just can't engage with.

There's got to be a better way...

2016 was the year we launched The Campaign for Understandable Economics. Coincidentally, it was also the year people began to talk about the mistrust of experts, and confusion reigned in run up the UK's EU referendum. At a time when there are urgent problems to solve, we’re committed to providing a space where people feel comfortable talking about those problems, and while we’re at it, taking a step back and fixing the way we talk about them too.

2016 has been the year that Economy:

• reached over 100,000 people via our news and entertainment platform delivering a totally new way of talking about the economy
• created a working group of over 30 expert journalists, reporters and editors to realise a better way of talking about the economy in the media
• generated over 250 pieces of unique content *specifically* written for people that don't like economics
• was read in 5,000 inboxes with our weekly jargon-free news digest
• created video content watched for over 370 hours by a totally new audience
• had 25,000 Likes, Wows, Lols, Loves or Sad Faces reactions to our unique content on Facebook
• listened to the feelings of over 3,000 people relating to the economy as part of ambitious research project
• commissioned over 80 NON-economists to write about economics in a fresh and exciting new way
• featured on the BBC, in The Daily Mail, The Independent, The Guardian and The Times to talk about the need for understandable economics
• had a word with ourselves, and flipped our readership from dominantly 60% male, to dominantly 55% female
• enrolled half a dozen journalism students in our content producer scholarship programme, giving the next generation of communicators the opportunity to explore economics
• developed and trialled a ten-week "crash course" on the economy for total beginners
• built a group of dedicated volunteers from around the globe committed to making economics better, and helping us deliver our mission in local communities

• established itself as the voice for an economics that’s Clear, Real, Diverse, Transparent and Available
• partnered with the the RSA to develop a toolkit for understandable economics to be rolled out to their thousands of fellows, and our thousands of followers
• handed Grazia UK the "Golden Pineapple" for winning our “How much do you know about the economy?” pub quiz with the British press hosted by Sara Pascoe
• was read in 204 countries
• partnered with 5 schools, colleges and nurseries in the UK for workshops and videos, getting children as young as 5 excited about economics, and paving the way for our upcoming PSHE Economics lesson plan
• met with politicians, the Bank of England and the financial industry to discuss how to make economics understandable
• wrote, from scratch, a 200-page strong fully researched, edited and peer-reviewed bite-size guide to the economy, that people "love"
• engaged with over 350 people face to face via research, video conversations and in small groups to discuss their experience with economics and devise a new way they could engage with it
• spoke about the need for understandable economics at various events including alongside Andy Haldane chief economist at The Bank of England, and at the launch of documentary Boom Bust Boom by Monty Python's own Terry Jones
• gathered near to 100 drawings of 'economists', at least some of whom weren't wearing a tie

In short, we've been overwhelmed with the positive response we've had to the work we've done this year. People whose eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the economy, are excited about a new way to engage with this subject.

And we couldn't have done it without the help of people like yourself, those that believe in what we are doing, and are helping in an enormous variety of ways. Thank you.

As many of you know we're a small charity that relies on the support of our generous funders to continue. Please consider giving us a donation as we approach the new year! No donation is too big or too small to help secure our future. Your gift will help support the future of our mission to make the economy something we can all feel a part of.

We look forward to sharing our journey with you in 2017!