Charity - where is there need right now ?

[nokissymum]

Myself and a group of friends have come together to raise money for disadvantaged children. We have quite unexpectedly had a large donation and are now scratching our heads as to where to spend this money.

Part of our agreement is that we will not donate money from money donated to us. Any monies raised must go directly to the benefactors e.g we will ask for invoices for purchases for say beds to come to us and we will pay, or we will purchase equipement etc.

I have looked into the "poor kids" website by true vision and it seems there is already a loong loong list of charities helping them.

We would like to make an impact in an area where there arent already a whole host of other charities, any area of child deprivation, e.g to do with health, education or just general living.

Mumsnet your help is very much appreciated.

I know there are more than likely many, many charities involved but I would have to suggest East Africa at the moment.

sorry, didn't read that you wanted to donate items rather than money which might be difficult.

Sorry just realised ive posted this in AIBU! have opened another thread under Charities.

I also omiited to mention that funds have to spend in the U.K!

Get into the SN topics on here and offer parents some decent respite?

Donating items can be an issue, some of the ebst work is done eg by homestart but they need cash not items.

Salvation army?

Kids Company?

What about fun activity packs for summer for young Carers?

Kids Company. They have projects to do with furnishing 16 yr olds' flats in London.

A small charity. Don't go for the big charities. They suck up funds and very little of it goes where it does any good. Find a small local charity, they will really NEED the money.

If you think how many billions have been given to charities over the years, why have none of the problems they are set up to sort out been solved? East africa, case in point. HOW much money supposedly for boreholes? There should be a borehole every 100ft if that money was actually getting there!

Why not contact your local Council for Voluntary Services and ask for their help. They will have a list of charities in your area and will be able to guide you towards one that is doing good work. That way you may also be able to set up some kind of ongoing relationship with the charity.

I can think of some local charities in my area that do great work with poor kids, but it will depend where you are based. Personally I think local charities can be better at responding to local needs. So in my area there is a children's charity providing free holidays in a small house they own by the seaside for families who have to be referred by SS or Gingerbread.

Just to say though that getting donations for equipment can be much easier for small charities than getting money for essentials such as paying the phone bill.

Agree with above poster that small charities often make money go further than large National charities. Not surprising as if you are large, you inevitably need to pay for a bureaucracy to manage a large organisation.

thanks to everyone for your replies, please keep them comming!

COOKCLEANER as per the activity packs do you mean like crayons, colouring books type of thing ??? sorry if im being a bit thick here.

MUMBLE and ONEMORNING the flat furninshing project sounds like a good idea too, will investigate more. Thank you.

The young Carers won't be able to do fun things during the holidays so having stuff to do at home would be nice. The contents wouldbe age dependent, such as pencils and doll for little ones or lip gloss and nice note boom for older ones. Your local young Carer group would be able to better advise. Just a suggestion as I know of someone in this situation and they would love a nice bag of treats during the long holidays.

Also strongly agree, stick to small local charities.

Our local NICU has been fundraising for 3 years to expand to meet the rapidly increasing needs of the local and surrounding area. They need £1.5 million and the last time I looked they had got to £400K :( Have a look here

Oh, and well done you for doing something so lovely! :)

COOK - this sounds like BLOODY fantastic idea! cant believe i just swore!

TheMagnificent plenty of problems have been solv ed by xhairity!

From the grants for cancer patients Macmillan give to the family support given by HomeStart to young carer schemes giving kids a break.

many problems don't end but then without a cure for cancer / family wworries / etc they won't.

Now if you mean foreign aid (which op said she wasn;t able to do) that's a different story adn one that a lot of debate centres on (ex charity employee / ethics student- have seen a few in my time!) but then i would go where people recommended if I were giving:eg I have a former Tutor who helps run a school for girls in remote India, and I woudl always choose to give to DEC appeals.

I am involved in a charity that works with lots of disadvanatged families. We are at the moment raising funding for play equipment for our play sessions run in parks and on the streets. Things like footballs, skipping ropes, etc.

We work with children who often come from very difficult backgrounds. For example, mums who will come to see what we are doing early in the morning, while drinking out of a can of lager. 8 year olds sent out to play all day with their 2 and 4 year old siblings that they have to look after.

For charities like ours, small amounts of money can make a real difference. And there will be charities local to you who do similar work and for whom a few hundred pounds will make a real difference.

I work for the Huntington's Disease Association. We are a tiny charity with 30 staff. We cover the whole of the UK. Supporting families who have HD or have been involved with others with HD.

We run 4 kids camps a year -for many the only opportunity for a break from an often hectic family life. I camp is specifically for Children who have JHD and have a limited life.

Funds are always appreciated.

www.hda.org.uk

Although I am sure you are going to get swamped with suggestions :-)

oooooh Peachy, you've touched on one of my ranty-topics Foreign aid. I have a lot of family in Kenya, including one who works in the president's press office. In fact, she visited us the other week. People are getting very pissed off with the whole west charity thing and the way they are being portrayed in the media here! And the fact that there are all these charities here, claiming they are doing this that and the other - when I talk to family and friends - I have yet to come across one who's seen any of these charities doing a damn thing! And of course, there's the difference between the mudhut living, barefoot, walking down a dusty road image that the charities would have you believe is the entire picture, and the skyscrapers in the cities, the people driving around in their 4wheel drives, with their mobile phones... the I.T. city that is being built konza or the rise of technology in africa bet not many people here know anything about that! The reality doesn't fit in with the image the west prefers of savage africa with everyone covered in flies.

If you gave me the amount of money that has been donated to oxfam etc over the years and sent me to east africa, every village would have a borehole and would be irrigating crops and would be farming happily by now. Do you know you can get a borehole up and running for £10,000? How many £10,000s do you think have been raised supposedly for africa? A hell of a lot. It's a great big con and it pisses me right off that people are being used by these companies to get people here to give their money.

But also charities here - the RSPCA for example. 119 million sitting in the bank and they've closed their doors to stray dogs I read recently. My parents tried to get help many times for stray cats living under their deck. Did the RSPCA do anything? Did they hell. How much have they actually done with the money they've had? How much should or could they have done with that money?

The NSPCC? Spends more money on advertising itself than on actually helping anyone, as far as I can see. I can't name a single thing they have actually done. Nothing springs to mind. Oh,there's childline - which they didn't set up but which they have now taken over, I think. But how have they actually, practically, really made a difference? In terms of the amount of money spent, I mean.

Too much of what they get is spent on keeping these businesses - for that is what they are - going. They chuck a token bit at the area they have identified, so they can claim that's what they do. But they don't change much. Because it's not in their interests to solve the problem. No more problem - no more charity. No more charity - no more great whacking salaries.

I don't know anything about cancer charities, so I can't comment. I would like to think that they are in fact working flat out to find cures.

Bet you wish you'd never talked to me now, don't you, Peachy

Local hospices are always short of money and do a superb service.

Not at all, but there are so many different types of charity that blanket statements don't work.

macmillan (at elast when i worked there, presume they still do) used to do simple but wonderful things like pay the ehating bills for someone with a tterminal dx, send a family away for a few days before they lost their Mum, that sort of thing. Never (and I am deeply cyncal about such things!) IMO a wasted effort.

OTOH you did mention two I have only ever heard negatives about from within the sector.

Different charities function in such different ways. HomeStart is a very different business model again, employing only ket staff who then recruit and train volunteers to provide the support. Sadly ours went under becuase we didn;t spend on dedicated fundraisers! we were all too busy just doing.

There are a few nationals I treasure, the two I worked for amongst them, mainly I choose small cncerns- there nwill always be a local SN School lacking decent play area, an older people's centre struggling with broken lifts. Sometimes the simple things make the most significant differences.

But I am also not anti foreign aid, not at all; for a start I think withdrawing it is a massive security risk anyway, but i think it's a moral duty to always try. But trying properly means finding ways to fund the best organisations: and (excepting in disaster situations where emergency response is needing coordination such as in Africa now) that tends to be IME from saller deicated charities, orphanages set up by lcoals to cope with HIV orphans, that sort of thing. Places where people WILL die if we equate all foreign aid as equal.

Not about whether we give it but how.

The NSPCC does provide services - but I agree I also think it wastes massive amounts of money on advertising - the full stop tv adverts come to mind.

But basically charities are independent organisations - some are very well run on a shoe string - some waste massive amounts of money.

Smaller local charities are at the moment, generally struggling for money. Government grants and money from businesses have all been drastically reduced. Most donations go to the large national charities who have money to spend on fundraisers, adverts, etc. So I really would urge you to help a local charity.

What about a local childrens hospice? They always have a need for funds!

You could contact Whizz-Kidz to see if there is a child with a need for specific equipment you could buy.