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.

Local hospices are a good idea, but to be honest they already have a lot of people fundraising for them. Whereas charities which deal with disadvantaged children are really struggling due to the 'it's your own fault' perception of many people. (Not my view by the way... I'm a charity fundraiser for a charity working with vulnerable families and this attitude really makes it hard to get our message across).

"Not about whether we give it but how."

oh yes. 100% yes. The current 'how' just isn't working.

what about educational itmes for the schools in gambia for more info on what they need you coukd contact kitwell primary school who is link school to the one in gambia

My Mum is a member of a charitable group. They had a talk from a worker at the local Refuge. Because my Mum's group is also a registered charity they weren't allowed to make donations. Instead, they collected toys, bath stuff, sanitary towels, nappies, bottles etc to donate because the women coming to the refuge had walked out of the door in the clothes they stood up in to get away from abusive partners.

Could you do a mahoooooooosive supermarket shop on behalf of a local refuge? The woman doing the talk was absolutely overwhelmed - every member of Mum's group had enlisted family and friends and transporting the stuff involved at least 2 trips!

TheMagnificentBathykolpian i love you. I am always on about the NSPCC, they have publicising themselves as a core charitable function so they can spend all their money on advertising no problem. as far as I can see the majority of services they carry out are contracted / commissioned by local authorities.

nokissymum have you thought about whether you only want to buy things directly for the children, or help out their family / household to indirectly benefit them? How are they going to find you? Are you going to ask support workers or social workers to apply on their behalf?

I agree with the comment that local charities working with disadvanatged children often find it the hardest to raise funding. Some of these kids are suffering because of their families, some through no fault of their families.

I come across families every day who through terrible circumstances really struggle. For example x who left her violent partner with her kids and was rehoused in a really rough part of the City. Unfortunately for her X isn't rough. She is ordinary and polite.

As a result she is seen as an easy target. She had very few belongings but has been burgled by her neighbours - although she can't prove it - a number of times. She doesn't have insurance, but tbh no company would insure her contents. So she however hard she saves and tries to provide a good environment for her kids, she ends up with very few belongings in her underfurnished house.

Or the two kids who attend our play sessions who have a father looking after them who appears to be constantly semi drunk. He isn't abusive and they do get the basics e.g. food, clothes. But he never seems to really spend any time with them - playing with them, encouraging them. So our volunteers and staff (our services are run mainly by volunteers with support from paid staff) go out of their way to show interest in them, praise them and generally show they care about them.

There will be local charities doing this kind of work where you live. Most don't have much money for publicity, so you may not know about them. But your local Council for Voluntary Services will do.

And most local charities like this would love it if you gave donations, but also said you were interested in helping longer term. For example, you could say that you can give donations of equipment now and would like to try and raise money at Xmas to give £x worth of donations then. It doesn't have to be much. A small amount can make a massive difference to local charities.

Thank you to everyone who has posted. You have been very very helpful, like i said in the SN section i am compiling a list of requests now, there are soo many! And will then assess, i will endeavour to come back with an update so please bear with me, it may take a few weeks.

Brilliant!

Dear all, thanks again for all your responses, just to let you know that after much discussion and considerstion, it was decided to split the money amongst children in the local areas where we are based. Some went towards hydrotherapy sessions for a child with cerebral palsy and the rest went to various children who have autistic needs.

We're sorry we couldnt meet everyone's needs here, but will keep this thread for when we have future funds particularly those who pm'd me, to be considered.

Kind regards.

What a huge act of kindness OP and fellow volunteers. :)

If anyone else has a similar happy dilemma may I please suggest the Red Balloon Learner Centres? Red Balloon is a charity which provides a holistic rehabilitation programme within its own small schools for children who have been so severely bullied that they cannot attend mainstream school, with the objective of providing children with the support and skills to return to mainstream. Many of these children are so traumatised that they have attempted or seriously contemplated suicide.

It has a very high success rate and is the ONLY organisation in the country to provide such assistance - the best any local authority can offer is a Pupil Referral Unit, which is not in the least suitable for bullied children. Red Balloon is a fee paying school although a charity as it of course can't run on love alone - most children go there with the very begrudging funding of their LAs and their parents have to fight like hell for months to get that funding.

They are FANTASTIC, their care and holistic support for children AND their families is so warm and dedicated it has often brought me to tears. Without Red Balloon DD2 certainly wouldn't be looking forward to returning to a new mainstream school next month... there have been times when I have feared that she might not have survived at all.