MNHQ calling: Giving Week (our recent match-funding drive) - your thoughts please!

[KateHMumsnet]

Afternoon folks,

As you may remember, back in June we hosted our first ever Mumsnet Giving Week to shine a light on some brilliant causes nominated by Mumsnetters. Thanks to you, we were able to raise £11,302.43, which when we matched, rose to a whopping £22,604.86!

Woolly Hugs, Women’s Aid, Haven House, the PDA Society and Free Cakes for Kids are all overcome with warm-fuzzy feelings, as are we. This will make such a difference to all the people out there supported by these incredible charities and causes, and we hope will have a really positive impact on what they can achieve this year, so hats off to all of you!

We’ll be back with an update from the charities later in the year, so that you can hear firsthand from them about how your donations have made a difference. But in the meantime, we wanted to to ask you what you thought of our first ever Giving Week.

What do you think worked well, and what didn’t?
What compelled you to give, if you donated?
If you didn’t get involved in nominating or donating, was there anything in particular that stopped you?
What would you like to see as part of future giving weeks?

Giving back to the organisations who support Mumsnetters is important to us, and we’d like to make this a more regular feature so all feedback very welcome.

MNHQ

ABland
Ah, good point. Perhaps MNHQ could show a running total of donations then, instead of the individual amounts for each charity? Make it less of a competition of which charity is more worthy, and let people decide who they wish to support.

I think the 'lively debate' on here beautifully illustrates one of the biggest challenges MNHQ has with Giving week, and that is choosing which to support.

Each charity on the original thread, whether small, local, run entirely on a voluntary basis, through to huge, national, registered with the Charity Commission was valued and meaningful for whatever reason by the nominee. We must respect that. All valid and all important.

So choosing some over the others must have been very difficult. Bound to cause controversy, but I hope it won't put you off running Giving Week again?

I really am speechless now with regards to the further comments about WH made by higgle. In fact I feel quite upset.

GarlicAugustus - I was surprised to see WA's struggling to reach their target. Someone posted this on a thread during Giving Week:

The Women's Aid that is being donated to here is the federation of england - they provide no funding to grass roots domestic abuse services and in actual fact charge small charities to belong to the federation and use the women's aid name

WAFE (Women's aid federation of england) pay for half of the helpline (refuge pays the other half) and pay for national campaigning for DA but all the local refuges and abuse services in the country are expected to fundraise for themselves and are not allowed to contact any of the WAFE supporters or celebrities for assistance with this

Bella, don't be upset lovely, I was last night, but you know, I am very confident and proud about what we all do. Stand tall.

From the start I loved reading the thread about all the charities that were meaningful to Mumsnetters, for eg not heard of Cakes for Kids and loved it, such a successful way of sharing information and raising awareness. Hadn't heard of Haven House either

Even before being nominated, just the thread raised our profile, we saw a spike in visitors to our website, lots more followers on FB and Twitter. Hope other charities saw similar, everyone benefitting at that point.

Could more be made of the nominations thread to spread this benefit, am trying to think how. Will be back on this if it comes to me!

Think Yimby confused quite a few folk, the crowd funding, the all or nothing bit. Folk were confused re pledges or donations. That could do with clarification.

Yimby is perfect for small unregistered charities like Woolly Hugs, but suits a fixed amount type project - their example of the scouts raising funds for a roof is a perfect example, and of course we didn't fit that model as our fundraising is ongoing. This is why we struggled filling in the Yimby page, I suspect Cakes for Kids had exactly the same problem.

Having said that the folk at Yimby were very supportive and easy to work with.

I do wonder if there is a different way to collect the money?

I think people are forgetting that all the charities selected were nominated by MNers. So, it's a little late to criticise the choices if you were not part of the collective group nominating and voting for them. The Cakes for Kids one was especially popular if I recall correctly.

higgle appears to be saying that because her aunt didn't want a blanket, nobody should have one. while simultaneously berating us for dictating what others should or shouldn't like

The Yimby thing was very confusing. WA set itself a very ambitious target and so missed out on its match funding ... or did it? I can't remember how the match funding was meant to work, which was my earlier point about the campaign being unclear.

Perhaps MN could have a split between domestic and international funding for the projects as Comic Relief does - so much for UK charities and so much for the developing world. Or specifically raise money for charities doing work in the UK, as I think the choices reflected anyway. Like many posters on this thread I already contribute to charities doing work outside the UK, like Water Aid, and so a domestic campaign doesn't pull funds from vital work elsewhere in the world.

Higgle is just determined to be Right.
Therefore nothing that is said will make a difference to her posts
Although the way her misconceptions are being addressed with actual facts are making her look foolish.

Btw we don't make crocheted blankets for care homes

But you just carry on Being Right.
I can tell its very important to you.

I'm probably the least sentimental person I know and even I love the idea of WH ! and can see the benefits . I actually feel a bit sorry for the staff in the care home who thought that they were being nice to Higgles aunt - you just can't help some people.

"Im sorry but I cant see how a knitted balnket can mean that much to anyone"

It meant the world to my family when our daughter was in special care after being born 10 weeks early, knowing that people cared enough to give us a little of their time and effort when we were exhausted, scared and struggling was heartwarming.

We will always treasure that blanket, it's so much more than just a knitted square. It's comfort and reassurance all wrapped in into one small package.

I haven't been on MN since before we received that blanket, and yet I've come back for this post. That's how much Woolly Hugs meant to me.

What do you think worked well, and what didn’t?

I really liked the idea of Giving Week - and especially that it was up to MNetters to nominate the charities. Some of the posts made about people's chosen charities were really moving and inspiring - and even if they weren't chosen in the end, as the final five, we got to hear about charities other than the obvious, big, national ones.

The commitment from MNHQ to match fund was brilliant, and I take my hat of to Justine and Carrie for this idea.

What compelled you to give, if you donated?

I donate and knit for WH already and this will continue, so wanted to give to another cause. I chose Women's Aid. I chose it for two reasons - one, because I read so much about women on MN needing help to escape domestic violence that it seemed an obvious charity to support. The second reason was actually driven by how little had actually been pledged by MNetters. I was quite shocked by that, actually.

What would you like to see as part of future giving weeks?

Well it's clear from this thread that so many people weren't aware of it, and/or got the wrong end of the stick about each of the charities. For me, despite the name of it being Giving Week, I still didn't realise that we only had a week to make our donation!

So much more needs to be done to make people aware of it. I know it was stickied as a thread, but could you, perhaps, use a different coloured font, so that it really stands out in Active Convos? I think it also needs to be advertised/trailed more on the site - so banner ads, perhaps, saying 'Giving Week is coming soon ...'

And more in the newsletter/round-up too - although I'm not sure how many people sign up to those these days.

The fact that money was to be match funded by MNHQ was certainly motivating, really rather marvellous - all credit to you, and thanks too.

The fact that it was for a week added urgency, we needed to get on with it, that was a good thing. Tis why we always put a relatively short time frame on returning squares for Woolly Hugs, give too long and folk forget or put it off.

Oh MofG!!

Huge hugs for you all xxx

I like the idea of a Q&A for each of the nominated charities . That would have the added benefit of raising the profile of Giving Week, as if it was stickies it would attract attention.

Still not sure how to address raising the profile of asking for nominations though .

As for Higgle , she dug herself into a hole by conflating the experience of her mother "forcibly" being given a blanket and the collaborative process that is Woolly Hugs. Although her very determination not to read the explanations has given those that know better the chance to describe what is done to other (anonymous) MNers and by all accounts actually added to Woolly Hugs contributors.

I also know Pistey and Knotty and know that the work that they do on behalf of Woolly Hugs is given freely and generously, at the cost of much personal time & effort.

I am on their behalf that aspersions have been cast on their motives. Fortunately, most people know better.

Ah, not for the first time, I agree with BIWI, think maybe more features about the chosen charities would be a good thing. I know each had their Yimby page, but as said, we didn't really fit their format, and were limited on word number and only one photo, so maybe each could have a blog stylee featured post on MN? During the week, saw lots of Tweets from MNHQ, my DH saw it on Google+ but was it featured on your FB page? Didn't see anything. Maybe that would be a good way to spread the word about Giving Week?

Love BIWI's idea of the banner heading to help raise awareness.

There was something early on about Woolly Hugs and how the funds would just benefit Knotty and me (we considered booking a holiday to Italy) (no one take that seriously, obviously were didn't) and I think it would be good to be able to state the constitution, if that's the right word about each. Make it all very clear. Woolly Hugs is an online small charity run entirely on a voluntary basis, and although based in the UK, we welcome crafters and donors world wide and support projects outside of the UK. That kinda thing. It didn't fit on the Yimby page, maybe we need to look again at our website.

Be interesting to know how many actually visited the Yimby pages. Do they have page counts?

For a long time DD thought the phrase was 'cast nasturtiums'

I'm quite shocked that in 2014 it isn't universally acknowledged that if you want to help someone the best way is to say "what would you like?" "what would bring you the greatest benefit?" It might be a blanket or a cake, but I'm pretty sure that for some people some money towards a cleaner, fares, or maybe a professional family photograph might be preferred. My very last word on the topic is that where charities only give one thing - even in various forms - it may be because giving it brings greater rewards for the giver than the recipient. The charity I am chair of doesn't really come into this but with our grant scheme we pay for all sorts of odd things, from making someone's garden nicer for them to enjoy when they can't get out to essential repairs, and adapted kitchens and bathrooms, we also fund respite care. It is a question of personalisation, something that is paid lip ervice to by social care, but often not adhered to in real life.

Could I say something about small, supposedly " useless " gifts -slightly off topic I know, but I wanted to encourage all the wooly huggers

Ds was in the special care baby unit in our local children's hospital when he was a few weeks old. At Christmas, they were visited by sailors from a navy vessel which was docked nearby, who brought gifts of teddy bears to the children .

DS was a tiny and very sick baby -he couldn't " use" a stuffed toy. But we were so touched by the love and concern shown by these men, complete strangers. DH ( not an emotional man), still tears up when he thinks of it .

This was over 20 years ago -sadly we lost DS when he was a teenager. We still have the bear, it's a tangible reminder of the love and kindness of others which helped carry us through some difficult times .

Bless all you crafters who knit love into every wooly stich .