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

I quite like doing something if somebody less lazy than myself organises it or puts in place a mechanism for me to join in.

I didn't join in with the Christmas thing last year but I found myself with an item of clothing too good to waste and thought somebody might like it. I contacted MNHQ, asked them, they sent me somebody's name and address and I sent it. Happy all round, no drama, no fuss.

I will ask MNHQ to give me somebody's name again for the appeal. I'd like to participate because I can. Even if I wouldn't join in with the threads, I certainly wouldn't call for the ruination of the appeal because a lot of people like it, why would I? Why would random posters want to get it 'stopped', why not just give it a swerve if you don't like it?

Charity giving... Like BettyBolognese, I have a particular affinity for the Poppy Appeal and that gets a chunk, it always will. I also like animal shelters and local operators not too big for their boots. I support them, quietly.

I agree with CateBlanket that some charities may not accord with posters and we all have our 'pet' ones that we like to support. Maybe the minimum donation should be £1 rather than £2? Some people don't have £2 to spare but would be thrilled to give £1 and feel included.

Generally, I think it's really bad form to critique what somebody else is doing if you don't do anything or offer any alternative. Some people will just complain because they have a platform to do that, its sad. Nobody is forced or coerced to participate if they don't want to but they should have the grace to keep silent.

I think you cannot possibly criticize anybody with good intentions doing something they think will comfort somebody. Be it cake or a knitted blanket. And of course any recipient with an ounce of manners would show grace and be thankful, in recognition of the thought at least. Whether they find cake or blankets useful, or not. It is only decent.

Equally, any mnetter with a shred of decency would post in gratitude on the thank you threads after Christmas, whether they liked the items received, or not. If you are the parent of teenage boys and you received "my little pony" suitable for a preschooler, you would still post a heartfelt thank you. Not because your son will go to school with a My Little Pony diary or hairbands, but because somebody made the effort.
You will probably also be mindful that there may be a little girl somewhere that may have loved the gift your sons just received, or a little girl who could possibly thrilled with tech decks and her very own Iphone air phones!

As for needing £1000 for a meeting? Thats a pretty good example of a charity that swallows large proportions of funding in administrative costs and perhaps reimbursing "volunteer" expenses, to the point you wonder if there is really anything left for the "good cause". Why was this approved?

I thought MNHQ didn't choose five charities from those nominated by mumsnetters but invited msnetters to vote for which five they should donate to. I could be wrong though - memory is very fuzzy these days.

I think that a lot of people who will make charitable donations already are donating via direct debits etc - this is certainly my case, and so I didn't give to the MNHQ charities, although I appreciated the matched funding aspect.

There isn't the same peer-pressure online that there is regarding donations in the office or at schools, for example.

re. the Cakes for Kids network day - I work for a charity myself (for which I'm paid), as well as volunteering for a couple of other charities. In my experience, a well-run meeting of this type can be extremely productive in advancing the aims of the charity. We run one at least once a year, in which different representatives share what they've done, explain how it could be done in other regions, trouble-shoot issues they've had, suggest potential improvements, and so on. We're very careful that volunteering doesn't come with high financial costs to the volunteers, and this does mean paying for travel expenses, additional childcare costs, etc. People have the choice about whether to claim their expenses and not everyone does, but we make it very clear that their time and skills are the voluntary contribution we ask for, not the costs of travel and childcare.

I didn't donate - reasons being that a) I already donate through just giving and sponsoring various friends and colleagues at work and b) mumsnet is my relaxation in the evening where I just want to veg out and have no demands made of me - I kind of felt the same way I feel when I see people trying to fund raise on facebook, it's not my preferred way to want to think about and give to charity.

I also prefer charity giving to be a semi private thing - I don't like the YAY this company/team raised all this money for charity back slapping - when it's not them, it's the people who have donated.

I absolutely hated the thread where the OP tried to hector people into giving money - I felt that was misplaced and unnecessary.

I'm absolutely fine with the charity appeal existing on mumsnet - some people will want to donate this way and perhaps some people who aren't at work won't be bombarded with charity requests already so have a bit more capacity to want to do this.

I'd be much more likely to give to say a local foodbank appeal and if the sites for these were posted on a website that I use I'd be more than willing to bring along stuff to it - I don't know why but it feels more right than asking for money.

I think the point with Justine not just distributing £25k was the hope of getting £50k in total into the charities.

I didn't take part because I don't need MNHQ to suggest random charities I should donate to

There, Cate. That is your error. MNHQ didn't suggest random charities. MNetters nominated them.

There, Cate. That is your error. MNHQ didn't suggest random charities. MNetters nominated them. And that proves how poorly organized and promoted this was. I did not know this until much later, like many it seems.

It is an error Cate shared with many, not all of us "live" her, and even people who are part of the furniture (like me) did not even realize one could suggest and vote for charities.

Original thread where MNHQ ask for nominations from Mumsnetters

Towards the end of Justine posted

Thanks for all of your nominations. We've been really moved by the sheer number of wonderful causes that Mumsnetters are supporting and have reason to champion up and down the country (and indeed overseas) .

In all honesty it's hard to single any out and it's been really tricky to narrow them down to a promised shortlist of five, but we think it's worth doing, as we're keen to make a meaningful impact to those chosen.

So apologies for the inevitable disappointment if your cause hasn't been chosen, but we hope we've come up with a really great selection of causes that represent Mumsnet well.

In choosing we looked at every single nominated cause and our selection was based on a combination of number of nominations, size of the organisation (with a bias towards smaller rather than bigger) and relevance to Mumsnetters. As well as that we've tried to have a range of different issues covered.

I absolutely hated the thread where the OP tried to hector people into giving money - I felt that was misplaced and unnecessary.

Yes to this too. The OP of said thread probably didn't mean it to go the way it did but that thread got on my nerves too... It was too bloody preachy.

So MNHQ had the unenviable task of shortlisting from nominations rather than asking MNetters to vote (as I'm suggesting) for the five charities. Cakes for Kids got a lot of support on that thread but didn't even get enough pledges from donors to reach their target.

Likewise Haven House which provides respite for terminally ill children and support for bereaved families only met their target because of a couple of very large donations from individual donors. MNHQ had asked for local charities/projects rather than the larger national ones, however, people were complaining that Haven House didn't cover the whole country - like it matters where I sick child happens to be living when they are in dire need of help That was one charity I would have pledged to if I had extra money that week.

So I think MNHQ are in a lose-lose situation; people will complain about national organisations (Women's Aid) and complain about something being restricted to a geographical location. Though hopefully I'll be proved wrong if they publicise it better next time and give people more time to donate.

Thanks for the link Cate.

Looks like it was started on the Friday before May bank holiday, maybe that's why some missed it?

Thanks for the link cate. Half term, bank holiday weekend? Great start for a campaign like that - no wonder so few knew and donated.

No - the early may bank holiday which isn't half term.

I post nearly every day, but I didn't notice the appeal. I've seen the harrowing adverts by Oxfam for South Sudan and Save the Children for central Africa tonight on television, although I usually only give to animal charities I'll send each of them something "Wooly Hugs" and "Cakes for Kids" ? Can't bbelieve they are for real, are we supposed to see them as genuine good causes?

I saw the reminder by another MNer I didn't donate here but it reminded me to donate to a local hospice appeal I was aware of. So it did work in a roundabout way.

I agree with a PP that charity giving often feels or needs to be personal. With such a wide spread of individuals (geographical, backgrounds, causes that are close to our hearts) you're never going to please everyone.

Woolly Hugs is a 'home-grown' Mumsnet effort, that now has charitable status. It's horrible that you wouldn't see them as good causes, higgle.

Do you know anything about them, and the work that people on MN do for the charity - on a purely voluntary basis?

Woolly Hugs

For anyone who hasn't any idea what it's about or why it was started

I work for a charity and am chair of a large national charity for older people so I do know what it is all about. I'm a bit anti blankets as the old crochet square blankets that older people used to be swathed in in residential homes are now seen as taking away dginty. I think if you are going to give someone something to help self esteem it should be something of their chosing, not something you just decide to create and give. Sometimes charity work is more about how those involved in the giving feel than those who receive. I expect those who received blankets would have preferred a nice item of clothing of their own choice. I had an aunt in a care home who was the victim of the crochet blanket, we had to explain that she had always been a stylish person and she didn't appreciate being made to look as if she didn't care. We replaced it with a Brora poncho type thing which raised her spirits a bit!

WTAF?! You do know that the blankets are knitted/crocheted for MNetters who have been bereaved?! We're talking about people who have lost babies, or children - or MNetters who have themselves died!

Seriously higgle?? That is so untrue!

Wooly Hugs is homegrown because families who have lost their child or parent really DO appreciate knowing that MNers who have supported them through their bereavement are thinking about them.

I think they are amazing for what it's worth.

Higgle..wooly hugs isn't about something to keep someone warm it's about a community of people coming together and spending time crafting something made with love to show the family they are in people's thoughts and giving families a tangible item to remember the bereaved by..they are personalised and special for so many families. I actually think your comments are quite disrespectful and unkind.

Thats just your opinion higgle - and a very negative one at that.

Woolly Hugs have helped a great many people.