Mumsnet Christmas Appeal - let's support three brilliant charities!

[JustineMumsnet]

Greetings all,

We’re pleased to announce the launch of this year’s Christmas fundraiser - this year we’re raising money for the Against Malaria Foundation, Trussell Trust and the Women Support Women group at the Prince’s Trust.

As with our previous Christmas appeals, we’ll match donations up to a total of £10,000 across the three charities.

We know this is an expensive time of year, but any donation at all will be greatly appreciated and WILL make a difference.

Please have a look here for more information about the three charities. We’ll keep you updated with running totals and post updates here.

Please click on the links below to

Donate to the Against Malaria Foundation

Donate to the Trussell Trust

Donate to Women Support Women at the Prince’s Trust

Thank you for reading and for supporting our appeals - we hope you’ll be as inspired by these causes as we are.

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas,

Justine and all of us at MNHQ

@SpongeBobJudgeyPants

Justine when I click the link to Prince's trust giving page, there is no mention of the women part, just generic Prince's Trust, so no indication that it's going to that project.

Hi,

The Prince's Trust has said they will code the income that comes in through this JustGiving page, so that any money raised will be specifically ringfenced for supporting women in the Prince’s Trust’s programmes.

Sorry for the confusion - hope that's clear now.

[quote anonymousquestions]@AnnaCMumsnet

Thanks for the posts, I think we know that in the past you have match donations. The question was whether you would donate the £10k anyway as a gesture of goodwill? It’s presumably been accrued/budgeted for already?[/quote]

Hi,

We'll find out and let you know!

Okay Bojana thanks.

This doesn't sound very well thought out, does it?

MNHQ is so detached from the membership these days, they should just donate the money and have done with it.

All well-intentioned giving to worthwhile causes is good, surely

Nearly missed this!

Just bumping in case anyone else wants to donate

@sunshineNdaisies I used to love the MN Secret Santa and loved buying for 'my' MNer and their family - it felt more 'personal ' than giving money to a large organisation. I liked the way it truly made a difference to a real person. Generally I prefer to give in a way that my money goes where I know it isn't going to be swallowed up in admin costs and for that reason, I like to give things - food bank items, wooly hugs squares etc.

I'm very sad about this thread.

It's made me realise just how big the gulf is these days between MNHQ and its community. You know, the people who make the money for you

Being announced so late makes it feel like a really last minute thing.

And so no time to consult with Mumsnetters about which charity or charities we'd like to support.

Makes it clear we're just here to generate user content and cash for you, MNHQ

I know it's inevitable that a site will change as it grows, but really - the divorce between HQ and your users couldn't be any wider. I noted, earlier this year, that Carrie had left - but saw nothing on the site about that. Even just a couple of years ago that wouldn't have been the case.

We're not important to you any more, are we, MNHQ?

You summed it up perfectly, BIWI Absolutely spot on.

Carrie left?? I missed that

Still no reply about whether MN will give the 10k anyway

And I’m guessing g total raised via donations is dismal given how late and how dull this is (no voting on which charities etc)

Will you tell us the amounts raised at end of Jan pls I’d be really interested to know.

Hello

Firstly, we really want to give away the full £10k but we also think that it's important we stick to the fund-matching principle to encourage the maximum donation to the benefit of these really worthy charities.

We are going to be doing lots of promotion over the next few weeks (we're keeping the appeal open until the end of January, so hopefully through another pay day for lots of people) and we will ask the charities themselves to draw their supporters' attention to it too - we'll do everything we can to get the total donation up to £20k.

Hands up - we didn't consult with MNers when we were choosing the charities. In previous years there have been one or two stand-out causes and the appeals for those went off without controversy. This year there weren't any obvious candidates so we thought we'd choose a few that we'd had dealings with over the last 12 months. That was a mistake and next year we'll make sure we consult with you, as well as launching the appeal earlier.

@sunshineNdaisies and @bananasandwicheseveryday we were very happy to organise the Mumsnet Secret Santa and we're glad you valued it too. In consultation with users we took the decision to stop running the Secret Santa in 2016 and to match-fund donations to charities at Christmas time instead because over the last couple of years of the Secret Santa we were getting lots and lots of discussions that seemed to show it was causing arguments and frustration among MNers, which obviously isn't what anyone needs (especially over Christmas).

Hope this answers your questions about the appeal, but let us know if not and we'll answer more speedily, as we're (almost) all back in the office now.

Thanks

Hi @Dogsmellssobadbob

Yes, we'll post here to let you know what the totals are at the end of the appeal.

This year there weren't any obvious candidates so we thought we'd choose a few that we'd had dealings with over the last 12 months

Er ... why not ask your members to suggest charities? You don't even know what the Prince's Trust are going to do with the money for "supporting woman"

We should IMHO be supporting smaller charities that would appreciate £20k.

Prince's Trust income for year to March 2018 £72million.

What are the totals donated so far please?

Apples if you click on the links in the OP it will give you the totals

Against Malaria - approx £450 = gift aid
Trussell - approx £200
Prince's Trust - £73

I meant + gift aid, not =

Sad that you're not addressing my post, MNHQ.

Against Malaria - approx £450 = gift aid Trussell - approx £200 Prince's Trust - £73

Disappointing, but also not surprising considering how skint many people are after Christmas.

BIWI - I reported your post last week and asked that Justine respond on this thread as you've made some excellent points.