Well, would you believe that we just realised we are ten years old? And would you believe that to date we have raised and given away over £450,000? We were absolutely overwhelmed with referrals during lockdown 2020, and they didn’t slow down. Since the last time we updated our blog (sorry it’s been ages!) we have had some occasions where we have given away somewhere in the region of £10,000 in just one month, quite a few times. Because of this massive increase in work we have had to take on extra volunteers to manage the emails and cases, and were able to source ring-fenced funding for one salary (via one of our beloved private donors), to enable us to pay our lovely and very patient payments officer a part-time wage. We soul-searched and heart-ached for such a long time about it, because we didn’t want to stop being a tiny, zero-overheads charity, but we realised that, actually, it’s harder to do good if every cup of tea goes cold, if every day is devoted to fulfilling desperate need where the need shows no sign of abating. We have come to realise that running a nationwide charity helping those in dire straits cannot be done with goodwill alone. We are never going to squander money on PR, premises or other overheads that most other charities have to deal with, but we are needed now more than ever. It occurs to us that this could be quite exciting – we rather like the idea of helping people in their darkest hour and creating jobs. Wouldn’t that be a marvellous thing, and would you apply for a role? 🙂
With all of that in mind, back to the grind, and we’ll try to update you sooner than we have before.
TBF xxx