This week it is the annual International Day of Charity. The UN, back in 2012, launched this annual celebration awareness day, on 5th September, to coincide with the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa.
FACT: Charities urgently need your help – however big or small.
This annual celebration promotes and raises awareness for all charities across the globe, all of which do amazing work at home and abroad. This year, this day of celebration and awareness is even more important; as charities around the world are losing billions of pounds and many are unable to continue their vital work.
FACT: £4bn has been lost in charity donations during the pandemic.
As many of you will know, charity work is very close to my heart and I give up hundreds of hours each and every year to raise vital funds for good causes. I’ve raised close to £1million pounds over the past 20 years.
FACT: 15% of charities will close within the next 6mths due to lack of donations and fundraising.
As a Trustee to Kicking Off, I spend a lot of time overseeing legal obligations, making sure we navigate any red tape and work with the other Trustees on making sure our funds are spent wisely and that we plan well for the future. I have also embarked on many personal fundraising efforts including climbing mountains, running marathons, cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats and going to Ghana to assist with a number of tournaments.
FACT: 59% of charities are already exhausting their emergency cash reserves.
Kicking Off, through the power of sport has brought communities in Ghana together to help medicate, educate, fight malaria and bring clean water to thousands of people in rural communitites. We’re now working on a number of long term sustainable projects, that will help communities to prosper and we have begun to lay the foundations on our first school.
Kicking Off, during this pandemic, has been hit extremely hard. We do not have a marketing budget, we have no celebrity endorsements or billionaire friends . We are small on the scheme of things, but boy do we do big things! One of our major fundraising events – the Capital Corporate Finance & Purity Fundraising Charity Ball - was postponed back in May resulting in tens of thousands of pounds in fundraising lost. Our volunteers, who help us with our projects in numerous regions throughout Ghana, have been forced to postpone and cancel trips out there. Due to lockdown in Ghana, work on drilling essential bore holes has temporarily ceased.
FACT: Kicking Off is 100% reliant on donations.
Once we are able to resume our works we will be working harder than ever before. In the meantime we need to raise awareness of all the vital and life changing work Kicking Off does, because truly, this charity saves lives and changes lives. Working in alignment with the UN's sustainability goals, Kicking Off aims to meet at least one of these 6 of these major goals with each and every project it undertakes:
You can donate in many ways. A one-off donation of £10 can be made by texting KICK to 70800. Alternatively, monthly £10 donations can be made by texting KICK to 70577. Equally, businesses can become charity partners with various opportunities available.
If you’d like to get involved with Kicking Off please call me on 07785 596053 – whether it’s a one off fundraising event, helping on a more regular basis or becoming a corporate charity partner, I’d love to have a chat.
FACT: 100% of your donations go to the charity to continue their ground breaking work.
Twitter: @kicking_off_org Instagram: kicking.off
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Kicking Off is a registered charity: No. 11731123
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