Red Cross Blogs

Archive for the ‘UK’ Category

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This year, we’ve been encouraging you to find bigger and better ways of fundraising for Red Cross Week. Stepping up to the challenge, people across the country came up with unusual, innovative and sometimes downright strange ways to bring in the cash.

Enormous confectionary

Cake sales are always a fundraising stalwart, but one Glasgow bakery reached new sugar highs with a 49 square foot millionaire’s shortbread. The enormous slab of caramel, shortbread and chocolate was produced by McGhee’s Bakery in Glasgow to mark the beginning of Red Cross Week. The giant confection was then sliced into normal sized portions and sold to raise funds.

Big money

In Poundbury, many shops have been displaying a giant gold coin in their windows this week. The oversized currency indicated that these local shops and businesses were lending their support to Red Cross Week. Participating stores encouraged the public to be ‘one in a million’ by donating a pound, or whatever they could afford – small donations quickly add up.

Expansive distances

After six months of hard training, bike enthusiasts Michael Coleby and Joe Greenway set off on an epic journey last Saturday. They are cycling over 1,000 kilometres from Bedworth, via the British Red Cross headquarters in London, to Geneva. Before setting off, Michael said: “It has been a busy few months preparing the logistics of the trip and I am excited about the hard work being put to the test.”

Huge challenges

Janet Meehan, 40, is terrified of heights. So what could motivate her to brave a 10,000 foot fundraising skydive? As a Red Cross delegate, Janet has travelled to crisis zones such as Pakistan and Tunisia. She said: “I’ve seen first hand how the Red Cross responds around the world to bring rapid support in disasters, and I also see every day the good work done here in the local community by the volunteers and staff based at my Reading office.”

Whether you do something big yourself, or get involved in something even bigger, every pound counts. It all adds up to help us make a huge difference, both in the UK and abroad. It’s not too late to get involved in Red Cross Week 2012 – find out what events and collections are coming up near you.

Find out more about fundraising ideas

Read more about how we help people

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Never let it be said that the British Red Cross is backwards in coming forwards when it comes to getting its message across.

To officially launch the organisation’s new Pupil, Citizen, Life-saver campaign, supporters marched straight into the House of Commons yesterday and started – literally – getting ‘hands on’ with the MPs whose support they need.

The Red Cross is calling on the government to ensure first aid and humanitarian education are included as a core part of the national curriculum. The organisation has reached 347,000 children and young people in the past five years and plans to reach 800,000 by 2015.

At the parliamentary launch more than 20 cross-party MPs came along to find out more, and meet pupils and teachers from schools that already successfully use Red Cross resources.

Quite a few even rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into some first aid training, while others pondered the sticky dilemma of how they’d respond if faced with a natural disaster.

The vast majority of Britain’s teachers (83 per cent) and parents (98 per cent) want first aid to become part of the curriculum – but currently just 18 per cent of primary schools in the UK offer pupils the chance to learn these skills.

Sir Bob Russell, MP for Colchester, is a parliamentary ambassador for the campaign. He said: “It’s great that children as young as five can learn first aid. The Red Cross’ teaching resources are clearly aiming to empower pupils rather than just inform.”

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This week, people up and down the country are dedicating their time and energy to raising money for the British Red Cross.

These dedicated fundraisers never stop dreaming up imaginative ways to bring in donations – which is just as well, because every penny they bring in is hugely important.

Every year we help people in crisis, both internationally and in the UK. Every pound donated to Red Cross Week is vital in supporting this work.

How your money could help

Perhaps you’re organising a game of office bingo? Sell tickets for 80p apiece and each one is enough to help a child affected by the war in Sierra Leone reintegrate into school. Imagine how many children you could help by getting your whole building involved.

Let’s say you put on a bake sale at your university and charge £2.50 for a slice of your famed marshmallow-topped devil’s food cake. That one slice has raised enough to buy a foil blanket for someone who has survived an emergency in the UK.

If you’re a sporty type, perhaps you’re taking on a challenge for Red Cross Week. Whether running, swimming, cycling or jumping out a plane, just £5 in sponsorship money could feed one critically malnourished child for a week.

Clearing out your cupboards? That old ill-fitting summer dress could sell for £10 in a Red Cross charity shop, enough to train one vulnerable person in the UK to save lives in an emergency. Your unloved frock could mean the difference between life and death.

There are a million ways to get involved this Red Cross Week, and whatever you do – and however much you raise – it’s enough to help someone, somewhere, in crisis.

It’s not too late to get involved in Red Cross Week 2012 – find out how.

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How far will you go to generate stock for our charity shops this Red Cross Week? Probably not 1,309 metres to the top of a mountain – but that’s just what volunteers and staff from the Aviemore Red Cross shop did.

Last Thursday, the dedicated team took a goods collection box up Cairngorm – Scotland’s sixth highest mountain – to highlight the importance of donations this Red Cross Week.

The stock box was transported to the mountain peak first by funicular railway and then by snowmobile. It now resides 635 metres above sea level in the staff area of the funicular railway station – making it our highest UK stock box by quite a margin.

Donate closer to home

You don’t need to scale a mountain to donate however. There are plenty of places to take your unwanted stuff, both in Aviemore and across the UK. Just drop items off at your nearest charity shop – or get in contact with them to see if a collection service is available.

Anne Marie Rattray, manager of the Aviemore Red Cross shop, explained the idea behind the high-altitude stunt: “By taking a stock box up Cairngorm, we’re hoping to draw attention to Red Cross Week and encourage people to donate goods for sale in our shop.

“We also want to encourage people to Gift Aid their donations, effectively making them worth 25 per cent more and providing even more income to help the Red Cross carry out its important humanitarian work.”

Valuable funds for invaluable work

In the past two years alone, our charity shops have raised over £53 million in sales. This money supports the work of the British Red Cross, helping people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are.

That tablecloth you’ve kept in a dusty draw for years could raise money towards feeding a malnourished child. The harlequin tie you got for your birthday – but for some reason never found the occasion to wear – could help enable us to respond to flooding here in the UK.

You don’t have to be athletic to take the search for stock to new heights this Red Cross Week. Just have a root around in your drawers, under the stairs and on top of your wardrobe for stuff to give us. By donating next week you will help us towards the Red Cross Week goal of raising £1 million.

Read more about Red Cross Week and how to get involved

Find out more about donating to shops

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The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has proposed to cap tax relief on charitable donations, concerned that high-value donors could be donating millions to charities and trusts to avoid paying tax.

This proposal could spell very bad news for charities and, at the British Red Cross, we don’t believe that there is a need for this cap. That’s why we’re lending our voice to the Give It Back George campaign, and urging Mr Osborne to drop the tax cap and consider other options.

Alternative solutions to the tax cap
One solution might be for all tax relief to follow the donation to the charity concerned as it does for the vast majority of standard rate tax payers who get no extra for giving.

At the moment, high rate tax payers can claim some tax relief on donations for themselves. We propose a simple tick-box scheme that would allow donors the choice to donate that tax relief amount to the charity. This would be attractive to donors and charities alike.

Providing this option – to claim the tax relief, or to donate it – would be simple to administer and would result in a huge boost to charities. For example, an additional £568,812 could be added to a £1m donation. With gift aid on top, that donation would be worth over £1.8m to the charity or foundation and in turn greater public good. A simple tick-box option on tax relief – to opt in, or opt out – could have a huge impact to charities large and small.

Perhaps this could be the solution that will protect charities and put to bed the notion that high-value giving and tax avoidance are inextricably linked.

High-value doesn’t mean tax avoidance
A 2009 HMRC report exploring options for reforming higher rate tax relief found that the majority of all high-rate tax payers are not motivated by tax breaks and in fact would prefer the relief be channelled to the cause.

Mark Astarita, British Red Cross director of fundraising, said: “Generous people are just plain generous and I have yet to come across one donor after 20 years of fundraising that is motivated by a tax break over a wonderful cause.

“It seems to be a classic case of using a sledgehammer to crack a very tiny rotten nut. In the meantime generous people are tarred with this unkind brush.”

The Give It Back George Campaign
The British Red Cross has signed up to the Give It Back George campaign against the chancellor’s proposals, along with hundreds of other charities in the UK.

In a recent letter to George Osborne and a number of his cabinet colleagues, we explained that even though the proposed changes would not come into effect for another year, we are already starting to see a change in behaviour from some of our major donors.

A lack of clarity in this issue could lead to major donors withholding donations. And, as the debate rages on, some damage may already been done – and we could be all the poorer for that.

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