New Site Charity Nominations Now Open

A question about : New Site Charity Nominations Now Open

The charity nominations are closed now. Thanks to everyone who's nominated. Look out for the poll which will be in the email in a couple of week's time

Nominations for this site's charities fund are now open.
Please carefully read the instructions before nominating

What is the MoneySavingExpert.com Charity Fund?

This is money donated by this site to charities nominated, short-listed and selected by site users.

This site has, what I call, a 'not driven by profits' ethical ethos which means, nothing is ever written unless it is genuinely believed to be the best way to help people save money.

Yet that doesn't mean it doesn't make money. The sheer scale of the site and near 1 million users a month, means there is cash, and I like to put as much as I can towards doing some good (after I've paid the MoneySaving team, expenses, and myself).

More info: 'How this site is Funded'
More info: Previous years' charity funds

There are a number of changes this year

Over the years, the size of the fund has grown, over £100,000 might be donated this year (Oct to Oct) thus there's an opportunity to expand the remit.
Only a third of the money is going to the nominated charities. In the past all the money went to the charities. This year the MSE Charity Fund is being set up as a registered charity in its own right. A third of its money will be going to the five nominated charities.
New MSE Charity Fund Specific Projects Grants. The rest of the cash will be available to be distributed at four points during the year as specific grants to charities, indviduals or groups to help educate, inform and empower consumers in the field of money, debt and consumer info. The exact terms of this are still being hacked out, but hopefully you'll get the idea. More details when the charity launches (info will be linked to from the weekly email)
What's the process?

A. You nominate.

Any user of the site (which means anyone of course) can nominate a charity registered in the UK to receive the money. There are four charities to get money. One charity www.re-cycle.org is automatically selected as my pick. It's very small, has been part of the charity fund since the beginning and it relies on the cash - so I have decided to give it an automatic berth

B. Selected site users do a short-list

Five of the site's most regular users (the volunteer board guides) will be asked to short-list 12 charities. The following are the criteria they will be asked to use when short listing.
Relevance: Charities which are relevant to both the subject base and usership of MoneySavingExpert.com will be given priority.
National and International: Roughly two thirds of the selection should be UK based charities and one third overseas/international.
Six larger and six smaller. To ensure some smaller charities where the money really makes a difference are included, there will be six large and small charities
C. The Vote.

Nominations end on Saturday 26 August. After that there will be a site vote to select the charities. The top two big and two small charities will then each be given 20% of the total money available (ie a third of the entire fund). The winners will be announced in the weekly e-mail

How to nominate a charity
I'm sorry only UK registered charities are acceptable

i. Click Reply to this post. (If you're not registered on the forum, which is different to signing up to the email, you will have to do so. Of course it's totally free and your email is never used for anything else).

ii. IMPORTANT. Please Include in your nomination.
a. The Official Name of the Charity
b. The Website of the Charity
c. A desciption of no more than 8 words of the charity
d. One paragaph only (max 150 words) of why this charity should be supported.

If a charity has already been nominated, please do not do so again, you can show your support by clicking the 'thank you' button for that post. Also please, no other discussions in this thread, it is purely for nominating.

Whilst you may nominate as many charities as you choose, remember they will be shortlisted, so it makes life easier if you just nominate one.

Martin

A final note. The more users of this site, the more money there is for the charity fund. The best way to get regular users is to recommend people join the distribution list of the free Money Tip. Please recommend it to everyone you know.

Best answers:

• I would like to nominate The Place2Be a UK children’s charity
  It establishes on-site therapeutic and emotional support for children.
  The Place2Be gives children in UK primary schools a place where they can express their feelings through talking, creative work and play. It delivers a range of services directly to children and teachers and offers training for volunteers, staff and adults working with children.
  The website address is www.theplace2be.org.uk
  Many thanks in advance
  Mark
• I would like to nominate the nspcc for all the hard work it does in helping children in danger. I already donate to them and i also campaign for them so vote for the nspcc https://www.nspcc.org.uk/html/home/home.htm
• Don't really know what to say but I would like to nominate Cancer Research UK. I know a lot of people with cancer and a lot of my friends have passed away from cancer.
  My mother has terminal cancer so this is a main reason I'm nominating this charity
  https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/
• https://www.mankind.org.uk/
  mens domestic abuse is constantly overlooked, I'd like to see real equality & have a service equal to the services/support female victims recieve
  What is male abuse?
  " Men experience many of the same symptoms and effects of domestic abuse as women, including:
  physical violence - being punched, kicked, slapped, scalded or stabbed
  mental abuse - humiliation in public, isolation from friends and family and enforced financial dependence
  sexual assault.
  This abuse can lead to feelings of shame, guilt, isolation and worthlessness. Due to social prejudices, men can find it even harder than women to let other people know that they are being abused and to seek help. You may be afraid that you won't be taken seriously, or that you'll be criticised or even ridiculed for 'letting' your partner abuse you. Many abused men are reluctant to leave the family home in case they are later denied contact with their children "
  Refuge website is laughable shameful check out thier 2 pages for male victims
  https://www.refuge.org.uk/page_l1-2_l2-0_l3-150_.htm
  https://www.refuge.org.uk/page_l1-2_l2-150_l3-156_.htm
  £20 gives membership & voting rights to mankind more info here
  https://www.mankind.org.uk/member_form.pdf
• Hi, I'd like to nominate 2 charities....
  https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/,
  as they do an awful lot to help people who need financial advice & assistance with debt.
  https://www.breakthrough.org.uk/, a Breast Cancer charity, as my mum her sister & their aunt all died of breast cancer, because of them I'm at higher risk & the money they raise goes directly to research & education.
• I would like to Nominate "Alder Hey Childerens Hospital" they do a great job
  Communicating with our staff, patients, families and community with up to date, relevant information
  Honesty and openness with our ways of working, being transparent in everything we do
  Innovation - maintaining and building on our reputation of being at the forefront of paediatric healthcare
  Leadership - everyone taking responsibility for improving the way they work
  Developing our staff to help them realise their full potential
  Respect for children, families and each other, evident through the way we work, in teams, as a team
  Energy and enthusiasm - creating a healing, creative and healthy work environment
  National pride, demonstrated by our contribution to research and recognition for best practice
• I would like to nominate Help the Hospices.
  https://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/
  I have recently known a few people who have benefitted from the exceptional care that two of our local hospices have given, and it is worth remembering the excellent support that they give to the families at such a difficult time as well.
  HTH supports these individual hospices with training, education and fund-raising as well as supporting local charities that provide the care for the individual hospices.
• I would like to recommend :
  a)The Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre.
  b) https://www.msrc.co.uk
  c) The major resource site for UK MS Patients
  d) I think the reasons this charity should be suported are best summed up in their Mission Statement - "The Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (MSRC) is a proactive and innovative charity, passionately committed to supporting anyone affected by Multiple Sclerosis through access to unbiased information and advice. Our approach is to encourage individuals to make choices that are appropriate to their daily lives, empowering them to maximise their potential."
  The MSRC operate on a shoe-string budget, most of the year in debt, but manage to provide the only 24 hour Freephone MS Counselling Service manned entirely by volunteers, together with the award winning New Pathways magazine which goes to MSers in 26 countries around the world. We are a UK charity but people reach out to us from all over the world for help, support and information, which we think is something rather special.
  Any additional money that could be raised for the MSRC would go to help expand the counselling service and also to reach even more people affected by MS.
  squiffs.
  MSRC Webmaster and MSer
• Given the nature of this site I would like to nominate a small charity called Credit Action - credit action. - a money education charity.
  The people involved in this charity are passionate about helping people learn to manage their finances well and have produced a number of quality resources for use by various groups to introduce them to basic financial management techniques.
• Though I'm not Christian myself, nor do I go to church I've visited the website of this charity and I think they do a lot of good, and they have some very useful information and voluntary services. Plus they're quite relevant to the site!!
  Credit Action
  https://www.creditaction.org.uk
  They are a charity providing resources to help people manage their money better, cope with debt and they also have volunteers to help locally. They have quite close links to the CCCS as well I believe.
  Edit: X-post with Weston Dave oops! Great minds think alike!
• i would like to nominate st oswalds hospice it has been 1year yesterday since my mam fell asleep in st oswalds (gosforth newcastle upon tyne), i cannot think of a nicer place the staff are sent from heaven i'm sure, they are so dedicated to their work
  https://www.st-oswalds.org/index.php
• I would like to nominate Romanian Challenge, a charity based in the UK that supports primarilya Romanian Orphange but has spread to incorporate an Old Peoples Home.
  It started 16 ish years ago on Challenge Anneka.
  Now they raise money all year round by doing Charity Casinos Nights and collect jumble to be recycled to raise funds to improve life in the Orphanage and to give all the children a holiday.
  Visit www.romanian-challenge.org or https://www.romcamp.org.uk/
• I would love to recommend the Jubilee Sailing Trust www.jst.org.uk
  They are a Unique charity in that they are a small local one but with national appeal. They are a UK based charity, who own and operate two tall ships, the Lord Nelson and Tenacious. There aim and ethos is simple. "To integrate both able bodied and disabled persons through Tall Ship sailing". Both of the ships have been designed and built specifically to cater for disabled people with them working as equals on board the ships. Anyone aged between 16 and 100+ can sail with any ability or disabilty, with the oldest sailor being a spritely 98 last year
  They are unique in that they are the only Tall Ships in the world, designed to sail with a crew of Disabled people. They have taken over the last 20 years the widest range of abilities and disabilities to sea, and have taken nearly 30000 people sailing form a variety of backgrounds.
  They recieve no goverment funding so rely on supporters and fundraising activities to support two expensive to maintain ships.
  Could i suggest that the money raised is used ot set up an assisted voyage fund, where by deserving people are able to have assistance towards voyage fee's, this is able to be set up with any guidelines or stipulations the board decide.
  Experience possibilities at sea not disabilities!
  Thanks
  Ian
  P.s I am biased as I work for them!
• I would like to nominate the Sense Charity. This charity is for deafblind children and adults. Here's the site:
  https://www.sense.org.uk/
  This particular charity is close to my heart since I am deaf. Fortunately I have sight though. They also will send you postage paid envelopes so you can send your empty ink jet cartridges in so the Sense Charity gets money for them. A very worthy cause.
• I'd like to see some mental health charities given a cash boost. The 2 i put forward are:
  1. MIND (National Association For Mental Health)
  https://www.mind.org.uk/
  Helping/Supporting People Who Experience Mental Distress.
  I think that MIND do a brilliant job to help and support people who have any experience of mental distress. I feel mental health is often underfunded in the NHS and often not really catered for in major fundraising campaigns, which makes it harder for people who are suffering to get the help and care they need, not to mention the stigma attatched to having mental health problems causing more problems. Mental health problems can occur in anybody, at any time and for any reason which is why i think it's so important that more attention and funding is given to charties that focus on these problems. There is also a relevance to this site also because a lot of people in debt/having problems managing money can also start to suffer with depression/anxiety etc, which can lead to them self harming, or comitting suicide.
  2. Depression Alliance
  https://www.depressionalliance.org/
  Relieving Depression, Offering Support/Info and Raising Awareness.
  I think this slightly smaller charity would benefit greatly from extra funding as it desperately needs more money to carry on the worthwhile work that it does. It has an emergency appeal set up to try and keep the charity open/running as i think it is experiencing financial difficulties. My reasoning is very much the same as my reasons for MIND, even though this charity is aimed more towards depression as opposed to mental health as a whole.
• I would like to nominate the Motor Neurone Disease Association
  https://www.mndassociation.org/
  This is especially close to my heart as my father passed away from this dreadful disease 10 years ago, 2 weeks before my wedding.
  Quote:
• I nominate Tommy's the baby charity who are committed to funding medical research and providing pregnancy information to help more mums and dads through a healthy pregnancy and birth.
  www.tommys.org
  As many of us here on MSE are lucky enough to be parents and parents to be. Also peops are constantly looking for baby freebies.....let's give something back to those who maybe are not as fortunate as us!!!
• I would like to nominate YoungMinds as they have been invaluable in helping us to gain much needed support and advice in dealing with mental health problems within the family.
  https://www.youngminds.org.uk/index.php
  YoungMinds is the national children’s mental health charity, working to promote the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people across the UK. YoungMinds grew out of the Child Guidance Trust - a cohesive organisation representing a number of professional individuals and child guidance teams across the country, all dedicated to the promotion of multi-professional work in the child and family mental health field.
  "We need your help in order to continue to support babies, children and young people at risk through our work."
  A donation of…
  Ј10 could pay for information on depression or self harm to be sent to parents and their children.
  Ј25 could pay for a YoungMinds resources pack to 73 schools, increasing their awareness about children's mental health issues.
  Ј55 could enable our Parents Information Service to take a telephone call from a parent or carer concerned about the mental state of a child or young person.
  Ј200 could sustain a voluntary worker in our offices for a month, helping to reduce our administration costs.
  Ј1,000 could pay towards the production, publication and launch of a new booklet for young people covering a specific mental health topic.
• ooop! Edited as already nominated.
  Lotta