How to support good causes when you are struggling financially
How can people support the good causes they care about when they are struggling financially?
During the current cost of living crisis, there are many people struggling with the increase in their household bills and are finding it hard to offer financial support to charities and other good causes. At the same time, many charities and good causes are struggling just to keep the lights on due to their own increased costs and the drop in the donations they receive. All this at a time when people need help from good causes more than ever.
However there are ways we can all still support the good causes we care about without putting ourselves under further financial strain.
Here are some ideas on how you can help support charities without spending money:
- When shopping online, shop via us at shopandgive.co.uk. Each time you shop the retailer will make a donation to the causes you choose. You can support up to 4 good causes making these free donation spread further. We are not asking you to shop more or spend more, just to make a small change to your shopping habits and making one extra click to go to our website first. The retailers are grateful for the business we send to them and reward us with a commission payment which we turn into a donation.
- When shopping via us, make sure you tick the Gift Aid box if eligible to make your donations go even further.
- Collect a free donation via our Daily Bonus Donation campaign. This campaign is sponsored by a business and allows us to give out free donations. All you need to do is visit our website and click on the Collect Now button. You can collect one of these bonus donations every single day.
- Volunteer for a Charity. You may not be able to offer a monetary donation but good causes are often crying out for volunteers, especially if you have skills which they need, i.e electrician or IT skills. Often this kind of support can be just as valuable (if not more) than making a donation. Even if you only have a small amount of time to offer, the cause will be grateful. Depending on what you can offer, you may be able to offer your time online instead of in person.
- Give Blood. Most people will be eligible to give blood and this is something which is always needed. Men can donate every four months and women can donate every three months. The process does not take long so can easily fit into your schedule, but you would need to book an appointment. There are permanent blood donation venues and thousands of local venues situated in towns and cities across England. Click here to find a unit near you.
- Declutter and take any unwanted items which are in good condition to a local Charity shop. This is a really easy way to support good causes whilst clearing out your home of unwanted items.
- Spread the word. Use your social media networks to share posts about a good cause you care about and help spread the word about the good work they do. Social media is a powerful tool and commenting or sharing posts can really help support an organisation.
- If you are able to knit, this is a skill many charities would be interested in. Hospital are often in need of knitted baby hats or bonding squares which are used when a mother and their baby are not able to be together, the bonding squares are swapped between the mother and baby to help with the bonding process. Homeless shelters and animal rescue centres also are grateful for knitted blankets. A good thing about this kind of knitting is that you can use different wools so if you have some spare wool lying around it can all be used for these projects so there is no need to buy wool especially.
- Nominate your charity as workplace charity of the year. If you work for a company who has a charity of the year, why not put your chosen charity forward for this.
About the author
Luisa Gatward
Our Head of Operations, Luisa is responsible for the smooth running of all operations including marketing and partner relationships. Having started working for TheGivingMachine in 2010, she has seen our Charity grow and develop into what we have today.