Localgiving ambassador, Bright Light Bright Light has announced that he will be supporting seven Localgiving groups during his tour of the UK in September. Welsh born electro-pop musician, Rod Thomas (AKA Bright Light Bright Light), known for his work with Elton John, Erasure and his stunning performance on the Graham Norton Show, has always been passionate about supporting small, local charities. As an independent artist, Rod feels a real affinity with grassroots organisations. He sees his tour as an excellent opportunity both to bring in funds and raise the profile of his chosen causes. As Rod explained: “The best thing about touring is engaging with local communities and the people who try to make a difference within them. I worked with Lewis Garland of Localgiving to find charities in each city on the tour so that I could raise awareness of their fantastic work and help them out with donation collections at each of the shows. These charities are working hard to address issues where they live and make a real difference, and I want to do everything I can to help them.” Rod has chosen one Localgiving member to support for each of his upcoming tour dates. 20th Leeds : RETAS 23rd Bristol : Borderlands 24th Cardiff: Pride Cymru 25th Manchester: The Proud Trust 27th Glasgow : Theatre Nemo 28th Birmingham : Aston Performing Arts Academy  29th London: Gendered Intelligence For each date, Rod handpicked Localgiving causes that were both close to the venue and close to his heart – these include LGBTQI+ groups, refugee focussed charities and arts organisations.  There are two ways you can donate to his causes: Donate online by clicking on the charity name listed above (this will also give you the option of adding GiftAid). Remember to let us the group know you're a Bright Light Bright Light fan in the comments box! Make a cash donation at one of Bright Light Bright Light’s tour dates (Book tickets here) In the clip below Bright Light Bright Light explains why he feels supporting local charities is so important.  Found this blog interesting? You may also enjoy: Shining a Bright Light on Local Charities Fight for the right of LGBTQI asylum seekers

We are delighted to have distributed £92,000 in grant funding to 184 groups in the first round of our Magic Little Grants Fund 2019.   This round has seen us support a wide range of local organisations across Great Britain including walking groups, wheelchair basketball teams, swimming clubs and many more!   Our Magic Little Grants, funded by Postcode Community Trust, are open to local charities and community groups in Great Britain that support and inspire people to participate in sports or exercise.   As well as receiving a £500 Magic Little Grant, successful organisations that are new to Localgiving will also be given a free annual membership with Localgiving worth £96. Applicants for Magic Little Grants must either be in their first year of operation or have an annual income under £250,000. Preference will be given to projects that encourage social cohesion and help vulnerable people to overcome barriers to participation in physical activities. The deadline for applications for Magic Little Grants 2019 is midnight on 30th November 2019. Find out more and apply HERE.        

The Grow Your Tenner Awards recognise local charities and community groups that show outstanding creativity and fundraising expertise through our annual Grow Your Tenner match fund campaigns. With Grow Your Tenner 2016 kicking off tomorrow (18th October), what better time to celebrate the fundraising campaigns that moved and motivated us in 2015. With so many campaigns and causes to choose from, deciding our winners was not an easy task.  What ultimately made these groups stand out was the way they used the skills, resources and networks at their disposal to create campaigns that punched well above their weight. The winner of each award will be sent a £50 Amazon gift voucher So, without further ado, the winners of this year's Grow Your Tenner Awards are: Fundraising Innovation : Baby Bank Network Bristol The Fundraising Innovation Award looked for the charity that ran the most effective, unique and inspired fundraising campaign during Grow Your Tenner 2015. Creative strategies to encourage donations can make a real difference to the total raised and we were looking for inspiring stories of how groups approached this challenge. The Baby Bank Network relieves poverty in the Bristol area by providing new and preowned baby items to families in need. What we enjoyed most about the Baby Bank Network’s Campaign was the way they used the core premise of Grow Your Tenner - to give £10 and have it doubled - for their own innovative initiative. Renaming their campaign #TeddyTenner, the Baby Bank Network shaped their communications  to appeal to the needs and interests of their own audience.   Throughout the campaign, they built momentum by encouraging people to donate and share photos of their favourite child’s toy holding a tenner, nominating others to do the same. Some supporters took this a step further, getting their cats and dogs involved! The #TeddyTenner campaign received £2,287.50 (including match funding and gift aid)  in just 11 days from 85 donors, spreading the message about their important cause in the process. Laura Williams, who volunteers as marketing lead for Baby Bank Network, said: "We're fortunate enough to receive hundreds of donations of items to give to people in need, but it can be a struggle to secure monetary donations. Grow Your Tenner was great for us as it gave us a valuable cash injection to help us buy the items we cannot distribute second-hand, such as new mattresses and bottle teats. We combined it with #teddytenner idea to make it a bit more fun on social media - there were some really cute photos, we'll have to get our thinking caps on again for this year's campaign." See the full #Teddytenner story here.     PR Superstar Award: Bishop Auckland Community Partnership (BACP) - Cultivate 4 Life The PR Superstar Award recognises the group that best engaged with the media during Grow Your Tenner 2015. Throughout Grow Your Tenner 2015 BACP - Cultivate 4 Life worked closely with their local and regional press  to ensure that their campaign received widespread coverage, including a front page splash in  Bishops Press and a main feature in the Northern Echo. This enabled them to reach both new supporters and beneficiaries. BACP approached local media (print and radio) at the start of their campaign with a clear angle - “we have just 30 days to save our project from closing”.  They then followed up with personalised thank yous, developing positive relationships with the local media that will put them a strong position for publicising future campaigns and projects. The impact of this funding has been huge: “Grow Your Tenner rescued our project from closure, it helped us to reach out to our Community and further afield, raising awareness about our project and highlighted our desperate need for help, with an amazing response” The campaign received £2,242.50  (including match funding and gift aid) from 30 donors. On receiving the award Julia Costello,  Cultivate 4 Life Coordinator said: “It was a wonderful surprise to open my email from Localgiving informing us that we had been selected as the winner of PR Superstar Award recognising our efforts via Media with 2015 Grow a Tenner Appeal. We look forward to receiving our Certificate which will be framed and have a pride of place and the £50 Amazon Voucher will be used as a Prize for a forthcoming raffle.   Last year was the first time we engaged in this wonderful fundraising opportunity superbly co-ordinated by Localgiving, and received huge support from Northern Echo, Bishops Press, Town Crier and Bishop FM too, the response was amazing almost achieving £3,000 in donations, these funds aided us with a lifeline, our project was on the brink of closure, so all concerned THANK YOU once again. We are most definitely taking part in this year's Grow a Tenner, this time aided with a video, which we hope to launch this week, posting onto all our media pages including Facebook and Localgiving and certainly will be involving local papers & radio too”.   Future Impact Award: The Pennoyer centre The Future Impact Award recognises the group who can best explain how the funding they had raised through the campaign will be used in a way that was demonstrable, quantifiable and emotionally engaging. The Pennoyer Centre is an education and community venue in South Norfolk. The Centre signed up with Localgiving to raise the funds to run a monthly lunch club with the aim of combatting social isolation in their community. Pennoyer Centre’s entry to the Grow Your Tenner awards brilliantly shows the impact that local initiatives, however small, can make to their communities: “We are delighted to have been chosen as the winners of the Future Impact Award for our Grow Your Tenner campaign last year. We found out about the campaign last October via social media and set about enrolling into Localgiving and then promoting the match funding campaign as soon as we could. We were thrilled that our supporters really rose to the challenge and managed to raise  £500 funding” “We are completely self-funding and therefore covering all the bills and licenses is a huge undertaking. “ “The Lunch Club does a great deal to combat loneliness and social isolation in a rural community. For example, Margaret is 79 years old and recently widowed. She can walk down to the centre for company and have a hot drink and some social interaction. Lunch club is one of the highlights  for villagers like Margaret who can use Pennoyer's as a meeting place.Margaret enjoys the monthly lunch club enormously  because she can meet with friends and socialise. This is  a great thing for someone who now finds themselves living on their own in a rural village and does not have their own transport. The great thing about our lunch club is that we have people who are comfortable with going on their own as there are familiar faces there from the centre and others they know from the village. “Our monthly lunch club has really taken off over the last year. Our lunch club now regularly has an attendance of 25-30 people per month and the group enjoy a full roast dinner with homemade pudding for £11. We had to buy a new cooker when our old one broke in autumn last year. So the Grow Your Tenner funding came just at the right time and we were able to replace the cooker. This is an essential piece of equipment for our kitchen and for our lunch club.” “In the future we want to see the club continuing at an affordable price. We want to provide the means for people to get together thus aiding social inclusion in our rural Norfolk community” “This October we are going to run Grow Your Own Tenner again. We have set a target of £600 this time. As with last year we are looking for funding to buy new chairs and also refresh our café table coverings which are worn out and in need of replacement”. In 2015 The Pennoyer centre raised £496.25 from 20 donors.   A huge Congratulations to each of the three winners - a £50 Amazon voucher will be on its way to you very soon! We also want to send a  massive thank you to everyone who took part in the awards by submitting an entry. Sustainability Survey Prize Draw We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who took part in our Local Charity and Sustainability Survey over the summer. We are currently writing up the results and plan to release a report in the coming months.   All participating groups were entered into a draw to win a donation of £500 to their Cause. We are delighted to announce HELP Counselling Centre as the winners of this donation. Help Counselling Centre provides short and long-term affordable counselling for adults in west London.  Helen Stokes, Director, Help Counselling Centre has said: ‘We are delighted to win £500 from Localgiving as a result of taking part in the Sustainability Survey 2016. It’s increasingly important that local charities make their voices heard and we were keen to give our views as part of the survey – winning this prize has been a lovely bonus! It will help us to continue to offer affordable one-to-one counselling to a wide cross-section of the London community across a range of issues, including depression, anxiety, family and relationship issues and bereavement.’ Grow Your Tenner 2016 Grow Your Tenner 2016 will run from 10am on Tuesday the 18th October until the match fund runs out, or 5pm on Thursday the 17th November - whichever comes first. During the campaign one time donations made to local charities via Localgiving will be matched by up to £10; as will Direct Debits by up to £10 a month for the first 3 months. Is your group taking part in Grow Your Tenner 2016? Do you want to find a local charity or community group to support?  Get involved now: www.growyourtenner.org     

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new partnership programme with the FSI, NCVO, Sported, and the Small Charities Coalition.  Local charities and community groups that are members of these organisations are now able to claim their first year membership of Localgiving for free. This offer is initially running until the end of 2016.  This collaboration will give thousands of local groups across the UK the opportunity to benefit from regular match funding campaigns, fundraising skills training and digital resources at zero cost. Those groups that join up before October 18th will be able to take part in our upcoming national match fund campaign, Grow Your Tenner. In 2015, Grow Your Tenner raised £631,245 for 899 local charities and is set to be even bigger this year. Our partners are equally enthusiastic about the opportunity that this collaboration presents to their members: Amber Shotton, Head of Membership and Learning at The FSI has said: “Localgiving is a fantastic resource for small, local charities and we at the FSI are delighted to offer our members free membership with Localgiving. This gives access to match fund initiatives like the Grow Your Tenner campaign as well as resources and support with online fundraising.”   Kathryn Berry, Head of Member Services for Sported said: “The opportunity that Localgiving provides for community organisations is fantastic! Sported members have accessed a huge amount of funding through Localgiving already, enabling them to strengthen their organisations and offer more opportunities for disadvantaged young people to get involved in sport for development activities. To be able to offer free memberships to all our members is invaluable and something that we hope that they will take up.”   Felicity Christensen, Communications & Events Manager at Small Charities Coalition said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Localgiving to reach more small charities across the UK and provide them with training that will strengthen their fundraising activity. It's fantastic that our members will be able to benefit from free Localgiving membership and all the opportunities that this will afford them."   Gillen Knight, Head of Marketing & Membership at NCVO said: “These are tight times for small and local charities, so we are very pleased to support this new partnership. NCVO provides a whole package of support to our members and it’s great to be able to give them even more so they can really develop their digital fundraising skills to help them make a bigger difference.”   If you are a member of the FSI, Small Charities Coalition, Sported or NCVO then why not become a member today!