One group to make the most of Grow Your Tenner is CREW Heart Support. The group’s Chair, John Tudor says, “Match funding is a superb way of helping charities to maximise the amount they can raise. The advantage of Grow Your Tenner is that it allows individual supporters to give amounts that they can afford in the knowledge that even if they are retired or aren’t eligible to make Gift Aid declarations, our charity will still receive the donation with an added bonus. “CREW provide support in all forms, to people who have suffered from heart related problems, or those at risk of developing cardiovascular related problems in later life. This includes diabetes sufferers, people who are obese, have high blood pressure or cholesterol levels and so on. We also support carers and partners who would benefit from walking for health reasons. “With the money raised through Grow Your Tenner, we will purchase a lightweight defibrillator for our walking groups. We’ll also be able to ensure that the community venues that are run by Upbeat, our exercise and fitness providers are fitted with appropriate equipment for members to use. We’ve already fitted two venues with Public Access Defibrillators with the help of funds raised through Localgiving.” Find out more about CREW Heart Support Group here.

Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS) is a charity committed to supporting anyone affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence. It provides a number of support services including refuge space, a helpline as well as outreach work into the community. “IDAS is essential as it’s about everyone having the right to live a life that is free from abuse and violence.” says the charity’s Director, Sarah Hill. “I feel privileged to work for the cause because the work we do makes such a difference to vulnerable victims and their children.” Formally York Women’s Aid, IDAS changed their name due to the developing and expanding nature of their work: protecting men, women and children from suffering abuse. To exemplify the importance of IDAS’ work, Sarah points to startling statistics that 1 in 4 people will be affected by domestic abuse at some point in their lives. IDAS’ work is clearly recognised by the community, being nominated this year as the Lord Mayor’s Charity. Though as Sarah acknowledges, the cause is often difficult to fundraise for due to its highly sensitive nature. Fundraising support is key to continuing the services of IDAS. A £100 donation through Localgiving could enable IDAS to provide emergency packs with food supplies, essential toiletries and nappies and toys for families that arrive at the refuge with nothing to their name. Beth's Story One such instance saw Beth* and her three children arrive at IDAS’ York Refuge in September 2012. She came to the refuge after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her husband including constant bullying and death threats. It culminated with a vicious attack, in which Beth was hospitalised with a fractured eye socket and multiple cuts and bruises. Her husband was imprisoned for assault, and Beth began a process of recovery with the help of IDAS. Through her time at the refuge, Beth overcame depression and anxiety and began to gain confidence and a sense of self-worth again. She eventually became comfortable enough to make new friends and move into a new home at the beginning of the year. While there is still a long way to go, without IDAS’ support, Beth and her children wouldn’t have had the chance to make the positive changes in their life needed to take steps towards recovery. Sarah reiterates that people can help IDAS in many different ways. From raising awareness about abuse, volunteering to support people directly or simply, by donating so that they can continue to provide their life-saving services. IDAS’ overarching goal is to liberate families from abuse when “a family can break free, escape from violence and go on to live without fear”. This, Sarah concludes is ultimately what they consider “a huge success”. Find out more about IDAS here *Names have been changed to protect identities.

Officially opened in 2000, The Riccall Regen Centre is a charity and social enterprise that provides essential business and recreation facilities to the local area. ‘Built by the community, for the community’, the Regen Centre came out of the efforts of 21 representatives from community organisations around the Riccall area. They identified a need for a community space that could be enjoyed and used by all, and worked tirelessly to make that a reality. Howard Adamson, Centre Secretary, knows just how much the centre needs regular funds to stay afloat. “Its funding is entirely dependent on what comes through the door in takings, donations, grant funding and fundraising.” says Howard “There is nothing from local or national government.“ Bringing the community together The Regen Centre provides facilities for a wide number of groups and functions, which without the centre, would not exist or happen in the area. It provides free accommodation to groups such as the community library and community archive as well as providing opportunities for volunteering for local people. As much as it has regenerated the area itself, the centre also needs its own regeneration to continue providing high quality facilities. Howard notes that a £100 donation through Localgiving.com will help to “upgrade our small hall which is the main base for our children’s activities. We also want to obtain smart board equipment for training purposes and an audio loop system for the hard of hearing.” Without fundraising, The Regen Centre would not be able to operate and develop. This would be devastating for the local community - groups could lose their home, children’s facilities would disappear and people would lose their jobs and volunteering opportunities. Recognition for the work of The Regen Centre is acknowledged both within the community and outside of it, having been awarded the Duke of York’s Community Initiative Award on three occasions, more than any other charity in Yorkshire. Howard concludes that the support of the locality is vital to the centre’s continued success.“Without the voluntary and financial help from within and outside the community, we would not be able to operate and ultimately, provide the facilities for our users at a price they can afford.” To learn more about The Ricall Regen Centre please click here.

Take Art, has taken a different approach to raise funds and awareness of the recent floods disaster that has hit Somerset and its surrounding areas. The group is re-staging a rehearsed reading of Shiona Morton’s play that toured South West England in 2006. Take Art has long brought creative experiences to the rural communities of Somerset. The group isn’t based in a theatre or studio or venue but rather touring the villages, towns and rural communities of Somerset. They work with people of all ages, abilities and experience to engage them in the arts. The play is set around a fictional village on the Somerset Levels called Harrow Bridge. Threatened by a major flood, villagers are forced to evacuate. However, a few chose to remain and hold on to their livelihoods. With the play’s current relevance, Take Art will stage the play as a fundraising event. “Several of the people and communities directly affected by the floods are our friends, neighbours and colleagues,” says Mark Helyar, Co-Director of Theatre at Take Art. “Many of them are great supporters of our work across rural Somerset. We want to do something to show our solidarity with what they’re experiencing at the moment and help them in whatever way we can.” The play will be staged at Red Brick Building, Glastonbury on Sunday 16th February at 7pm.To buy a ticket for the event click here. All donations will go towards the Somerset Community Foundation’s Emergency Flood Relief Fund, which is helping individuals, families and communities recover from the impact of the current floods. Visit the Emergency Flood appeal page here.

The Charity Engagement team’s newest member Cara joined Annalisa on a visit to Global Generation’s community garden in Kings Cross, London. In this blog post she tells us about her encounter and what she learnt about the fantastic work the charity is doing. It’s my second week at Localgiving and to celebrate, Annalisa and I went on a Charity Engagement Team Adventure to Global Generation’s ‘The Skip Garden’ near King’s Cross. We enjoyed our morning exploring and learning about the garden's mission to foster an understanding of self, others, the environment through the medium of community gardening, educational programmes, and lots of climbing into colourfu, repurposed skips. We almost thought we were in the wrong place when we arrived at what looked like a construction site, but a friendly builder assured us that yes, there is a community garden plonked in one of Europe’s largest development sites. When we entered the garden, we saw chillies, pears, ginger, aloe vera and flowers of all kinds growing in skips and recycled containers. And butterflies!  We had a really interesting meeting with Nicole who told us about Global Generation and its mission to ‘harness the positive spirit of young people as catalysts for environmental and social change’ - the project is about much more than just growing vegetables. The garden is a powerhouse of unique work focussed on giving young people a broad and holistic perspective of who they are, the environment, and how the two relate.  Wanting to stay true to the urban environments that is the context for the lives of many young people, Nicole told us that The Skip Garden is happy to be positioned in the middle of a building site; their green garden is completely mobile (hence the skips) and migrates as the concrete jungle around them develops, opening up a new pocket of colourful garden for local people to enjoy. We saw Global Generation’s vision reflected in everything that they do from maintaining corporate partnerships that involve the local community, to using materials from the construction site to build the garden. Nicole told us that they have some of their meetings in skips, and used them as immersive reflection spaces for young people – we jumped in and found it pretty nice to be surrounded by plants, flowers and fruit. From a funding perspective, Global Generation is mature in its thinking; following a cut in funding from the Big Lottery Fund, their diversified income streams are a shining example of how local charities can adapt, and make themselves less vulnerable to any once funding source. The list is endless: The Skip Garden works closely with construction companies at Kings Cross Central, runs a café, hosts supper clubs, is available for venue hire, provides training and out of the ordinary social events for businesses, stocks seasonal flower beds for nearby restaurants, sells produce to the nearby office of The Guardian, maintains a roof-top vegetable garden on top of Wolff Olins, and has a ‘flying café’ which flits around the area selling meals made with produce from the garden form a purpose build bike. (…and breathe!) The Skip Garden has lots of exciting plans and I am looking forward to supporting their fundraising through Localgiving – our crowdfunding feature will be launched soon, and will be a really good tool for the charity to use. It will create a platform for project-specific fundraising, and will hopefully present a high impact opportunity for supporters to donate and get involved in supporting the project.  Although London is full of greens spaces, to me, The Skip Garden offers a lot more than a simple park; I saw a lively team of people, with an exciting mission, focussed heavily on interaction – all of which puts my wilting basil plant to shame. Highlights included ‘orchard skip’, ‘polly skip’, seeing ginger growing (who knew it could be grown in pots?!), some ceramics from Central St Martins, the behives and wormery, a bicycle powered irrigation system, pizza ovens … and wildflowers growing out of hard hats – an image which, to me, sort of sums of what Global Generation is all about. Find out more about Global Generation and support them here.

Good Neighbours is a community minibus and volunteer car scheme that provides transport for anyone over 60 and those with a disability in and around the Whitby and Scarborough area. The scheme was launched in 1996, to provide transport for people who were unable to use other forms of transport to access essential services. The scheme operates mostly in rural areas and covers an area of approximately 500 square miles. Alan Lund, Manager of Good Neighbours says the scheme allows people to overcome social and rural isolation in order to maintain an independent lifestyle. “Typically our volunteers support older people to attend hospital and doctors appointments and other health related journeys such as podiatry, opticians, dentists and day centres.” In addition to this, many of the members simply use it for social or everyday tasks such as going to the supermarket or simply to visit friends and relatives. Good Neighbours is set to receive funding cuts from for the next financial year. This makes donations and fundraising all the more important to keep the service running. A £100 donation through Localgiving would keep the community minibus running for two weeks and continue to reduce isolation in rural areas. Last year Good Neighbours’ volunteers provided just over 15,000 passenger journeys, covering in excess of 112,000 miles and provided support for more than 1,150 elderly people. Any reduction to this service, would represent a huge loss to those that rely on it. “Communities need to look after their own and a scheme like ourselves in a remote area such as ours with a high elderly population and low car ownership is vital.” concludes Alan. “Not only to the well being of many families, but it gives older people independence and allows them to remain in their own homes without having to constantly rely on family members to transport them around”. Learn more about Good Neighbours Community Transport

The Samaritans provide a listening ear to anyone in distress. Through their listening services, they have been providing care, support or simply just a friendly voice since 1953. This year, marks the 50th anniversary of the Northallerton and the Dales branch of the Samaritans which not only serves to highlight its success, but also its essential need in the community. At the time of its creation, it was the first rural branch in the country, providing much needed support to those who need it. 50 years later, as well as the traditional face-to-face support, they now offer a text and email service making sure everyone has the opportunity to be heard. The Samaritans is run entirely on the good will and hard work of a team of 50 volunteers. “We have no paid staff or fundraisers.” says Pamela Moffat, Fundraising Coordinator. “We are an individual charity and receive no outside funding or financial assistance from our headquarters.” It costs £18,000 a year to keep the Samaritans branch functioning, providing not only the listening service, but also outreach work into the community. This includes working in schools to address bullying and suicide issues, as well as local partnerships with Army Welfare groups, Network Rail and British Transport Police. How could you help the group? A £100 donation to the Northallerton and Dale Samaritans would cover the running costs of the charity for two whole days. Two days in which they could help someone in emotional crisis, going through hardship or in the extreme, prevent someone from taking their own life. “Without the Samaritans, their needs at a time of crisis might not be met and in a worst case scenario, could result in suicide” says Pamela. She also notes that it is not a “too infrequent occurrence” to be thanked publicly by someone who has been helped by the Samaritans, leaving no doubt about the impact of the Samaritans work in the community. “We need donations to keep running which in turn, continues to provide training for volunteers, lessens the strain on other Samaritan branches and ensures that every important call will be answered” something that Pamela acknowledges is just as important in their 50th year as it was in their first. Learn more about the Samaritans of Northallerton & the Dales

Clarence Gardens Association (CGA) is a charity that provides space for people with enduring mental health issues and learning disabilities, to take part in activities, socialise and develop new skills. Activities range from music, sport, to crafts and games allowing a range of activities for everyone to take part in. Rachel Barber, Manager of Clarence Gardens Association, is proud that the centre provides a range of diverse and exciting opportunities. “There is nothing like CGA in York where we can meet the needs of individuals with flexibility and understanding. The centre is a place where people with enduring mental health troubles and/or learning disability can try something new and meet others who have been affected by ill health.” CGA supports people who live in care homes and in the community, providing a safety net where they can offload and address any problems. One in four people will suffer from poor mental health so with CGA providing a clear skills-based focus, it helps to build meaning and resilience in members’ lives as well as being able to signpost and help them get the support they need before a crisis. Without this, Rachel believes many members would have very little incentive or motivations in their lives. “The facilities enables all to engage in purposeful and meaningful activities that gives them a focus. Without this many member’s health deteriorates, which for some can mean being sectioned. As well as providing a focus we provide a means of helping people improving and maintaining their physical and mental health. Any signs of deterioration is picked up and used to develop a support plan to avoid a crisis.” What a donation could do A donation to Clarence Garden Association would mean that members can continue to enjoy exciting and varied experiences as well as access immediate and essential support. For instance, a £100 donation through Localgiving would enable a music therapist to work with members, giving them the chance to explore the freedom of expression and therapeutic benefits music provides. The work of CGA has benefited countless members, including helping volunteers find employment, discover new skills or successfully selling their craftwork at local shops. One such instance is Olivia*, who had been through many hardships with several bereavements in her family and as well as illnesses herself. Though CGA, she learnt a number of skills including how to use a sewing machine, making high quality stockings, cushions. CGA helped her to get out of the house and meet new people in a safe environment. Rachel says that her proudest moments are when they “meet at least one of the aspirations of every single member”. The work CGA do has without doubt, given people hope and excitement as they discover new skills. “I have been thrilled when a member finds out what he or she is good at something as it gives them so much confidence.” concludes Rachel. “This helps towards the journey of recovery”. Through Localgiving, Clarence Gardens Association has raised almost £7,000 in just over a year and benefited from two match fund campaigns. Learn more about Clarence Gardens Association *Names have been changed to protect identities.

Localgiving Featured Charity: Tyneside Women’s Health Tyneside Women’s Health is a small charity with centres in Gateshead & Newcastle which supports women to improve their mental health and emotional wellbeing. They provide a safe space for women and opportunities for recovery including mental health courses, support groups, counselling and therapeutic activities; enabling women to achieve their personal potential and help them to feel good. Kate Mukungu, CEO of Tyneside Women’s Health assesses that ensuring sustainability is the biggest issue facing Tyneside Women’s Health, like all charities in coming years. Since joining Localgiving.com in late spring 2011, the charity has gained a new presence on the internet, raising their profile and most importantly, the facility to allow their supporters to donate online. “We have always dedicated a lot of time to fundraising applications but we never before had the facility where people in the community could donate to us in such a quick and convenient way.” The charity wasted no time in letting their supporters know about their new webpage on Localgiving. They have added the Localgiving button to their email signatures and webpage so that donors can find them on the site with ease. They also sent out leaflets to supporters, further promoting their page. The monies raised on Localgiving will benefit Tyneside Women’s Health as it will enable them to continue with the great work they are doing and provide even more invaluable services for the women in their local community. “Since we secured the online donation facility through localgiving our team has organised some amazing fundraising events, including a zip slide from the Tyne Bridge. It’s just so helpful to be able to offer people convenient way to make a contribution”. Tyneside Women’s Health held an International Women’s Day event on the 7th March to inspire women for the year ahead.  “A great day was had by all at Tyneside Women’s Health’s 2014 International women’s day event. Loads of prizes were won on the tombola and women contributed some really powerful advice to our ‘inspirational graffiti board’. We finished off with an energising singing session. Thank you and well done to all who participated!” Mandy Snee, Community Mental Health Worker Please click on the link below to find out more about the fantastic work that Tyneside Women’s Health is doing in their local community. http://localgiving.com/tynesidewomenshealth

Since 2011 Community Greenspace has been supporting local people from different backgrounds through activities that are not only of social but also environmental benefit. The majority of their work is done in mid-Cornwall with a specific focus on the China Clay Villages, which is an area of social deprivation. Their main goal is to encourage people to get more involved in creating and maintaining local greenspaces. Through their ‘Growing Together Project’ they have operated a garden-share and tool-bank scheme and continuously support local people to establish community gardens and other environmental areas. Localgiving’s ‘Charity begins in Cornwall’ campaign is an exciting opportunity for us to raise vital funds to continue our work Guy Doncaster, Secretary at Community Greenspace, talks about the opportunity to take part inLocalgiving’s Match fund campaign that is currently doubling donations for charities in Cornwall, and explains how the money raised through it will help to continue their great work. “Within the first year of our formation we obtained funding from the Lotteries Local Food programme to deliver a garden share project within the China Clay area. Unfortunately this funding has now ceased and we are in need of additional money to support our work. That’s why we were really excited when we heard about Localgiving’s Match fund. Being one of the charities that benefits from the £20,000 pot is super exciting for us as it allows us to raise over £4000 for our group. The money would help us develop our activities further as well as enable us to employ staff who are experienced in community development and horticultural activities. Hiring dedicated staff would allow us to reach more people, co-ordinate public workshops on horticulture and realize more of the great ideas we regularly receive from local residents." Getting ‘me time’ while helping others One of them is Diana Padwick, who wanted to establish a pocket community garden in St Dennis after volunteering at our practical activities. With the help of Community Greenspace Diana has developed a community garden at Clay TAWC in St Dennis and oversees volunteering at the site 2 days a month. This project has not only given her the opportunity to have some ‘me’ time, away from the responsibilities of everyday life, but also provided her with horticultural therapy. She is now a member of the Organisations Board of Directors at Community Greenspace and we are very proud to have her in our group. "We are very passionate about our engagement with local people and the ability to make a difference for them but also our environment. We believe our work has provided communities, many of whom are socially disadvantaged, to become more confident and capable of self-help. Without our commitment a number of existing community gardens would disappear, whilst new ones would not be developed. That’s why we are really keen to take advantage of the Match fund campaign.” If you want to support Community Greenspace, visit their page on Localgiving.