News & Insight

27th November 2018

What difference does £10 make anyway?

Here’s a clue. It’s not about the £10.

£10 is a vote of support. It says, ‘I believe in you’. It says, ‘Keep it up’. It says, ‘You’re doing great’.

You might not believe it, but in many charities an unexpected tenner gets noticed. The finance assistant will receive your donation into the bank account and a notification will be circulated around the staff team – maybe even the board too: ‘We haven’t even sent out our Christmas appeal yet! Isn’t this great? She’s based in Hawaii/Singapore/Surrey. Does anyone know who this is? Can we invite them in for tea? Do you think they’d like a tour?’

And, sometimes, no one knows who they are. And that is the most exciting. Someone, somewhere has noticed what they are doing – and they made the effort to give £10. They took the time to visit the website, to find their wallet, to enter their card details. Maybe the website even timed out a few times, maybe it didn’t accept their Amex (#charitylife), but they persevered.

That £10 says, ‘I see you’. It says, ‘I know what you are doing is hard. And I know it’s more complicated than you can ever tell us in a poster. I know it doesn’t always work. But your effort is worth it. And we, out here in the world, appreciate that you are doing it. Thank you’.

Sure, your tenner might not buy the most exciting things. Maybe some new highlighters for a workshop. Maybe some refreshments to make people feel at home the first time they come in for advice. Maybe just some leaflets so that local businesses know they exist.

But know this – in a small charity, every pound is watched – whatever your money is spent on, it is going exactly where it needs to go.

Your £10 will make a team of charity workers go home that night saying, ‘I think our fundraising is starting to work! We didn’t even know who she was!’.

And that might be all it takes. Running helplines, delivering training, providing advice, serving hot meals – sometimes to people who are kind and grateful, and sometimes to people who aren’t in the mood to be kind and grateful. Your charity of choice knows that someone out there has their back, and that makes a big difference for a £10 note.

Tamsin cut her (small charity) teeth at the Pratthanadee Foundation, where she still serves as an Honorary Board Member. Pratthanadee offers free career and personal development training to women and girls stuck in low paid or demeaning work in Thailand. If you’d like to surprise their team with an unexpected £10, you can do so here: https://pratthanadee.org/donatenow/

Alternatively take yourself over to Google, and find a charity fighting for something you believe in. Give them a £10 surprise this #GivingTuesday and know that someone, somewhere will be going home with a warm, fuzzy glow tonight.