Cancer Research UK carries out popular fundraising events such as the Race for Life sponsored marathon, the Flora marathon. They also allow direct debit donations, have set up more than 600 retail charity shops in the UK and they have now found another innovative way to raise funds. It comes in the form of ‘eCards’ and ‘alternative gifts’.
So what on earth are they? An eCard is much like a your standard paper greeting card, but it is free and sent and viewed via email. The eCards on the Cancer Research UK website however are unique in two ways. Firstly they have unique designs from cute Easter chicks to beautiful Valentines roses. Secondly, it is possible to use the money that you would have spent on cards, envelopes and that fiver you might tuck inside and donate it to charity instead. An alternative gift refers to the set of gifts designed by Cancer Research UK themselves, including funding a PhD student for one day or one week, help and support for cancer patients on clinical trials and allowing a nurse to inform other practitioners of Cancer Research UK’s work.
The alternative gifts available on the Cancer Research UK website range from £15 to £615, and the eCards have no particular set donation.

So why give one of these gifts to a loved one, rather than the standard box of chocolates or set of bath salts? Well, they are an innovative and thoughtful way to raise awareness and funding for a great cause. A PhD student who studies for one day could learn the vital information they will need to make huge medical advances in cancer research in their future career. With the help of one of these gifts it could be made possible.

Also, we all know someone who feels strongly about raising money for charities and when it comes to their birthday or Christmas, it would probably make both their day and yours to know that their birthday gift had really helped someone in need. The sentiment felt with a thoughtful gift is still there, and in fact it’s most likely bigger!

Jose was amongst over 10,000 refugees who were passing through Santander during the Spanish Civil War, and was one of the many children who were orphaned as a result of it. Langdon-Davies started the ‘FPP’ (Foster Parent’s Plan for Children in Spain) along with his friend Eric Muggeridge, which provided the orphans with shelter, food and emotional support for the terrible experiences they had gone through.
This organisation was called the FPP right up until the 1990’s when it changed its name to ‘Plan’. Plan UK is one of 16 ‘Plan’ charities across 16 nations including the United States of America, Japan, Sweden and Germany and helped raise over $540 million in 2006 alone.
Although its name has changed, Plan UK still maintains the same ethos that inspired John Langdon-Davies and Eric Muggeridge to star the charity, and that is to listen to the ideas and aspirations of children and to help them achieve their full potential in life. Plan UK, along with its multinational counterparts, has been propelling orphaned children into great careers and happy lives of fulfilled dreams for over 70 years and its popularity continues to grow day by day.

This charity does not only work with children, but with whole communities. They carry out projects, each of which lasting around 10 years which aim to develop resources, education, housing and healthcare to ensure that the youngsters realise their full potential.

Plan UK is a religiously and politically neutral organisation. This means that it is affiliated with no religions or political parties, and as a result can work in any part of the UK, with any people.

In order to help Plan UK, the public is able to take part in fundraising activities (e.g. sponsored skydives and family adventures), shop online and volunteer. Plan UK also offers their ‘Sponsor a Child’ programme, whereby members of the public send £12 a month to the charity and their money is used to sustain the community work. This work involves building schools, training teachers, providing sanitation (clean water, toilets and medical care), educating parents in keeping their children healthy and building community banks.

Maria’s dispensary became a huge success and as a result the Whitechapel basement was no longer big enough to carry out adequate care for the sick animals. Rather than branching out to other basements or finding a larger building, Maria designed, built and developed her own mobile horse-drawn clinics. These clinics were seen travelling all over the UK and soon became known as the PDSA (the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals) and have since gone on to provide over a million veterinary consultations each year with over 500 qualified veterinarians in the 21st century.
The PDSA is now at the forefront of UK veterinary charities, providing treatment and care for the pets of those who are on housing or council tax benefits completely free of charge. The owners of these pets obviously love them enough to ensure that they stay healthy, but often cannot afford the costs of normal veterinary care. As opposed to paying veterinary fees, owners are encouraged to make a voluntary donation to the charity, but it is maintained that this is at their own discretion.
This animal charity is the biggest employer of private veterinary professionals (surgeons and nurses) and has clinics throughout the UK with a large number of charity shops and voluntary assistants.

‘Sponsor me Better’ is the PDSA’s programme for the public, offering them the chance to help pets with long-term illnesses. For a £5 donation each month the donor receives a letter from the pet they sponsor, a photo of them, an introduction to them, a certificate and regular updates. All this, as well as the knowledge that the animal they have chosen if being treated so that they can enjoy a happy and pain-free life.

Also, the general public can help the PDSA raise funds to help sick animals all over the UK in a number of different ways. Monetary donations made via direct debit from £10 to £100 help to buy the instruments, tables and medicines needed to examine and treat pets. Otherwise a legacy left in a will, purchasing from a PDSA charity shop, fundraising events (e.g. trekking, sponsored runs and skydives), raffles and prize draws all help to keep the PDSA’s invaluable service running.

These are shocking statistics, and have prompted the NSPCC to develop 6 fundamental principles, which govern what this charity does for abused children. The first of these is that children are protected from all forms of exploitation and abuse. Secondly, that everyone is responsible for caring for and protecting children. Thirdly, that everyone must listen to and respect the views of young people, treating them equally. Fourthly that children are enabled to fulfil their potential. Fifthly that any injustice towards children is challenged and lastly that every child has someone whom they can turn to in times of need.
The NSPCC’s ultimate aims are to end cruelty to children for good, support families and raise awareness about child abuse.

Going back to 1889, Parliament passed the first law against the mistreatment of children. Benjamin Waugh had founded the London SPCC (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) five years prior to this in 1884, and once this law was passed the London SPCC became the NSPCC (the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children).

There are a variety of options for donating to the NSPCC with the most common being a monthly donation of £2, £5, £10 plus and one-off donations of £20, £25, £100 or more. These donations can go towards helping a Child Protection officer answer distressed children’s calls, work one on one in schools, and give treatment sessions involving expressive dolls to help children overcome their troubles.

The list of ways to help the NSPCC doesn’t end here. The full stop campaign sees a list of ‘deeds’ that the public can carry out to gain a safer environment for children to live in. These include signing petitions for a safer Internet, wearing a ‘full stop’ badge to promote the charity and getting involved in local campaigns amongst many others.

Farm Africa is a multinational charity, which provides long term agricultural solutions to the problems that farmers in Southern and Eastern Africa face. It gives them a sustainable way of earning money themselves, without having to constantly rely on donations.

The Farm Africa programme divides its focuses into three sections and first of these is the development of pasture. There are several million pastoral farmers in the Sub-Saharan Desert moving their livestock season-to-season relying on the milk and meat that their animals provide. Farm Africa allows these farmers to access the education, health care and means of earning that they are denied.
The second section is the management of forestland within the community. Forests in Africa provide a way of life for over a million people, yet only 2% of it remains due to deforestation. Farm Africa helps communities to establish their rights as custodians of these forest, and how they can work together to maintain land.
Lastly, Farm Africa works with communities of smallholder farmers to further the development of farming pasture, reform the land and give new farmers a head start.

Farm Africa’s work began in Kenya in 1986 and was set up by Sir Michael Wood (director of AMREF) and David Campbell (director of Oxfam in East Africa). Since then, this charity’s work has spanned to the countries of Southern Sudan, South Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.

Anyone can help Farm Africa’s efforts by making regular donations by direct debit. For example, a £27 one off donation is enough to buy a goat for a family that will provide them with milk. Donators can also join in with a fundraising event (e.g. the Flora London marathon, or sponsored climbs up Mount Kilimanjaro) and leave a legacy in a will to help Farm Africa.
Another way to help this charity, whilst buying a unique gift for loved ones is through ‘Farm Friends’. Here donators can buy a camel, sheep, bee, chicken or goat online and their family or friend will receive a model animal while the real thing goes to an African farmer, to help them survive.

‘That’s Life!’ was a popular 1980’s chat show tackling consumer issues and one particular episode focused on the subject of sexual abuse. Both the BBC and the show’s presenter, Esther Rantzen were astounded at the number of calls that their phone line received, and set up the show’s helpline called ‘ChildWatch’. ChildWatch’s thousands of young callers prompted Rantzen and ‘That’s Life’s’ producer Sarah Caplin to set up ‘ChildLine’, a national freephone helpline for children to call anonymously if they feel they need advice or simply someone to talk to about their unfortunate experiences.

The number of both children and adults in the UK who had experienced sexual abuse was shocking, and previously underestimated. Due to this new demand for helplines, Rantzen and Caplin soon found their charity in financial difficulty and decided to merge with the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) in 2006.

Presently, ChildLine has volunteer counsellors manning 13 call centres across the UK who provide a 24 hour free service to distressed children. The children who call ChildLine need talk about a wide range of problems, including physical and sexual abuse, bullying, family welfare and teenage pregnancy.

ChildLine does not only provide a helpline for children to call when they are upset. Over the past 21 years this charity has helped children facing homelessness to find a place to live and has even saved lives.

Donating to ChildLine involves a minimum payment of £3 per month (around 10p per day) via direct debit, and this provides counsel for one child. This is not, however, the only way in which the public can help ChildLine to continue it’s services. Fundraising events such as sponsored runs, walks and bike rides are set up by the Charity, along with national events such as gigs and concerts which all help to raise the necessary funding. Alternative methods of donation include leaving a legacy in a will, donating a cheque or shopping on Ebay, Yellow Moon, BT, Energy Bills, Florida car hire and Boxhappy. Each of these retail sites offer products and services that donate a certain percentage of the money that you spend on them to ChildLine.

Cancer Research UK is a young charity, having been founded in 2002 after joining two existing cancer charities (‘Cancer Research Campaign’ and ‘Imperial Cancer Research Fund’) together. Despite it’s young age, Cancer Research UK is at the forefront of UK cancer charities and its popularity grows day by day.

This charity is widely respected, having been classed as a ‘health information provider’ by the UK’s National Health Service, and having spent £315,000,000 on research into cancer in 2007.
The money raised by Cancer Research UK is used in a wide variety of cancer-related areas, the main focus being the support of researchers, their work on the biological make-up of cancerous cells and what works best at killing them. A lot of research is carried out to find suitable anti-cancer drugs and how to minimise their side effects and finally, funding is used for clinical trials of these new drugs.

The Race for Life began in 1994 as a female only fundraising event for cancer research. It has since grown to the largest women-only charity event and involves women getting sponsored by friends, family and colleagues and actually anyone, to run or walk a marathon in their local area during the months of May, June and July. 665,000 women took part in Races for Life all over the UK in 2007 alone.
Cancer Research UK integrates itself into the public’s daily life as much as possible and as a result raises awareness. The charity does this by having around 600 charity shops in the UK with hundreds of retail volunteers and being supported by a huge number of celebrities including Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Madonna and Westlife.

Helping Cancer Research can be carried out in a variety of ways, with the most popular being voluntary donations of £2 or more each month by direct debit. Other ways to give to this charity include leaving a sum of money in your will, asking loved ones to donate money rather than giving you wedding, anniversary or birthday gifts, and fundraising activities (e.g. Race for Life).

The British Red Cross is a huge organisation with 32 thousand active volunteers, the longest service being 82 years. In 2005 they raised 116 million pounds, and manage to train 150,000 people in first aid per year. Not only do the British Red Cross have volunteers who travel to help those in need, but they have 361 independent charity shops with volunteer retail assistants across the UK to raise extra funds.

A Swiss businessman called Henry Dunant founded the British Red Cross in 1863. Henry bore witness to the horrors of the Battle of Solferino in 1859 and sought to change the ways in which soldiers are cared for.
Dunant also created the Geneva conventions in conjunction with the foundation of the British Red Cross, and are documents setting the standards for the treatment of prisoners of war and those in combat.

Since then, this charity has dedicated itself to the welfare of people across the UK whether they are recovering from a local emergency (e.g. floods and fires), dealing with bereavement or illness, needing first aid training to help the community or reuniting with families. The British Red Cross also works around the world providing much needed community healthcare, reducing the negative effects of war and conflict on citizens and responding to disaster.

What makes the British Red Cross unique is it’s religious and cultural neutrality. The movement will offer aid in areas and countries that other organisations will not due to differences in religious opinion and belief. The Red Cross maintains their neutrality by being an independent organisation.

There are several ways to donate to the British Red Cross, including auctioning items on Ebay, asking friends and family to donate rather than giving you wedding, anniversary or birthday gifts and simply by donating money. Donations to the British Red Cross charity must be a minimum of £2 per month, and can be paid monthly, quarterly or annually via direct debit or paypal.

10 million people in disadvantaged and poor families across the world have benefited from Action Aid’s work on famine relief, education, trade justice and health care for over 30 years. Their work occurs mainly in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. Six million of those are in Asia alone.

Donating to Action Aid allows each child to register with a local school, get basic education to help them gain qualifications and ultimately work in a profession that will earn them enough to rid their family of poverty. Allowing a child to learn to read and write could influence generations, as this skill is passed down from parent to child. Your donation could also be used to provide a family with tools, livestock and seeds which allows them to feed themselves and earn a living, or a fresh water pump which prevents a whole village from disease, illness and even death.

Amongst donating, Action Aid have a Lotto, where 75p of every pound is donated to help a child gain the education they need and deserve. Each Thursday 5 of the selected players win a cash prize of up to £2000.
Donating to Action Aid costs 50p per day, or a minimum of £15 per month (£180.00 per year) and donators can look forward to receiving pictures and drawings from the child they are sponsoring, updates on their development and information on where exactly their 50p a day is going.