Raising Money together & the art of giving back

Like most mothers today I worry about the future, about what kind of world we are bringing our children up in as well as what we are leaving behind. I am mindful of trying to leave as little trace as possible, to replant, to recycle, to be aware and make educational choices. Living in the UK I am fully aware of how unbelievably lucky we are, my worries revolve around what we are going to eat for supper or what crafts I can set up to entertain the children while others in this world of ours are faced with hardships many cannot fully comprehend. Growing up in South Africa has meant my eyes have always been open to suffering, we saw it daily and I try and make my children aware of what gratitude really it and how comfortable our life is in comparison to others. Each and every year we try and giveback as much as we can from little gestures of purchasing Christmas cards where the profits go to charity to making small donations to select charities of our choice.

This year however I am avoiding some of the larger charities I would normally donated to in previous years because a lot of the funds get eaten up in admin and I rather support smaller, people led campaigns. I know most are aware of pages such as JustGiving and GoFundMe which are fantastic at crowdsourcing although there is a smaller company called Leetchi which allows you to setup small collective money pots up to £20 000 and for online fundraising has the lowest fees of all three meaning these smaller campaigns get the most back, directly to the people who need the money and also allowing them to spend the whole amount with zero charges on Amazon for those who are saving for an actual team.

Of course you can also use this service to simply club in together for a friends Birthday, wedding present or to help your local sporting group get to their next event, whatever the reason this is a fantastic platform which helps to raise money online into a collective money pot.

The Soul Food Kitchen in Greece (Image)

There are some fantastic community projects and non-for profit small fundraising efforts on the site at the moment, you could get your children involved in pick one they would like to donate too such as the Money pot Lebanon Refugee Appeal - Children's Winter Clothing packs or The Soul Food Kitchen which is helping feed refugees in Greece and can provide one hot meal for  as little as 30 cents a day but with more than 1000 displaced people to feed this winter they need help.

As I get older the more passionate I get about helping grass route organisations and community projects. We can all make a different if we work together and I love seeing so many passionate people trying to collect money for a variety of reasons and I am happy to be working with Leetchi in encouraging people to think out of the box this Christmas and perhaps enjoy a little random act of kindness.

In association with Leetchi, this year we are making a small donation to the Soul Food Kitchen