Supported Charities
Alzheimer's Dementia Care & Research
The Alzheimer's Society is the leading care and research charity for people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, their families and carers.
It is a national membership organisation and works through nearly 300 branches and support groups.
The Society has expertise in information and education for carers and professionals. It provides helplines and support for carers, runs quality day and home care, funds medical and scientific research and gives financial help to families in need. It campaigns for improved health and social services and greater public understanding of all aspects of dementia.
The Society produces a range of information and advice sheets, books and a monthly newsletter.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a worldwide campaigning movement that works to promote all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. In particular, Amnesty International campaigns to free all prisoners of conscience; ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners; abolish the death penalty, torture and other cruel treatment of prisoners; end political killings and "disappearances"; and oppose human rights abuses by opposition groups.
Amnesty International has around a million members and supporters in 162 countries and territories. Activities range from public demonstrations to letter-writing, from human rights education to fundraising concerts, from individual appeals on a particular case to global campaigns on a particular issue.
Amnesty International is impartial and independent of any government, political persuasion or religious creed. Amnesty International is financed largely by subscriptions and donations from its worldwide membership.
Barnardo's
Barnardo's works with the most vulnerable children and young people, helping them transform their lives and fulfil their potential. We are the UK's largest children's charity, supporting over 50,000 children and their families through more than 300 projects in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
We believe that the lives of all children should be free from poverty, abuse and discrimination. We use our expertise and knowledge to campaign for better care for children and to champion the rights of every child.
Barnardo's helps children, young people and their families over the long term to overcome the most severe disadvantages — problems like abuse, homelessness and poverty — and to tackle the challenges of disability.
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross cares for people in crisis in local communities throughout the British Isles and overseas as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Overseas, as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the British Red Cross assists in the aftermath of natural and manmade disasters, such as earthquakes, famine and war. It also works directly with local communities to improve their ability to cope with natural disasters and the 'silent emergencies' of disease and hunger.
In the British Isles, the British Red Cross supports the statutory services at the scenes of major emergencies, such as train crashes, floods, or public evacuations, by providing first aid and welfare services to victims and their families.
This work is carried out by a network of some 55,000 volunteers, who maintain their skills by delivering services to vulnerable people in local communities. These services include helping the elderly or infirm on discharge from hospital, loaning medical equipment on a short-term basis, or helping those separated from their families to be reunited.
Christian Action Xining Children's Home
Christian Action's aim is to promote the welfare of the poor and disadvantaged with particular emphasis upon displaced persons, irrespective of race, sex, religion or nationality. At present we have six major programmes providing services to local vulnerable groups in Hong Kong. These programmes include Employees Retraining, New Arrivals, Youth Pre-employment Training, Community Meal Service, Self-employment Enterprise Scheme, Special Job Attachment Programme and the Domestic Helpers and Migrant Workers Programmes.
Christian Action is also dedicated to help those in need in Mainland China. Since 1997, aware of the desperate need of the people in Qinghai Province, one of China's poorest areas, we have focused our efforts on child welfare and poverty alleviation. We co-manage the Children's Home in Xining to provide childcare for the orphans and abandoned children. We have already built 400 brick houses for the poor semi-nomadic Tibetans to protect them from the freezing weather and snow disasters. We are also aware that basic education is one of the most effective solutions to alleviate poverty and to improve their livehood in the long run and have implemented the construction of two primary schools in Tongren County.
Christian Aid
An agency of the churches in the UK and Ireland, Christian Aid works wherever the need is greatest, regardless of religion. It works through local organisations that understand local needs, as well as giving help on the ground through 16 overseas offices.
Christian Aid believes in strengthening people to find their own solutions to the problems they face. It strives for a new world transformed by an end to poverty and campaigns to change the rules that keep people poor.
Crisis
Crisis is the national charity for homeless people, especially those who don’t ‘qualify’ for statutory support. Our goal is to alleviate the poverty and distress experienced by them as they have literally nowehere else to turn, neither friends, family nor state. We provide lasting solutions to homelessness.
We work year-round to help vulnerable people through the crisis of homelessness, rebuild their lives, reintegrate into society and live independently.
Fairbridge
For our young people, realising your potential starts with realising you have it! To achieve that requires two things: someone to tell you that you have ability and an opportunity to prove it to yourself and to others.
So, put quite simply, that is what we offer young people: a combination of long-term personal support and challenging activities in 12 of the most disadvantaged areas in the country.
Our goal is simple: to give young people the motivation, confidence and skills they need to change their own lives.
Based in 12 of the most disadvantaged urban areas in the country, Fairbridge supports 13-25 year olds who are not in education, training or employment or who have been identified as being at risk of dropping out. They are referred to us by over 1,400 different organisations.
These young people often face a range of problems and may have been excluded from school, endured long-term unemployment, faced homelessness or become involved in criminal activity. Many are without the support of their family and on the margins of their local community.
The Institute of Cancer Research
The Institute of Cancer Research was established in 1909 to investigate the causes of cancer and develop new strategies for its prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure.
The Institute is now a centre of excellence employing some of the world's leading scientists working on cutting edge research. Its world-wide reputation is based on a tradition of significant achievements.
Institute scientists:
- Identified the suspected link between smoking and lung cancer.
- Discovered three of the main drugs used to treat cancer.
- First discovered the importance of DNA malfunction in the development of cancer.
- Identified BRCA2, one of the hereditary breast cancer genes.
- Jointly developed a new treatment for testicular cancer which led to today's 96% cure rate.
- Developed conformal radiotherapy - a new, safer way of treating prostate cancer.
London Cycling Campaign
The London Cycling Campaign exists to increase cycling in Greater London for the benefit of individuals, local communities and the wider environment by:
- promoting cycling
- improving conditions for cycling
- raising the profile of cycling
We work with a wide range of organisations, including other cycling, sustainable transport and environmental groups as well as major employers.
Mango
Mango was established in 1999 to meet an urgent need in the international relief and development sector. We work to improve the financial management of relief and development field operations.
Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) need robust financial management to ensure that they make the best possible use of their limited resouces. This is true whether they are lobbying governments for change, or delivering services themselves (like digging wells).
Recently, NGOs have faced a huge change in their working environment. There has been a great push for NGOs to increase their accountability to beneficiaries and to donors. Institutional donors have tightened their reporting requirements and new standards of professional conduct have been introduced.
Some Northern NGOs have grown rapidly into complex, multi-national organisations. They work in many different sectors in developing countries, maintaining offices in locations as varied as the Congolese jungle and North Korea. These conditions create real challenges for NGO financial managers.
Mango is unique in its dedication to helping NGOs meet all of their financial management needs. We help NGOs do more with their money.
Nelson Mandela's Children Fund
"As the Children’s Fund completes its fifth year of operation, we can all look back with some pride at its achievements. To date it has raised R155 million in capital and distributed R53 million. This demonstrates an organization that is indeed beginning to make an impact on the lives of our children. The Children’s Fund is also poised to achieve a goal that I have urged the trustees and management of the Fund to pursue vigorously: the creation of an organization capable of functioning well beyond my own lifetime.
We cannot however become complacent. The challenges that we face as a country are huge. The fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS has to intensify; we have to strive to give all our citizens access to quality health-care and education, to stimulate economic growth and create jobs, and to deepen the sense of unity among our citizens. Failure to meet these challenges will have disastrous effects, especially on our children and our youth.
Government cannot by itself meet these challenges. The private sector, non-government organizations and ordinary people have to make their contribution. The Children’s Fund is one of those non-government organizations beginning to make its mark. It prides itself on its non-partisanship, its independence and its ability to work alongside government while retaining its own vision.
In the coming year the Fund will continue to expand its partnerships with international agencies. For example, it is about to sign an agreement with the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) that will enable a major response to the plight of children affected and infected by AIDS. The Mott Foundation, also US based, has pledged to support our efforts to create an endowment.
We welcome and appreciate this support. I would however like to see the Fund’s roots within the country being deepened. The South African corporate sector has been very generous, and we will continue to seek support from them. It would be wonderful to see South Africans from all walks of life contributing towards the Fund, so that in the long run, it becomes an organization that can truly claim to “belong to the people”. "
Nelson Mandela
Chairperson & Founder
Norwood Ravenswood
Norwood Ravenswood provides wide-ranging educational, community and residential services to socially disadvantaged children, vulnerable young adults and people of all ages with learning disabilities. We offer residential support, comprehensive day services and family centres, respite care, vocational training schemes to prepare disabled young adults for life in the community, education for special needs children and recreational services for learning disabled children and adults.
Norwood Ravenswood's mission is to build a better future for disadvantaged children and young adults by providing one stop, easy accessible and high quality services to those that need them when they need them. 'Giving people a chance in life' is our ethos and our mission. The people for whom we care are among the most vulnerable in our society.
Pallotta Teamworks
Pallotta TeamWorks is headquartered in Los Angeles, is a California for-profit corporation, and has over 330 full-time employees in 15 offices around the United States. We were founded in 1992 by Dan Pallotta, a Harvard graduate with a vision of re-inventing charity by bringing the most intelligent practices of the most successful businesses to the realm of common human decency: great marketing, smart management, cutting edge capitalization models, and an orientation toward results. Our business model is based in the belief that the great causes deserve the same talent and business savvy that goes into the great consumer brands.
Since our inception through the year 2001, we have netted $222 million for the causes of AIDS and breast cancer. That’s more money, sent more quickly to AIDS and breast cancer charities than any known private event enterprise in U.S. history. Over 124,000 people have participated in one of our events. Over 4 billion people have been reached in the media coverage of our events, and over 3 million donors have been brought to bear on the issues we support.
The Parkinsons Disease Society
The aims of the Parkinsons Disease Society are to help people with Parkinsons Disease and their families with the problems associated with the illness, to collect and disseminate information on Parkinsons Disease and to encourage and provide funds for research into Parkinsons Disease. It is the only UK charity providing such help.
120,000 people in the UK have Parkinson's, a progressive and currently incurable neurological condition which can dramatically affect the ability to perform movement.
Up to one million people live with Parkinson's as family members and friends.
10,000 people are diagnosed each year. Most people are diagnosed over the age of 60, but it is estimated that one in 20 are under 40 when diagnosed
Pediatric Immunology Research Fund
SCID, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, is a primary immune deficiency. The defining characteristic is usually a severe defect in both the T- & B-lymphocyte systems. This usually results in the onset of one or more serious infections within the first few months of life. These infections are usually serious, and may even be life threatening, they may include pneumonia, meningitis or bloodstream infections.
"This once-fatal disease should be now seen as a pediatric emergency, a condition that needs immediate diagnosis and treatment. says Dr. Rebecca Buckley, chief of Duke's division of pediatric allergy and immunology. "Early diagnosis of SCID is rare because doctors do not routinely perform a test in newborns to count white blood cells. Such a blood test could pick up children with SCID as well as those with other serious immune deficiencies that would not be apparent until the child developed an infection. A simple blood test could allow us to treat, and most likely cure, SCID in an infant at a reasonable cost. If found later, less effective treatment can run into the millions." Buckley states, "What we're saying is that essentially every baby with SCID could be cured if diagnosed early enough. SCID should be considered a pediatric emergency."
SCID is often called "bubble boy disease". SCID became widely known during the 1970's and 80's, when the world learned of David Vetter, a boy with X-linked SCID, who lived for 12 years in a plastic, germ-free bubble.
There are several forms of SCID. The most common type is linked to the X chromosome, making this form affect only males. Other forms of SCID usually follow an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern or are the result of spontaneous mutations. One of these other forms is linked to a deficiency of the enzyme adenosine deaminase (ADA). Other cases of SCID are caused by a variety of other defects.
The Place (contemporary dance trust)
The Place is an international centre for enquiry, enterprise and originality in dance, situated in the heart of London. It is unique in the range and variety of dance activities it presents to people from different backgrounds and with varying dance experience.
The Place leads the way in pushing back boundaries by placing equal emphasis on learning about, creating and performing dance.
The Samaritans
The Samaritans is a registered charity based in the UK and Republic of Ireland that provides confidential emotional support to any person who is suicidal or despairing; and that increases public awareness of issues around suicide and depression.
The Samaritans was set up in 1953, in London. We now have over 200 Branches in the UK and Ireland and are affiliated to Befrienders International who have Branches in many countries.
Shelter
Through Shelterline and our network of housing aid centres and projects, Shelter provides free, professional and independent advice to anyone with a housing problem. This includes over 176,000 homeless and badly housed people each year throughout England and Scotland.
We also work in partnership with local citizens advice bureau as part of the National Homelessness Advice Service. This service, funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, enables us to reach even more people in housing need. Part of our services give specialist advice: to young people in Merseyside and parts of Gloucestershire; with other agencies; to young people and children in Bristol.
Shelter's advice services are governed by our quality standards programme and backed up by our in-house legal, information, publications and training teams.
In 1999/2000 Shelter gave advice to over 128,000 households, an increase of 8% over the previous year.
War Child
War Child is an International Relief and Development Agency, dedicated to providing immediate, effective and sustainable aid to children affected by war in order to build peace, resolve conflict and empower future generations. War Child was founded in 1993 in response to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. It has since expanded its work to conflicts worldwide, with an emphasis on Africa and the Balkans. War Child strives to alleviate the suffering of children affected by war and focus public attention on the plight of these children. War Child is committed to the following principles.
It will:
- Strive to uphold and promote the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Work without regard for race, colour, sex, language, religion, sexuality, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
- Recognise the family as the natural environment for the growth and well-being of children.
- Work to support and develop already existing child welfare resources (eg parents, carers, teachers, local accountable organisations etc).
The vital work that War Child undertakes is funded by Government and institutional donors, public and private donations, and through fundraising initiatives such as the Help album and Girls' Night Out/Boys Night In, a best-selling collection of short stories. Recognised as one of the music industry's favourite charities, War Child has received substantial support from some of the world's most successful and influential musicians, as well as enthusiastic backing from key figures from television, film and the arts.
Whitechapel Gallery
''The Whitechapel Gallery taught Britain how to love modern art.'" The Guardian
"International it may be in its scope and reputation, but of all London's galleries, it remains one that is truly of the people." The Financial Times
"A gallery opens into a luminous, cathedral like space which enhances everything displayed there." The Times
"A miracle in the East End one of London's wonders." The Sunday Telegraph
"The place where one can expect to find the most exciting, the best new art around" Sir Anthony Caro