Newspapers Raise Millions For Charities at Christmas
Local and national newspaper readers across the UK supported and raised millions for charitable causes over the Christmas period.
Guardian and Observer readers showed their solidarity with the Windrush generation by donating £920,000. The money raised will go towards five charities that helped bring the Windrush scandal to light, and will aid the fight for justice for those who were impacted by the “hostile environment” policy.
The Medway Foodbank was full at Christmas thanks to the Medway Messenger’s readers generosity. The foodbank, a vital lifeline for more than 5,500 people in Medway, was inundated with supplies followign an appeal by the paper.
The Daily Mail’s Christmas campaign with the charity Helpforce saw more than 32,500 pledge to become NHS volunteers. Some 1.84 million hours of unpaid work has been committed to comfort patients and ease pressure on the health service. Prime Minister Theresa May hailed the campaign as an “overwhelming success” and described the response as “really heartening.”
Midland News Association titles also recorded record responses to their appeals with the Express and Star’s Feed a Family campaign prompting readers to donate 16,000 food items and toiletries for the campaign.
Nearly 1,400 toys and gifts were given to children with serious medical conditions across Shropshire thanks to a joint initiative run by the Shropshire Star and Storage King. This was a record year for the appeal which saw donations shared between local organisations.
Newquest’s parent company, Gannett, made available nearly £300,000 worth of grants to 50 causes across the country. Organisations that the recieved funds included Samaritans of Chelmsford & Mid-Essex Branch, Oxfordshire Dyslexic Association, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland and Poole Waste Not Want Not.
News UK titles raised a total of more than £1.3 million for good causes over the festive period. The Times raised £828,840 after championing four charities working on pressing humanitarian and environmental issues in the UK and overseas.
The Sunday Times raised £384,700 after partnering with homelessness charity Crisis to give more people in trouble some Christmas cheer and long-term help in the ‘Homeless in Britain’ appeal, while The Sun raised £105,000 for Bliss, a charity dedicated to babies born premature and sick, with its Light Up Christmas campaign.
The Sun on Sunday pledged its support to charity Children with Cancer while Unruly’s pledge of media to the One to One campaign fuelled the donation 100,000 meals for infants to the British Red Cross.
One million pounds has been raised to help severely ill and premature babies at Wales’ largest hospital.The Noah’s Ark Charity launched its Tiny Lives Appeal two years ago to further support newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit at the University Hospital of Wales. With the support of the South Wales Echo, Western Mail and WalesOnline, the charity’s aim was to raise £125,000 by Christmas to help them reach the £1m mark.
Children suffering terminal, life-limiting, and chronic illnesses were presented with gifts over the festive period thanks to the Daily Echo’s Appeal in partnership with Amelia’s Rainbow Christmas Toy Appeal. The charity, set up in memory of eight-year-old Amelia Grace Cooper, delivered more than 150 sacks of toys to children and their siblings across Dorset.
The Evening Standard’s ongoing Aids Free campaign has already raised more than £1 million for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which supports programmes to provide tests for HIV — making sure those who need help can get access to treatment in six key cities around the world. The campaign has received support from Michelle Obama, Ed Sheeran, Take That and James Corden.
Birmingham Live smashed its target twice over for food donations. The Paper aimed to collect 100 tonnes of food as part of the ‘BrumFeeds’ foodbank donation campaign, which it launched in May. However, more than 220 tonnes of food was donated and will be distributed across Birmingham’s 10 foodbanks.
The Telegraph’s charity appeal for mental health charities raised over £85,000 with the paper’s editors, columnists, cartoonists and journalists taking to the phones to drive donations. Boris Johnson, Allison Pearson, and Bryony Gordon who has written about her own struggle with OCD, helped drive donations for Changing Faces, Young Minds and The Fire Fighters Charity.
The Mirror raised £35,000 for their foodbank appeal with The Trussell Trust – the country’s largest provider of foodbanks. Volunteers at the Trussell Trust expect to dish out 1.5 million meals this Christmas – 100,000 more than last year.