It’s Small Charity Week!

This week is Small Charity Week, an annual campaign to amplify and support the amazing small charities supporting communities across the country. The Lancaster district has many small charities working in all sectors, from health and wellbeing to environmental management. If you can think of something, there is likely a local group supporting that very thing.

A small charity is a voluntary organisation with a social or charitable purpose and an annual income of less than £1 million. This includes registered charities, community groups, community interest companies (CICs), and other structures.

As you can imagine, this definition means that most charities and charitable projects are small! The smaller an organisation is, the more vital it is that they receive the support they need to keep doing what they do. That can include financial support in donations and grants, but it can also be volunteers to help deliver their services, it can be word of mouth to let people know that they exist and make sure that whenever someone needs that service they know about it and can easily get in touch with the people delivering it, and it can be people using it, because if a charity can demonstrate that there really is a need for what they’re doing it makes it just that little bit easier to bring in the funds they need to keep going.

You can find out all about many of the small charities (and bigger ones!) in our district through the Lancaster District Directory. You can find out about what’s happening, whether you want to explore volunteering or make a donation of money or even items and equipment.

And speaking of donating – this year, Small Charity Week is working in partnership with The Big Give and Global to give direct financial support to some local charities. One of the charities taking part in the campaign is based in our district – North Lancashire Down Syndrome Family and Carer Group – and you can help support their Let’s Dance – Inclusive Dance project with your donations by visiting their page on the Big Give Website.

Every penny raised will be matched by The Big Give, so please do consider helping them to reach their target of £1,000 to provide specialist training for people with a disability so they can co-facilitate dance workshops alongside a professional dance artist. You only have until 30th June to donate though, so don’t delay!