9. Sweet charity!

This charity sponsorship angle of my trip has really been doing my head in.  About a year or so ago I remember sponsoring a colleague who was taking part in some kind of charity run.  She flagged it on Facebook and I recall being intrigued by the link she provided to her own charity web page which made it very simple to contribute to the cause online via credit/debit card.  I contact her and she very kindly points me at the excellent JustGiving site. 

This fantastic facility takes all the hassle out of the whole process for participant and donors.  You choose your charity, build a simple web page hosted on the JustGiving platform, canvass friends, family and co-workers (note the hyphen America, your 'coworker' always makes me think of farm labourers ['farm-hands' in the US] - or worse), then you watch the contributions click in.

Even better, if donors are tax-paying UK residents, JustGiving recover the 'Gift Aid' tax element from the government to increase the amount that goes to the charity.  It's from this portion they take their meagre five per cent fee.  This means that for every £10 donated, something closer to almost £12 actually goes to the cause.  JustGiving handle all the admin, collect the cash and ensure it all quickly goes where it should.  Their super-efficient website keeps the participant constantly updated on how their tally is growing.  It's superb! 

Since it was established in 1999 by an enterprising woman who relinquished her high-flying city job to give rather than take, it has become the leading online platform for charity giving, and has seen millions of people raise more than £450 million for over 8,000 member charities.

This'll do for me I think. But there's a snag. JustGiving is only able to provide online fundraising services to charities registered in the UK with the Charity Commission. 

For my charity effort I've been having grand ideas of somehow linking home, the UK, with  what has been home, the ME, for the last eight plus years.  So what about the Red Cross and the Red Crescent?  Both organisations, founded respectively in 1863 and 1877, perform sterling work around the globe providing non-partisan humanitarian relief and aid.  Worldwide, they have more than 97 million volunteers in almost every country, supporting relief work. 

Trawling online, I eventually light on the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies which looks promising, if a bit high level.  But of course they're not in the UK, not registered with the Charity Commission and therefore don't feature on JustGiving.  I email both organisations telling them what I'm planning and asking if they can suggest a solution.  They both come back basically saying the same thing, that I could use JustGiving to channel funds to the British Red Cross Society, but the IFRC operates through its global network of national societies and doesn't get involved in fundraising campaigns or individual initiatives.  But the IFRC does have an online facility to receive donations which can be channelled to specific relief efforts or IFRC central funding according to donor's choice. 

All well and good, but this doesn't solve my problem.  I want donors supporting my effort to be able to choose whether to give to Cross or Crescent depending on their individual interests, leanings or wishes.  And I want to keep it simple.  The same issue applies if I opt for one of the national Red Crescent Societies in the region, such as the one that exists in Kuwait or, perhaps more deservingly, the one in Palestine.  What to do?

I eventually decide to build my JustGiving page based on raising funds for the British Red Cross Society but mention in the text box which provides the background to what I'm doing and why, that donors can alternatively - or also - donate to the Palestine Red Crescent Society via a clickable link to the PRCS online donation page.  The downside to this is that neither PRSC nor I will have any idea of who has given or how much is raised for them in support of my trip, but hey, the object is to get money in and I can live with that. 

My page is now live here, so get your wallets out!