give it

Small milestones

I love it when we hit small milestones in our fundraising efforts for each charity - the first £1,000, the first £5,000, the first £10,000, the first £50,000... we hit a good milestone for Samaritans this month.

Oddly enough however, the first time we actually generate a donation for a charity is what seems to make me smile the most. This month we've managed that five times - given our fairly tight selection of charities (just over 50 charities now) that's quite a return in one month, and one I don't think we've seen before, even from our first full year when, obviously, we added a fairly large tranche in one go (which was actually our second tranche, given we started with just five originally).

This month we've managed to get things moving for AfriKids, Depaul UK, Street Child Africa, TreeAid and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. 

I have to admit that being able to start generating funds for the last of those, WWT, is particularly satisfying. As a youngster I learnt so much about wildlife, and in particular wildfowl, from regular visits (up to monthly at some stages) to the Martin Mere Wetland Centre in Lancashire, a short cycle ride from where I lived and went to school. It was, and still is, an amazing place to visit at any time of the year (and having been to other centres as an adult they're not just for kids!).

We brought WWT onto The Green Wedding List this year (too late for 2009 weddings, this month's funds have come via Gifts4Good) and we hope we'll have a good year for them in 2010. For the time being though it's good to get things moving.

Andy 

Featuring in the Guardian's "Christmas gift guide"

Great to see that 6 of the 10 charity gifts featured in the "Charity gift" section (naturally) in the Guardian's online gift guide this Christmas link through to Gifts4Good.

Good to see that the Guardian buy in to the principle that buying a charity gift doesn't have to come with oodles of extras like gift cards, photos, letters, fridge magnets, spare envelope for re-sending on etc etc - there's certainly a place for that, as many consumers need that type of touchy-feely paraphernalia and for charities it seems a good way to establish a more tangible link with a potential supporter. But many people (in our experience) also like the immediacy and simplicity of Gifts4Good and in an increasingly online world it also could make more sense for the charity - the recipient, via the link in the gift email, can go straight to the charity's website to find out more.

We've managed to get quite a cross-section of charities onto the Guardian website, from large well-known charities like CLIC Sargent, Samaritans and RSPB, through to the less well-known, but still large, AMREF, along with two smaller charities The Food Chain and AfriKids.  

Although our wedding lists remain our biggest focus (in terms of funds and time spent) it's good to be generating a little more through Gifts4Good (especially given that it's the quiet season for weddings). As a certain large supermarket says; "every little helps..."

Andy

Being a dad...

...is such a mixture of roles. Nappy-changer, school taxi-driver, investment banker, sports club taxi-driver, advisor, late-night taxi-driver, diplomat...

But as I get older it all seems to be paying off - it feels like I'm doing much more sitting back and admiring what my kids are achieving. Take today for instance...

This is Corinne, receiving her Foundation Degree up at Sunderland University today.

Not content with bringing up her three beautiful boys and holding down a full-time job, she's also been working towards her business degree (with a lot of support from her employer). Corinne has just emailed me this picture and said I can go along next time to see her pick up the full degree if I promise not to show her up by blubbing... I said I'd be there but couldn't promise anything.

My role today? Very proud dad!

Andy