Charities hope gift-giving campaigns will help fill fundraising gap

When you are drawing up your Christmas gift list this year, make sure to include a charity.

“This time of year is always one of the most important points of the year for charities but it’s especially critical this year,” says Mary Gamble, director of fundraising at Barnardos Ireland, the children’s charity.

“Right now is when charities do most of their fundraising, it’s also when families will be most in need.”

Covid-19 has taken a severe toll on many of the 21,000 children and families that Barnardos Ireland supports.

It often works in disadvantaged communities, or with parents who may have issues in relation to parenting skills, or who are dealing with mental health challenges, in some cases in a backdrop of persistent poverty, “all of which has been exacerbated by the pandemic,” she says.

Expenses at Barnardos sky-rocketed during the first lockdown. “School is a lifeline for many children. During the initial lockdown very many children lost their ‘escape route,’” she says.

It meant they couldn’t get supports such as the breakfast clubs and after-school clubs run by Barnardos either.

“We had to turn that around very fast, and we did, delivering food parcels and hot meals to their door, which was needed because so many cupboards are bare, but it also allowed us to put our eyes on the child and, in that brief glimpse, see how they were,” she explains.

Its funding needs went up while its fundraising ability went down.

“All the great things we do stopped. Our charity shops closed, all the bake sales and fundraisers that people do for us stopped, our collection days when we’d have 2,000 people out shaking buckets, all stopped. We had to change and adapt because the need was still there,” says Gamble.

That need was exacerbated by the panic buying in March because it meant supermarkets had no spare stock to give to charities such as Barnardos.

“I couldn’t sleep for two weeks worrying about the children who were going hungry as a result,” she says. “But we turned it around. Instead of us using our bus to bring kids to us, for example, we drove out to the kids, so our petrol bills went up, things you wouldn’t think of,” she says.

Anyone looking to help can do so by buying a charity gift.

Barnardos’ Gifts for Good campaign includes gifts such as a “winter woollies” pack which includes a warm coat, hat and scarf and wellies, for €56. For €18 you can give a child a gift of warm pyjamas, socks and slippers.

“Our families were struggling even before Covid hit. There are so many toy drives out there at this time of year, which is great, but we’re talking the basics here which is what our children need most at Christmas,” says Gamble.

Greater challenges

Major gift-giving from large corporate donors and foundations appears to have held up well this year but some charities face greater challenges than others.

“Some organisations were able to pivot from physical to virtual events really well, such as Pieta House’s Darkness into Light in May, which was very impressive,” says Dennis O’Connor of 2into3, a consultancy.

By contrast, community-funded charity that depends on earned income from shows or sports events “has been obliterated,” he says, at a time when demand for mental health and domestic violence supports have gone up.

“Smaller organisations, smaller charities, have been the worst hit, they can’t turn physical events into virtual ones, they don’t have the skill set or the brand and this is a sector predominated by smaller organisations,” says O’Connor.

Sending a charity Christmas gift couldn’t be easier, as most have fully ecommerce-enabled websites.

This Christmas will see Trócaire deliver its one millionth gift to families in the developing world. This year it has a special focus on the impact of Covid-19, with a “quarantine care” gift of soap, clean water and other supplies to last two weeks of self-isolation, including shelter, blankets and solar lamps.

Self Help Africa’s Lifetime Gifts 2020 campaign includes agricultural items such as tree saplings or sweet potato plants, seeds or piglets. A €20 donation will buy someone a flock of chickens, for example.

Concern Worldwide’s Christmas gifts are practical too, including everything from livestock to school lunches. For €450 you can buy someone an apprenticeship, helping to set them up for life.

Housing and homelessness organisation Focus Ireland is also gearing up for a festive season like no other. "Our big Christmas appeal is one of the biggest things we do every year and the support we get from the public is incredible," says Amy Carr, its director of fundraising and marketing.

This year, as well as its Christmas tree on Grafton Street, for which companies can sponsor a star in lieu of cards, it has a Christmas jumper campaign which encourages people to raise money by having a virtual get-together.

It is also launching a series of music sessions in train stations in partnership with Irish Rail, which will include well-known singers, and be broadcast on Facebook in early December, which people can make donations to.

“Irish Rail have been brilliant to partner with,” says Carr. “Normally they’d have Christmas carols for us but because of Covid there’s no footfall, so this should be something really special instead.”