Fundraising
In this section you can find out about how to support the work of George House Trust, and about our current fundraising activities.
‘I’m satisfied that whatever advice or services I need would be provided by George House Trust staff – I can’t praise them enough! One very satisfied customer.’
Tom, service user, 2008.
Whether you’re an individual, a business, a school, university or college or a community group, you’ll find information here on how you can help George House Trust support people living with HIV in the North West of England.
One tenth of HIV positive people in the UK live in North West England
5767 people are diagnosed as living with HIV in the North West of England (2008). The Health Protection Agency estimates that another 30% of people don't yet know they have HIV. Adding the 30% who are undiagnosed brings the total number of people living with HIV here in North West England to around 7,500.
Manchester, Salford, and Blackpool are HIV hotspots in North West England. Manchester has 4 times the rate of HIV found in the rest of the region. Aside from London, NW England is the region with the highest number of people with HIV in the UK.
Where do we work?
George House Trust supports people with HIV across the whole of North West England - from Cumbria and the Lake District, through Blackburn, Burnley and Blackpool, Lancashire, Liverpool and Merseyside, Manchester and Greater Manchester, to Cheshire.
Biggest and Busiest
George House Trust supports twice the number of people as the next HIV charity in the region and 10 times as many as each of the other regional HIV charities.
25 years old in 2010
George House Trust is 25 years old in 2010. Thanks to our many generous supporters over the years, we’ve been able to help thousands of people living with HIV in North West England. The continuing increase in the number of people being diagnosed with HIV in the region means the number of people who need our services increases every year. In the last five years between 800 and 900 people have been diagnosed each year in North West England.
Did you know that a third of people living with HIV experience poverty?
We pay out sums of money to meet some of the serious needs of people who are destitute with a serious condition, or who survive on below poverty-line benefits or low wages.
At the moment, about 10% of our annual income comes from a variety of community fundraising initiatives ranging from a £10 annual donation through to our street fundraising around Manchester on 1 December, World AIDS Day.
This fundraising is vital.
Why this type of money is different
Money like this is different to the money we receive from our local statutory funders such as local authorities, Primary Care Trusts, grant-making trusts and foundations, as it gives us much greater independence and flexibility. It’s not tied to any one particular scheme or project so it means that we can react quickly to changing service needs and respond to feedback from our service users.
We’re very proud of our track record in responding to service users. We do a regular survey with our users; we listen to what people tell us at services and our drop-in spaces, and comments in our suggestions box.
The SMART group, made up of a cross-section of service users, meet monthly and gives us feedback on where we can make improvements and changes. And tell us when we’re doing good work.
Our Welfare Fund is supported completely by community fundraising
George House Trust’s Welfare Fund’s money comes exclusively from our fundraising activities. Without fundraising there can be no Welfare Fund at all.
The Welfare Fund supports people living with HIV in financial hardship, and makes special payments to help with school uniforms, or course fees to help with getting back into work.
We also make emergency payments to destitute people with very low or no income, for life’s basics like food and utility bills.
BRIght IDEAS
This is our new Do It Yourself Fundraising Pack - packed with lots of ideas, and it has a handy full size poster on the back with blanks for you to add your event's details.
If you would like a printed copy of the Fundraising Pack with the large (A3) DIY poster on the back, or have an idea for a fundraising event, then please email: fundraising@ght.org.uk or call us on 0161 2744499
You can now download BRIght IDEAS here
We can also supply materials to help your fundraising:
- Red ribbons to show your awareness of the issue of HIV worldwide and that you care
- George House Trust branded Gift Aid donation envelopes (for UK tax payers). This means for every £1 donated, George House Trust can claim another 28p from the government at no cost to you or us! They're really easy to use!
- Leaflets on HIV and George House Trust's services
- Collecting tins and buckets
And we can help larger scale events run more smoothly with our team of fundraising volunteers.
Your support makes a lot of difference to the people we work with
We’re a small charity. No amount of money raised is ever too small. Every penny counts.
More on Fundraising - check the brown Fundraising menu to the left