Celebrating small charity week

When most people are asked to name a charity, they’ll mention the big, household names whose adverts they see on TV or in their favourite weekly magazines.

While these charities do amazing work - fighting cancer, heart disease or dementia - they only make up 3% of the charity sector. The other 97% is made up of small charities (with an income of under £ 1 million); and micro charities (those with an income of under £10,000 per annum).

Despite the prevalence of small charities, they receive just 20% of the UK’s charitable giving.

But what they’re able to achieve on a shoestring budget is nothing short of incredible.

In honour of Small Charity Week, we’re going to shine a spotlight on three small charities that are making a mighty difference.

Stem4

Stem4 is an award-winning organisation that promotes positive mental health in teenagers. They do this through the provision of mental health education, resilience strategies and early intervention.

Despite its modest budget, the charity provides mental health support to 100,000 young people each year. It also provides mental health education to 60,000 young people, their parents and carers, teachers, GPs and school nurses.

The charity has also developed four, award-winning, evidence-based mental health mobile apps:

• Calm Harm focuses on managing the urge to self-harm

• Clear Fear provides teens with a range of tools to manage anxiety

• Move Mood helps teenagers manage depression

• Combined Minds helps families and friends provide support to teenagers

The apps have been downloaded three million times, across 227 countries and territories.

Stephens and George Charitable Trust

In 2012, 40% of children in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, were found to be functionally illiterate upon leaving primary school. In response, the Welsh education inspectorate placed the borough council under “special measures”.

That same year, Stephens and George Print Group set up a charitable trust to help tackle the area’s education and literacy challenges.

Following consultation with schools, social services and other community providers, the trust put together a three-year strategy incorporating a range of initiatives.

As a result, the Stephens and George Charitable Trust enrolled 120 reading support volunteers to go into schools and read to children with complex needs. They also put in place the infrastructure to distribute 10,000 donated books to children who need them each year.

The charity also runs Charity Baby Bookworm sessions (an initiative that encourages parents to read to their children before they reach school age).

The charity secured funding from several grantmakers for these projects, but it’s also taken steps to increase its earned income. Notably, it used a community asset transfer to take over the Dowlais Community Centre. This now acts as a community hub and revenue source with a gym, cafe and hall hire. The charity also opened and runs Merthyr Tydfil’s only bookshop.

Kumon Y’all

Divisions in local communities can be deep-seated, particularly when it comes to race and religion.

For one predominantly Muslim community in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, two events shone a harsh spotlight on how the Saville Town area was divided: the neighbourhood was home of the UK’s youngest-ever suicide bomber; and the scene of a violent stabbing of a young person by members of a far-right group.

These events spurred local charity Kumon Y’all to take action to tackle the rise of extremism among young people, and challenge misunderstandings between Muslim and non-Muslim communities. They asked young members of the Dewsbury community to come up with an event to bring everyone together. The most popular idea was a football tournament.

The charity proceeded to contact various religious groups, and, in 2013, the community enjoyed its first ‘Let’s Unite’ tournament.

The annual event has grown significantly over the years. In 2022, 40 youth teams and 12 adult teams took part, and the action was watched by 5,000 spectators.

Since the event was introduced, incidents of hate crime in the area have fallen significantly. As a result, the charity has been approached by neighbouring cities to roll out the model in their communities.

Be a part of small charity week!

Want your events/webinars listed on the small charity week website? You can register them here. The page will be open until 18th June.