Will you join our team of supporters?
By Becca Bland
There are numerous asks for donations from many different causes, appeals and charities over the festive period. It truly is the time for giving. Even as someone who works in the third-sector, I find it hard to choose between so many worthy appeals that flash up on my timelines.
I’m not going to make it any easier for you, by asking you to consider giving to the charity that I founded, Stand Alone.
As a small charity, with an income of under 250K, we aren’t able to fund billboard appeals, and we can’t pump tens of thousands into social media advertising. This means we’re often overlooked at this time of the year, simply as people don’t know we’re here.
So if you are reading this, it’s likely you’ll have been impacted by our work. You might have found us from reading a guide about family estrangement, or have attended a support group, or you might work in the higher education sector, where we have been campaigning for more support for young people who are studying without the support and approval of their families.
Stand Alone may have made a huge difference to your personal or work life — our impact work shows that by finding our website and reading a guide you might feel less alone than you did before. If you have attended our groups or workshops, it’s likely to have improved your emotional wellbeing, and given you a network to drawn on when trigger points occur. If you work in HE, our research and influence means that nearly half of all estranged young people in HE have better support in their institution and can apply for statutory finance much more easily. That’s nearly five thousand students.
It doesn’t take hundreds of people and a large office to make these changes — we are a small but highly focussed organisation, working from a “hot desking” space. Thanks to the professionalism of our Trustees and dedication of our three-person, part-time operational team, we are able to punch above our weight.
But it does take your support to continue to make this impact. We are extremely lucky to be funded by a host of brilliant grant funders — Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Tudor Trust, Henry Smith Charity and Garfield Western Foundation are our main funders. Whilst these trusts have committed to supporting us in the short-medium term, they won’t support us forever. We must go on a journey to create a more sustainable model of funding, as we want to be here, supporting you in ten years time.
I would like to ask you, our core supporters, to consider setting up a monthly donation to Stand Alone. Your ongoing funding support will help us to plan in the longer term and to broaden our impact — we can continue to host our website and guides, we can bring support groups to other locations in the UK, and we can pursue more widespread change for estranged young adults in and out of HE.
With your help, and by joining our new team of supporters, we can continue to help so many who are isolated from family to feel less alone and abnormal, and improve visibility, policies and rights for estranged young people. In return, in 2019, we’ll be making some special content and opportunities for our team of supporters.
I have seen so many important and innovative small charities cease to operate because they left it too late to start asking for support from those who believed in them. We would hate that to be us. So we really hope you will consider getting on board!
Thanks for reading, and all of us at Stand Alone wish you very peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
You can donate to Stand Alone and set up a monthly or one-off donation via JustGiving: https://www.justgiving.com/standalone
