How we use your homeless charity donations

St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity is able to provide support to thousands of people facing or experiencing homelessness each year, thanks to your generous donations.

The homeless charity donations we receive allow us to support individuals, frontline workers, and organisations to effectively address homelessness in the UK.

We work with individuals, frontline workers and organisations and decision-makers in the UK to prevent homelessness. And when homelessness does happen, we help people to access the services and support they need to find accommodation.

Here’s how we use your homeless charity donations to ensure maximum impact for the people and organisations we support.

1. You help us fund solutions

We’re grateful for every donation given to St Martin’s Charity and we always spend our supporters’ money wisely. We invest in emerging and promising solutions to homelessness around the UK expand these where evidence shows they work. We identify new and innovative initiatives and fund them to learn from them. We find promising projects and provide the funding they need to be tested properly. 

And we go back to the tried-and-tested solutions that are backed by evidence, and we fund them to a larger scale, so they can benefit as many people as possible.

It’s through our grant-giving and funding (which is only made possible because of the support that we are given) that we turn these interventions into a reality, transforming frontline workers’ creativity and innovation into lasting solutions for people experiencing homelessness.

And ultimately, this is how we will enable more people in the UK to find — and keep — a home.

2. With your support, we work with homeless charity partners across the country

Many factors can lead to someone losing their home. And as the UK’s economy, culture and society change we can expect new challenges to emerge.

Thanks to the support you give us, St Martin’s Charity can respond quickly by working in partnership with frontline workers and organisations across the UK.

We know that homelessness can have different causes, and therefore require different solutions.

St Martin’s Charity responds quickly to different challenges by working with our partners across the country, and by funding programmes which address known barriers to accommodation such as gender discrimination, social exclusion and restricted access to mainstream support. And by funding work which helps to navigate these issues, more people can find a safe place to live.

So far, we have been able to fund seven of these projects, which are run by local charities and which are shared across each of the UK’s four nations.

They include The Connection at St Martin’s, in the heart of London, which enables people sleeping rough on the capital’s streets to find a place to live.

And they also help us to support people who are at a particularly high risk of losing their homes, such as young people and those from LGBTQ+ communities.

It’s by identifying these contemporary barriers to accommodation, then funding work which helps more people to navigate them, that we can get closer to realising our ambition as a charity — and for everyone in this country to have a place to call home.

3. We bring Frontline Workers together

We collaborate with frontline organisations and frontline workers to ensure that people experiencing homelessness can access effective support.

We invest in frontline workers, so they can develop the skills and knowledge they need to deliver support that works for people experiencing homelessness.

We work with other organisations across the UK so they can better support and retain their staff. And we bring them together, creating more opportunities for them to share their insights and expertise about what works best to support people experiencing homelessness.

4. We provide fast relief to those who need it most

Across the UK, you help us provide financial support so that more people can find and keep a place to live.

Because many financial barriers can prevent someone from securing accommodation and we regularly hear from people who can’t afford to pay costs such as an expensive, upfront rental deposit.

So our grants are designed to help. They’re either given directly to individuals or through frontline workers who can apply on behalf of the people they’re supporting.

We’ve established a fast and effective process so grants are given as quickly as possible, and this funding can transform a person’s circumstances quickly, effectively and often in a matter of days.

We provide grants of up to £500 to allow people facing or experiencing homelessness to access accommodation, and of up to £350 to prevent people from being evicted and becoming homeless.

In June 2022, we awarded 404 grants, benefitting a total of 690 people and totalling £140,924.95. 351 of these were to allow people to access accommodation, and 53 were to prevent eviction.

Thank you so much for allowing us to do this.

5. We maximise the impact of your homeless charity donations

At St Martin’s Charity, we ensure that your generous donations are used effectively.

80% of our income (80p of a pound) goes straight to our programmes – our individual grants, our partner charities, and our network of frontline workers.

We spend 11% on generating funds and just 9% on admin, which includes our rent and paying our team.

This ensures the large majority of your funding is distributed to the organisations tackling homelessness, and the individuals facing or experiencing homelessness, who really need it.

6. We limit print communication so the bulk of your funds goes directly to the people we support

We ensure we do not bombard our supporters with communications – our postal communications are few, and we will also send occasional emails with your permission.

If you want to hear from us, we send an update in the Summer about the work your donations have allows us to do, and our annual Christmas Appeal in December.

7. We keep you updated on how your donations have made an impact to people’s lives

In the Summer, we send our supporters an update on the work we’ve been doing in the past year. This includes a catch-up with one of the people featured in our Christmas Appeal – this year we caught up with Jason and Louise.

You might remember Jason and Louise from the 2021 Christmas Appeal, when they told their story about experiencing homelessness.

In December, they had just moved into their very own bungalow, after receiving a grant from St Martin’s Charity to cover their first month’s rent.

Jason and Louise are now settled into their home and can enjoy all the things that come with having their own home, like safety, comfort, and belonging.

They’re especially excited to have a place where they can share wonderful memories with their grandchildren.

Reflecting on how grateful they are for your support, Jason said, “Look where we are now, on this amazing journey. And it is all thanks to you.”

Our newsletter also gives insight into how many individual grants we’ve given, how many organisations we’ve supported, how many educational events we’ve held and much more.