This year’s Christmas Appeal revolved around the Theme “Home Starts Here”. Home can mean different things to different people. However, most of us will think of similar things when we think of Home. Belonging, warmth, safety. A project we have and continue to work for. Something we plan for. Something we rely on. Homelessness isn’t fundamentally about sleeping outside. It’s about finding yourself without this place to call home. This place to feel safe, warm, and stable.
At St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity, we believe home can start in many ways. It can start with a cup of tea, or a helping hand. It can start with an outreach worker asking if everything is going okay. It can start with someone asking how they can help. Changing our life circumstances can seem difficult and it is, without a doubt, a process that does not happen quickly. But home can start with a small gesture of concern, interest, or understanding. Behind all these things there needs, somewhere, to be a generous heart. And all of these gestures of concern, interest and understanding, would not be possible without your very generous donations.
The 2019 Appeal has been a busy one. We participated in the Blessing of the Crib that St Martin’s performed in Trafalgar Square at the beginning of December. We enjoyed the nativity play, as well as the company of the donkey Clover! We were fortunate enough to collect over £1,000 after the event as well.
Our Call Centre this year was kindly hosted by Saxton Bampfylde on Appeal Day. It was a long one, we started at 6am! We enjoyed the Vicar’s Appeal on BBC Radio 4 together, and spent all day taking your calls. Thanks to your generosity, on that day alone, we reached the wonderful amount of £200,000 donated over the phone by over 1,000 individual donors. Luckily, we had the help of plenty of our BBC Radio 4 friends to process these donations. Among those who joined us, we enjoyed the company of Aasmah Mir, Nick Robinson, Ritula Shah, Dame Jenni Murray and Evan Davies.
This year, we also hosted a wonderful event at St Martin’s. The fundraising evening consisted of a nativity play (written by Vaughan Williams for St Martin’s in 1958!) performed by some of our BBC Radio 4 friends, and a wonderful evening with an auction and some performances afterwards. We even had the honour to have the cast from Come from Away to perform a song medley for us. The Gala was a big hit, and we were able to raise £80,000 to continue the work of St Martin’s.
All in all, this year has been very successful, and we have raised over 4 million pounds thanks to the generosity of all of our donors. This money will ensure we continue making an impact on thousands of people’s lives across the UK. You can read a bit more about the impact of our work here.
Written by Laura A., Fundraising Coordinator.