A north-east homelessness charity is aiming to raise £50,000 in just one week as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
Aberdeen Cyrenians have been selected to take part in this year’s national Big Give Christmas Challenge, which started at noon yesterday and will run until noon on Tuesday.
The initiative is an online, match-funding challenge – which means that all donations made to the charity during the period are automatically doubled by a philanthropic champion.
Cyrenians is being championed by the Garfield Weston Foundation – which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year – and will be using the money raised to fund its Street Alternatives project.
Fundraising manager Kate Loades said the charity is increasingly desperate need of cash with more and more people needing its help.
She said: “We’ve had an exceptionally busy year, and being selected for this means our efforts to raise funds and awareness about our work in this special year will continue in the run up to Christmas.
‘This year, with benefit changes and continued austerity, we’ve seen a rise in the number of people who desperately need our services.
“In our Street Alternatives project, we’ve served almost 5,000 meals so far this year alone.”
The Street Alternatives project provides a hot meal, warm showers and laundry facilities, along with advice and support.
The charity is expecting that demand to continue into next year, and has appealed for supporters to dig deep over the next seven days to ensure that their donations will have “twice the impact”.
The Garfield Weston Foundation is a grant-giving charity set up by a Canadian businessman and humanitarian of that name in 1958.
Donations can be madehere.
For more information people can email fundraising@aberdeen-cyrenians.org or call 01224 625732.
