Fundraising: where your money goes
The picture above shows someone with support in an accessible garden. We raised £12,310 to give one of our services an accessible, garden make-over.
How we are funded
The vast majority of United Response's funding comes from local authorities, who pay us under contract to provide support to people with learning disabilities, mental health needs and physical disabilities in their area. We also support an increasing number of people who purchase their support directly from us – whether this is via an individual or personal budget, a direct payment, or other money that they have.
We also provide support enabling people to do the things that they want to do in life. We are proud of our person-centred approach to supporting people and this will always be at the heart of our work.
However, this funding of paid support does not cover all the other things we want to do to help people take control of their lives. And so, to help us do this, we raise money. For example to campaign around specific issues, to support people to find jobs, or to be more involved in their community. And we fundraise to pay for the things that people we support tell us they want to do, like going on holiday or taking part in particular activities. These are often things that lots of other people perhaps take for granted but which may never have been possible for many people we support.
In order to pay for everything beyond the provision of core support, we need to fundraise.
So, how do we fundraise?
We fundraise in a number of ways and this depends on what we are raising money for and who we are asking to help us. But the main ways we fundraise are:
Raising money for specific projects - an example of this is our Making Money Easier project which aims to improve financial inclusion for people with learning disabilities. We've run a number of projects over the last 18 months to make dealing with money easier and we have received funds from the government, companies and grant making trusts for this work.
Raising money to be used where it is most needed (at our discretion) – this is called unrestricted income. As a large charity, we have significant costs and we need to make sure that we have enough money coming in to pay for this while providing the best possible care to the people we support. Most of our unrestricted money comes from donations from individuals and from sponsored events like the London Marathon.
Raising money for local services – people we support and the staff who work in our services around the country have the best idea of what is needed in their area. They are also best placed to carry out fundraising activities and it's a wonderful way of involving people we support in their communities. We receive money from a range of sources for local services – small grant making trusts, companies, schools, churches and neighbours can all get involved.
What can you do to get involved?
We'd be absolutely delighted if you wanted to get involved in helping us to raise money for United Response. We'd also like to say thank you to those who are already helping, either by contributing themselves or by encouraging others to do so.