Our £4 million to ease cost of living crisis
On the Breadline: £2.78m handed out to over 200 charities as parents hail our appeal as godsend
Our grants provide vital help, such as food, fuel vouchers, warm places to meet, activities for young people and more
/ Jeremy Selwynhe total raised by the Evening Standard’s cost of living appeal in partnership with the Independent has passed the £4 million mark — with more than two-thirds of this amount already given out in grants to charities helping the most disadvantaged people across Britain.
With food, energy and water prices continuing to rise, charity bosses hailed our appeal as “a game changer” that will support people left behind by the cost of living crisis while struggling parents called it “a Godsend”.
Our grants provide vital help, such as food, fuel vouchers, warm places to meet, activities for young people and more.
Evening Standard proprietor Lord Lebedev said: “This has been our most important Christmas campaign and I am grateful to those who donated and made a difference to the most vulnerable in our community.”
Jonny Boux, CEO of Ambition Aspire Achieve, a charity that offers trips to children from low-income households and received a £50,000 grant from our campaign, said: “Families have to choose between heating and eating and so activities for kids goes out of the window. This money allows us to provide exciting day trips and residentials to children who need respite from the daily grind of poverty.”
We have given £2.78 million in grants to 208 charities, with £1.5 million of these grants flowing from our partnership with Comic Relief and £1.28 million from our collaboration with The Childhood Trust.
It marks the biggest disbursement to charities from any British news group in response to the cost of living crisis. The grants agreed with The Childhood Trust have been paid to 20 charities supporting children in poverty in London.
The micro-grants — phase one of the Comic Relief funding — have been disbursed to 94 charities in England (including 22 in London), 58 in Scotland, 27 in Northern Ireland and eight in Wales. The undistributed balance of over £1 million — phase two Comic Relief funding — will be given in larger grants to no more than a dozen charities.
The £3.7 million we raised in the five weeks before Christmas has been boosted by further donations amounting to £360,000 that poured in from the public, corporates and foundations, taking our total to £4.06 million. This includes £100,000 from The Barratt Foundation and £75,000 from The Haberdashers’ Company.
David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt Developments, said: “With rising costs, lots of families will need assistance, so the Barratt Foundation is pleased to donate £100,000 to this great campaign in partnership with Comic Relief.”
Christopher Hardie, master of The Haberdashers’ Company, one of London’s livery companies, said: “The charities supported by your campaign with The Childhood Trust will help meet the needs of those communities at this challenging time.”
The list of phase 1 grantees from our partnership with Comic Relief can be found here.
The list of grantees from our partnership with The Childhood Trust can be found here.