03/05/2026
Hi everybody. Simon (convention organiser) here. I've ummed and ahhed about whether to post this or not; you've all been incredibly generous to SMART, the convention's charity, and it seems a bit churlish to ask for something else. So: no pressure, no guilt-tripping, and no moral blackmail! Please only do this if you want to; if you don't, please be assured that that's absolutely and totally fine!
As you may know, I'm also the Chair of Trustees for SMART. This is an email that's gone out to our own database for the charity; I'm pasting it below.
If you'd like to sign up for this, we'd all be incredibly grateful. Actually, we're incredibly grateful anyway, because your support's already been tremendous! Thanks so much... and here's the email:
Dear (personalised on the email by sticking a name in!)
Hello! I’m Simon; I’m the Chair of Trustees at SMART. Hope it’s OK to get in touch.
Before I say anything else, though, please can I say thank you very, very much from all of us for your support for the charity in the past? It really is hugely appreciated and we’re really grateful. We couldn’t carry on with our work without you, and, to be honest, we can’t thank you enough!
I hesitate to ask this because you’ve already been so kind, but please could I ask for your help again?
We’ve just launched a new campaign called The SMART 500. The idea is to bring together 500 people who’d be willing to support us by making a monthly (or quarterly) donation. It’s going well: we’ve already signed up the first 70 people. The thing is, we need to bring in around 20% of our total fundraising income from regular gifts like these; 20% is about standard for a charity of our size.
Please could I ask, then, if you think this is something you’d be able to support? If you’d like to sign up for The SMART 500, it’s easy to do and only takes a couple of minutes. Please just go to our website; the address is on the graphic.
Most of our fundraising income comes from grants; there are charities in the UK which support other charities by making cash awards. (The biggest ones are things like the National Lottery, but there are many others too.) As you can probably guess, running the day centre in Prebend Street is expensive: we need to raise more than £400,000 this financial year. This pays for things like showers, hot meals, clean clothes, laundry, healthcare, heating and electricity – but it also pays the salaries of our specialist support workers. They’re crucial for our mission because they provide professional advice and counselling. Most of our clients have very complex needs, including severe mental health issues; many struggle with addiction. Our staff help them to get back on their feet. None of them wants to be homeless, and our mission is to help them turn their lives around. So, we provide long-term help, not just short-term help.
The fundraising also pays for Kate’s Place, our specialist project for women who are at risk. This includes those who are at risk of homelessness, but it’s for women who are at risk for other reasons too (such as domestic abuse, and exploitation). Kate’s Place is very successful; in fact, we have visits from other agencies to come in and see what we do, so they can copy our model.
One-off gifts do help, of course. But regular monthly gifts are actually crucial to charities because they help us to predict what’s coming in. It also means we can spend less time chasing money, because we already know it’s on its way! We can then plan our projects accordingly, knowing that the cash for them is going to be there.
We also receive Gift Aid from the government for regular gifts. (Not everyone’s familiar with Gift Aid; it means that your income tax for a donation comes to us, rather than going to the government. So, for example, a gift of £25 a month to us actually generates £375 a year for us, rather than £300. The government tops up the donation by a quarter of the amount.)
I hope you’ll forgive the cheek, but people do sometimes ask how much to give each month. Obviously, it depends on your own circumstances. Research shows that the most common regular gift to charities is £20 a month. But I can’t overstress that we’d be grateful for any amount at all. If you can help us, and you’d like to join The SMART 500, we’d be incredibly grateful – regardless of how much you donate.
Thanks so, so much, and thanks again for all your support in the past.
With all best wishes,
Simon
Simon Danes
Chair of Trustees
SMART
