By: A.H
It’s never easy to write these things, but the long and the short of it is that we need your help and we need it urgently. If you’ve been following our Facebook page recently, this won’t be news to you.
Over the last few years, we’ve been finding it harder and harder to meet our core running costs; things like the electricity bill, our single member of staff and all the little bits and pieces that let us keep offering our services to those who need them.
Let me explain how charity funding works in rough terms. When we apply for funding for a project, the money awarded must be spent on that project- it can’t be redirected to other uses. That means that we can do things like our Social Group and cover the costs directly associated with it. However, there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes which keeps the charity running but isn’t directly involved with any one project. These activities have to come out of what we call ‘core funding’. It’s this that we’re having problems with.
Without this core funding in place, we quite simply can’t keep going. We can’t keep running projects if there’s no organisation behind them.
We’ve been running since 1992 and you just have to take a look around this site, our Facebook page or talk to anyone who we’ve helped and you’ll see just how valuable our work is. We fight social isolation; offer help in ensuring people get the benefits that they’re entitled to; offer training; represent your interests with those in power through both direct and indirect advocacy; offer vital signposting to other groups that can help and possibly most importantly, we’re here to listen when you need to talk. We do an awful lot and we take real pride in doing it on a shoestring.
Despite taking referrals for our services from statutory bodies and other organisations, we don’t receive any funding from them. We’re more than happy to help, but unfortunately the way of the world is that all these things have costs attached.
Our core costs are remarkably low for an organisation that does so many things. We only have one member of staff (on the occasions when one is needed for a project, project funding covers that), our amazing premises are also amazingly cheap. We think that this allows us to provide excellent value, but as much as we wish it weren’t so, we do have costs to meet.
That’s where you come in: we need your donations. We know that it can be hard to find money to spare and that’s why we’ve avoided asking up until now, but honestly, we’re out of options.
There are many ways you can help us without even getting up from your seat; some of them are even free for you.
Firstly, you can donate to our Crowdfunder campaign. Any amount that you can spare will be very much appreciated.
Secondly, you can donate directly to us through PayPal clicking the ‘donate’ button on the side of this page.
With the Christmas season and the various sales coming up, you might be saving your money for some retail therapy- luckily, you can raise money for us while you shop online too!
You can sign up for our EasyFundraising campaign by clicking this link (and you’ll raise a little extra when you sign up too!). This works when you’re shopping online and sends some of the shops profits to us. Each donation is very small (usually between 0.5 and 5%) but they add up remarkably quickly. It even works when you’re ordering takeaway! If you’re on mobile, download their app and if you’re on a computer you can download an extension for your browser to automatically activate donations.
Amazon Smile works in a very similar way to EasyFundraising. Whenever you shop with Amazon, just go to www.smile.amazon.co.uk rather than just www.amazon.co.uk and let them know you want to raise some donations for us by clicking change charity and then searching for Aberdeen Action on Disability Limited. Again, this comes directly out of their profits, so it doesn’t cost you an extra penny.
Lastly, you can always send us a cheque or donate cash in person! Sometimes the old ways are the best.
If you want to help but can’t afford a donation or to go shopping online then you can still help us keep AAD running- simply let people know we need their help and how they can offer it by sharing this post or any of the ones on our Facebook. Send emails, talk about us, mention us to wealthy aunts and corporate uncles- let people know we need your help!
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.