The Big Give - best value for money!

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A key element of our fundraising strategy is, as far as possible, to offer our supporters the chance to double the value of their donations through taking part in "Big Give" appeals. All donations made online, automatically double in value through my having identified Foundations, Corporates and major donors who register pledges to match gifts up to a certain amount. We schedule at least two Big Give appeals per year - in the summer and at Christmas - raising funds for different aspects of our work. The Christmas 2022 appeal - for which we are currently collecting pledges - will be for Lily's Leaves. The appeal that launches at noon today and runs for one week only is for an education project in south Nepal. For that we have an amazing £25,000 in pledges that can be unlocked by gifts made online, from £5 upwards!

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How will the funds be spent?

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In a previous blog post I described our vision for setting up and operating two new Community Learning Centres (CLCs) at terribly neglected village areas where hundreds of children don't go to school. Of the £50,000 that we aim to raise, it will be allocated as follows:

• £31,250 towards the construction costs of the two CLCs
• £8,750 towards CLC operating costs for two years along with tutor salaries
• £5,000 towards local support costs by our NGO partner, The Mithila Wildlife Trust, to cover project management, supervision and financial management
• £5,000 towards UK support costs, including fundraising, evaluation and monitoring

The latter element includes covering the costs of our UK non-profit partner, Community Beyond Construction, who are providing design and engineering consultancy to the plans. At the time of writing, its co-Founder, Andy Sharp, is with me in Nepal to visit the sites and input to the plans. We expect that this project will provide a template for many more CLCs in future.

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