It doesn't come naturally to think about Christmas in the midst of "flaming June", but with the Christmas Big Give appeal I need to aim off early in what is always our major fundraising effort of the year. As ever, I set the bar really high as Pipal Tree aims to raise £100,000 towards supporting our 2024 work in Nepal with associated UK and Nepal support costs.

This year, the campaign is entitled "Educating girls in south Nepal 2024" and most of the funds raised will go to that purpose, directly or indirectly. But the campaign budget is a wonderful smorgasbord of needs as follows:

·       £40,000 – This will support Lily's Leaves graduate Sharmila (pictured centre) and other girls as we set up a regional Lily's Leaves training and production centre combined with a Community Learning Centre (CLC) in Sarlahi District. This will take training and production(currently based in Kathmandu) closer to home for our beneficiaries while reducing core operating costs. The CLC will provide educational support to children from the untouchable community, helping them to enter, or remain in, mainstream education.

·       £30,000 – These funds will continue to support the Lily's Leaves centre in Kathmandu that provides vital employment and advanced training to vulnerable young women, including the deaf women who make such delightful silver jewellery.

·       £10,000 – We include a 10% element to cover our UK administrative, fundraising and evaluation/monitoring costs - this is the absolute minimum amount required to keep a well managed charity afloat, while meeting our legal and moral obligations to manage donor funds and build the capacity of our local partners in Nepal.

·       £5,000 – This is a top-up to the fund that we build incrementally so that we can respond immediately when a natural disaster strikes in Nepal. Sadly, such events are inevitable in Nepal which isa high-risk area for earthquakes and given that Nepal is the tenth most affected country in the world by climate change.

·       £4,000 – This will pay for the salary of a female support teacher at Bhatighadi School in Dhanusha District, who not only underpins the teaching but provides us with a direct working link to the school. Jina Sherpa is effectively our school liaison officer.

·       £11,000 – Ever aware of climate change, we have ring-fenced this amount to create a new rapid-growth Miyawaki forest near the new production centre and CLC at Sarlahi District.

There are three stages to the Christmas appeal:

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·       The first stage (now!) is for Pipal Tree to secure £25,000 in matching pledges from our own supporters, with nothing payable until the 5th of December. The minimum pledge amount, as decided by The Big Give, is £100.

·       The second stage is for the Big Give to try and match our pledges with a so-called "Champion" from their network. If successful, that means we end up with a £50,000 combined matching pledge pot.

·       The third stage is the appeal itself that launches on Tuesday 28th November and runs for one week. During that time, we aim to raise £50,000 in online donations from our supporters that will automatically double in value through the matching pledges that we have in place.

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If you can join me in making a pledge, please visit the link below. It takes only a minute to record your support, with nothing payable until the end of the year. Thanks so much!

https://pipaltree.info/2023pledge

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