Effect of downturn on donations revealed

[RESEARCH PUBLISHED by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in October revealed how the strain on household budgets continues to affect charity donations – with 4.9m individuals choosing not to make a one-off donation as a direct response to the rising cost of living. Nearly one in ten (9%) said they held back from donating, according to the latest monthly digest from CAF’s UK Giving research, which informs the annual UK Giving Report.

Worryingly, more than 3.2m people (6%) also said they reduced or stopped a regular payment to charity because of increasing living costs. That will be of particular concern to the many charities who rely on regular income from direct debits and standing orders.

Meanwhile, nearly one in five (19%) are considering cutting back on their donations, compared to 14% six months previously. In August, the number rose to 22% as household concerns around energy bills peaked.

CAF’s UK Giving tracks household donor behaviour every month and reveals how levels of donations continue to trend downwards. In September, only a quarter (26%) of people said they had donated in the previous month. Prior to the pandemic, around three in ten (30%) usually said they gave to charity in September. The average monthly donation also declined slightly in September, with a mean donation of £51 compared to £67 in August.

Summer has traditionally been a popular time for sponsored sporting events and September saw the build-up to the London Marathon on 2 October. However, only 8% of people sponsored someone for charity in September and 5% in August.

Inflation is also eroding the value of charity donations. Recent analysis by CAF and Pro Bono Economics estimated that a charity donation of £20 started in 2017 will be worth just £14.90 by 2024.

Neil Heslop OBE, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, commented: “Charities need donations now more than ever, as more families rely on the vital services they provide. Mass giving is crucial for many charities so, as people cut back, government and private sector funding which supported charities through the pandemic is greatly needed to help them through this crisis.

“With more than £500m of Gift Aid unclaimed, which should rightly be with charities delivering frontline services, the process needs to be simplified to deliver desperately needed funds. The government also needs to address the current complexity of the VAT system, since it’s estimated that the sector loses billions paying tax that they cannot recover later.

“Despite falling donations, charities are working hard to help the growing number of families at the sharp end of the cost-of-living squeeze. But ultimately, charities are having to do much more, with much less money.” q

Caring for cancer without animal experiments is this trust’s aim

[ANIMAL-FREE CANCER RESEARCH is the ethos of the Caring Cancer Trust (CCT), which funds groundbreaking, ethical, animalfree research into cancer, its non-invasive treatment, cure and prevention.

CCT has its own ‘Stopcancer’ laboratory research programme that does not use live animals or embryonic stem cells. Over the past 20 years CCT-funded oncology researchers have discovered potential new causes of children’s cancer, developed new treatments for early-stage cervical cancer and are now advancing knowledge for the prevention of cancer.

Cancer prevention

Cancer treatment and cure are obviously good, but cancer prevention is best, since it avoids the stress of the dreaded cancer diagnosis and the debilitating treatments which follow.

CCT believes that one way to prevent cancer is to correct the damage caused by environmental pollution. It is very clear that the world we live in is now polluted with toxic chemicals in the home, in the air we breathe and in the land on which we stand. Indeed, environmental pollution from industrial farming has produced drastic changes in the microbes found in the soil in which our food is grown. That results in loss of microbial diversity, which produces ‘sick soil’.

The types of microbes found in our gut come from the soil and they are essential for our health and wellbeing. It is very simple: sick soil produces sick humans, sick animals and plants, and correcting that should reduce the incidence of cancer. Our polluted world actively encourages cancer and CCT funds an integrated approach to cancer research which aims to identify cancer risk factors in our lifestyle, and the environment we live in.

Cancer support

CCT also provides special ‘Youth2Go’ Healing Holidays of creative adventure for children recovering from cancer, enabling them to regain their self-confidence and reignite their passion for life after the trauma of their illness and lengthy treatment. In addition, they provide financial support for adult cancer sufferers to ameliorate their sickness, improve their quality of life, limit their stress and, where possible, help their recovery.

A cancer-free future

CCT-funded research aims to increase understanding of how silent infections, lifestyle, diet, genetic predisposition and environmental pollution lead to different types of cancer in children and adults. Indeed they have identified simple changes in lifestyle and diet which, combined with avoidance of exposure to environmental contaminants, will reduce the incidence of cancer in all age groups.

The CCT aims to identify and understand hitherto-unknown cause-and-effect relationships to either limit exposure to such carcinogenic factors or devise therapies which suppress their effects before a cancer has developed.

Prevention now saves treatment later

The CCT research mission for cancer prevention involves: • New lifesaving cancer prevention • medicines • New therapies for cancers in their early • stages • Analysis of the role of microbes in • causing cancer • New therapies for later-life cancers • Heightened cancer awareness by GPs • and public • Lifestyle, diet and environmental • changes for cancer avoidance • Dissemination of trial results relating to • cancer treatment and prevention

Funding

Caring Cancer Trust’s Stopcancer programme is entirely managed and run by unpaid volunteers and financed by legacies and donations. A gift to them funds animalfree research into cancer treatment and prevention as well as Youth2Go creative adventure holidays for children recovering from cancer.

In short, they aim to create a cancer-free tomorrow for the children of today. q

Twmi Fergus

[INTRODUCING chimpanzee brothers Fergus and Twmi – they are the reason Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary began back in 1998.

Even though they are brothers, their personalities are quite different! Fergus (36) is very mischievous and loves the camera – and apart from hoarding bananas and eating onions, winding the other chimps up, he loves to be in every single photo you try to take.

Twmi (38) is more cool, calm and collected. He likes to oversee and watch what the other chimps are getting up to but also makes his presence known if needed. He loves head bopping to Queen – his favourite band – and loves his food. Iceberg lettuce and grapes are a firm favourite.

Fergus and Twmi have a great relationship with Nakima, Bili and Ronnie, the other chimps they live with. You will see them on sunny days relaxing in their hammocks and grooming each other.

The brothers are both very popular amongst visitors. Children often get smiles from Fergus which makes their day! q • For more info call 01639 730276, email info@ape-monkey-rescue.org.uk or visit the website at www.ape-monkey-rescue.org.uk