The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all in many ways, whether we or our families have been infected by the Coronavirus or not. It has affected the way we live our lives and has impacted on the incomes of many businesses and their employees.
The charity and voluntary sectors have also been affected by the pandemic and the lockdown. Many charities have seen an increased need for their services and the support they provide for the communities they serve. At the same time, their sources of income have been limited for a variety of reasons:
- Lockdown restrictions have meant that it has not been possible to be involved in public fundraising activity, whether it is benefitting from sponsored activities such as walks or marathons or collecting on the street or at village fetes.
- Public resources have been focussed on COVID-19 measures, whether that is from the NHS, Local or National Government. Budgets for support of other charitable, voluntary or community activities have been squeezed.
- Public donations have fallen significantly as many people’s incomes have been reduced due to furlough or redundancy, or uncertainty about the future has limited people’s generosity.
- There have been increasing calls on Charitable Trusts to make up the shortfall. They have been generous in their support, but have had to spread their grants and donations more thinly over a wider range of projects and services.
We at Rebound are not immune to these financial challenges. We are not a high expenditure organisation, but we do have costs to meet to provide our services, whether that is online or “in real life”. We are grateful to The National Lottery – Big Lottery Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation and the Henry Smith Foundation for their support, but we are very aware that we need to generate other income to top up their grants so we can continue offering our support services into the long term.
Our costs include general adminiistration costs, the costs of running our face-to-face support meetings and the costs or running online support meetings (such as Zoom subscriptions). We also need to ensure that we can continue to provide counselling and facilitation support, so we need to pay for appropriate training for our facilitators who offer guidance during our Support Meetings and via our telephone helpline. There are also costs associated with maintaining our wesbite and Social Media channels, and we feel that it is very important to continue our outreach work such as the play that we have commissioned to take in to schools as soon as lockdown restrictions permit.
It is vital that our services are free of charge for all that need them at a time when they most need support.
If you are able to support Rebound in our work, there are many ways you can do this:
Just Giving
We now have a Just Giving page. You can either make a one off donation or set up a regular monthly donation via the Donation Page or you can organise a Fundraiser where funds donated by your sponsors, supporters and friends will come straight to Rebound. There are plenty or ideas on the Fundraiser page for the kind of thigs you can do, ranging from taking part in an organised event such as a sponsored walk or marathin to remembering someone special and requesting donations to Rebound.
You can also make donations via our Facebook page. There is a large Donate button at the top of the page – click on that and you can make a one-off donation. Or, if you are having a significant birthday or anniversary you can ask family and friends to make a donation to Rebound instead of – or as well as – buying you gifts. Just click on the “More” button on the menu below the banner and click “Create a Fundraiser”. As well as marking birthdays, you can also create your own events to help raise money for Rebound.
Portsmouth Lottery
Buying a Portsmouth Lottery ticket from the Rebound page ensures that 50% of your ticket purchase comes direct to Rebound, with a further 10% going to other good causes in Portsmouth. You will be entered into the draw with a chance of winning £25,000 – a chance to win big whilst helping to support us!
Wills and Bequests
If you are writing or changing your Will, please consider including a bequest to Rebound in your provision, however large or small. If you are using a Solicitor or Will Writing service to help you prepare your will they wil ask for Rebound’s details. The charity name is Rebound Carers Support Group and the charity number is 1169310, registered with the Charity Commission. If any further details are needed, please let us know!
Whichever method you use to support Rebound’s work, we – and the families we assist – are very grateful!
