Charities to raise funds from donated holiday home listings
Howard Lake | 27 April 2017 | News
A new fundraising platform listing holiday home accommodation donated to charities has been launched by the Middleton Foundation.
Charity Escapes is designed to offer charities the opportunity to earn income from low-cost but high-value donations. Holiday home owners can offer rentals at their accommodation via the website, and can choose to donate up to 100% of the proceeds to the owner’s preferred charity.
For charities that own holiday property or are who received donations of accommodation (e.g. hotel accommodation or time in holiday homes), Charity Escapes will help provide wider national and international exposure to improve reach, occupancy and therefore income.
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Middleton Foundation
The Middleton Foundation, a registered charity (1168170), provides grants and other resources to the charity sector to fund innovative projects that have a broad focus. In particular it is keen to help charities develop unrestricted income.
Charity Escapes is its first project.
The Foundation is hoping to work with more UK based charities to increase the income for charities from this initiative.
It is already working with a wide range of causes, including community development, disability, education, theatre, mental health, hospices, national heritage, volunteering, family, children and youth, addiction, homelessness, international aid, and arts.
It expects that Charity Escapes will help charities secure new donors, make connections and generate income.
In return it is widening its offering to include “some incredible hotels, cruises and travel companies, who have agreed to donate not only rooms but whole holiday experiences to special charities”.
Jeremy Middleton
The foundation was set up in 2016 by businessman Jeremy Middleton. Based in the North East of England, he co-founded HomeServe plc, now a FTSE 250 company and founded the investment company Middleton Enterprises. The firm’s investments cover a range of sectors including manufacturing, environmental, digital media and property trading. In addition to his business interests, Jeremy is an active philanthropist.
He has been working with World Vision UK since 2012, helping to pilot a new sponsorship product for the charity. He is developing the idea of “community sponsorship” and sourcing other supporters for similar economic development projects.
Charity partners
In particular the Foundation asks that prospective charity partners in Charity Escapes undertake to:
• work with it on developing the offer
• help with promotion through social media and other marketing channels.
• help improve monitoring new income generated, and the numbers of new supporters brought on board over 12 months.
How to apply
There is no application process. Contact Ri**@ch************.com with your expression of interest.
- Want to see other entrepreneurial charity trading ideas? Try Child.org’s corporate treat service and Charity Concierge.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.