Not only businesses are affected by the postal strike… charities are too
Howard Lake | 30 October 2009 | Blogs
Another postal strike goes ahead from today and a new delay of deliveries will not just hit businesses’ bottom line, but also charities and their day to day running.
Charities have already had a pretty hard time this year because of the recession and the new postal strike doesn’t make it any easier for them as many donations still come in via post. Some charities, such as hospices rely on a regular income to provide specialist care and much needed services in the community.
We at Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice receive approx 75% of our "in memory" and general donations by post. On top of that at Christmas about 90% of event income, e.g. Light Up A Light (our Christmas thanksgiving and remembrance event) comes in by post so if the strike continues during November, which is when we expect the income to come in, it will have a serious effect on our revenue.
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As the NHS covers less than 16% of our costs – this is less than half the national average for hospices, we have to rely heavily on the support and generosity of our local community as we have to fundraise over £10,000 each and every day to keep all our services going. Another hospice in our area already had to close its Day Care Centre because of the recession.
We have also noticed a decline in our donations due to the recession and another unpredictable event, such as the postal strike, will definitely impact on us and other charities. The postal strike is just one of those external factors that are out of our control and so very difficult to account for in our yearly budget and objectives.
Luckily, here at the Hospice, we have alternative ways that people can donate apart from by post, as people can also go on our website (www.pth.org.uk) and donate online or directly via phone (01252 729446) or in one of our 13 shops. Many of our supporters already use these different ways of donating.
We hope that our supporters and everybody else in our catchment area West Surrey and North East Hampshire won’t be put off to donate by the postal strike but will use another way to support their local Hospice.
Sarah Brocklebank is the Chief Executive of Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham.
The Hospice provides Specialist Palliative Care to adult patients and their families living with life limiting illnesses in West Surrey and North East Hampshire and supports over 100 patients and carers in their own homes, in the community and at the Hospice (on our In-Patient Unit, in Day Hospice, at out-patient appointments and through Patient and Family Services).
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.