Evening Standard’s Christmas appeal to help young homeless people
Howard Lake | 29 November 2016 | News
The London Evening Standard’s Christmas Appeal will this year support Centrepoint, raising funds for its new helpline for vulnerable young people facing homelessness.
The appeal was launched to readers with a prominent front-page endorsement from HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, who is patron of the youth homeless charity. It included an image of his letter on Kensington Palace notepaper, thanking The Evening Standard for its support.
The Christmas appeal will raise funds for a new ‘Centrepoint Young and Homeless Helpline’, which will be “the first such service to deliver essential information to desperate young people in London and beyond”.
It is a joint appeal by The London Evening Standard and its sister titles The Independent and the i Paper.
How to donate to The Independent’s Homeless Helpline Christmas appeal #homelesshelpline
https://t.co/JaxZNtMqU4 pic.twitter.com/XSnEKDY0KA— The Independent (@Independent) November 21, 2016
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Donation form and bucket collection
The appeal took up the first four pages of the printed newspaper on 21 November, including an interview with one young girl who had been helped by Centrepoint to find hostel accommodation in south London.
Page three of the newspaper featured a donation form, which included details on how to donate via the phone, text, online and post. The online giving page, hosted by JustGiving, includes a recommended donation amount of £30.
Page four let commuters know to expect over 100 volunteer collectors and Centrepoint staff with collecting buckets for the appeal at 27 London stations that evening.
The Standard featured its appeal in its editorial, highlighting a series of articles and coverage of the people and issues involved in the run-up to Christmas.
It read:
“Our campaign will also support the charity’s wider services and in the coming weeks we will highlight the ways in which it transforms troubled lives. Homelessness is often avoidable and we hope Standard readers will help the homeless this Christmas. After all, at the heart of the Nativity story there is a family with nowhere to stay”.
- We’ve featured newspapers’ Christmas appeals for years – read Newspapers’ Christmas charity appeals in 2008, Newspapers’ Christmas appeals 1999, and Newspaper’s Christmas appeal introduces regular giving ask for first time.
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.