A chance to double or even quadruple your donation!
For the fifth year, Rett UK is applying to take part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge; the UK’s biggest online match funding campaign where donations can be doubled and even quadrupled! Last year, thanks to your amazing support, we raised £23,000 for our project; Communicate, Educate & Advocate! #AACSymposium which would allow us to put on two conferences dedicated to supporting communication for people with Rett syndrome of all ages and whatever stage they are at – just getting started on moving on to literacy. Unfortunately, events this year due to COVID-19 have put our plans for the face to face events on hold but we are working on putting an online conference together in the meantime.
The gift of support and well being this Christmas. This year we are hoping to raise £20,000 to help support families in the aftermath of COVID-19. Families have been left feeling battered and bruised after a long period of isolation. The emotional and physical toll on all family members is significant. We will help them rebuild their emotional resilience and strengthen coping mechanisms to support positive family relationships and well being. People with Rett Syndrome (RTT) have many complex health concerns. They experience significant social and educational disadvantage. The therapeutic and respite services that ordinarily are in place have fallen away leaving families feeling overwhelmed, helpless, at breaking point physically and mentally. Relationships in families are strained, everyone is feeling stressed and anxious, including siblings. People with RTT are exhibiting more challenging behaviour and depression.
Zoom webinars and facilitated group discussions will focus on:
- Handling uncertainty, reducing anxiety, maintaining resilience, coping with stress, making difficult choices, dealing with change, influencing others, asserting gracefully.
- More intensive 1-1 support for families with the most complex issues with a qualified holistic therapist who has a depth of understanding of the physical, social and mental health issues relating to the significant needs of RTT families will also be offered.
Our aim is that our families will feel supported, their mental health and well-being will improve, relationships will feel less strained, levels of challenging behaviours and anxiety will be reduced. We are aiming to raise a total of £5000.00 in pledges to take part in the Christmas Challenge 2020.
Would you consider making a pledge (the minimum allowed is £100) to help us reach our target please?
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What is the Christmas Challenge?
 The Christmas Challenge (the UK’s biggest online match-funding campaign) helps UK-registered charities to raise funds for their projects by doubling donations when the campaign goes live at midday (12pm) on Tuesday 1st December 2020. For example, a £100 online donation made to a participating charity during the Christmas Challenge can be doubled to become £200. With Gift Aid where eligible that becomes £225!
The match funds
The matching pots used to double donations for charities taking part in the Christmas Challenge are made up of a combination of funds. These are funds sourced by the charity (‘Pledges’) and funds sourced by the Big Give (‘Champions’) which are available if we are successfully selected by a Champion. We can still take part in the Christmas Challenge even if we are not selected by a Champion. Pledge funds and Champion funds (if selected by one) combine to form the matching pot and are used to double donations. Donations are matched by our Pledge funds until these are exhausted and then donations are doubled by Champion funds. You can watch a short video explaining how it works at https://www.thebiggive.org.uk/s/christmas-challenge
How would it work for you?
As a Pledger, you commit a Pledge promise to our matching pot. Your funds will be used to match online donations when the campaign goes live. Research shows that 84% of donors are more likely to give in a match funding campaign and that donations are on average 2.5 times bigger. By committing a Pledge promise you will help us to inspire donors to support Rett UK.
 If we are selected for Champion funding, your Pledge promise could be worth up to four times its initial value once it’s added to the Champion funds and online donations. This makes the Christmas Challenge one of the most attractive times to make a contribution to Rett UK.
Additional information
- In December, we will let you know the outcome of the Christmas Challenge and ask you to fulfil your Pledge promise. The timeline for fulfilling the pledge (i.e. transferring the funds to us) is between 9th December 2020 12pm – 15th January 2021 at 5pm.
- Please note that your pledge is being used to match online donations from the public – this means that fulfilment of your pledge is conditional on us receiving the appropriate online donations during the campaign (#GivingTuesday, 12pm (midday) Tuesday 1st December 2020 – 12pm (midday) Tuesday 8th December 2020).
You will only be required to pay a pro-rata amount of your pledge if we don’t hit our online target – it’s our guarantee to you that we are committed to raising additional donations.
- Please note that if you pledge to Rett UK you will not be able to make an online donation to us as part of this campaign because your pledge will be used to match these donations.
You can find full details of the Christmas Challenge 2020, and how your pledge will enable us to be part of the UK’s largest Matched Funding Challenge, at https://www.thebiggive.org.uk/
Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have questions about the Christmas Challenge and what being a Pledger could mean to Rett UK.
Warmest wishes,
Becky Jenner, CEO
becky.jenner@rettuk.org
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The gift of support and well being this Christmas. This year we are hoping to raise £20,000 to help support families in the aftermath of COVID-19. Families have been left feeling battered and bruised after a long period of isolation. The emotional and physical toll on all family members is significant. We will help them rebuild their emotional resilience and strengthen coping mechanisms to support positive family relationships and well being. People with Rett Syndrome (RTT) have many complex health concerns. They experience significant social and educational disadvantage. The therapeutic and respite services that ordinarily are in place have fallen away leaving families feeling overwhelmed, helpless, at breaking point physically and mentally. Relationships in families are strained, everyone is feeling stressed and anxious, including siblings. People with RTT are exhibiting more challenging behaviour and depression.
If we are selected for Champion funding, your Pledge promise could be worth up to four times its initial value once it’s added to the Champion funds and online donations. This makes the Christmas Challenge one of the most attractive times to make a contribution to Rett UK.
