Welcome to the first ‘issue’ of The Charity Supplement. The previous post concluded with “the first charity to be featured in The Charity Supplement on this blog is…” so, without further hindering, allow me to introduce Born Free.

Born Free was introduced briefly in the previous article, but to add a little more, it’s motto is: Keep Wildlife In The Wild and it’s aim is to do exactly that – end captivity, where animals often suffer in unfriendly conditions which are damaging to their health. Born Free works with everything from lions to turtles, right the way from the UK – where they are currently working to complete a basking shark survey – to Asia – helping many, from bears who have been forced to dance, to the Orangutans and the conflict between them and humans in this area.

Celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year, it is fantastic to be able to feature them as the first charity in this ongoing blog project, and I would like to introduce them further with a personal viewpoint and story about why I believe their motto is so important.

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IN the summer of 2005 I visited the open savannah of Kenya and observed ‘The Lion King’ almost exactly, as its proceedings happened all around and above me, and I was enthused. My eyes wide, I watched nature in its most glorious and horrifying moments. I saw a falcon and knew that it meant death; I saw a zebra and an approaching lion, and I wanted to whisper: “run!” I saw elephants playing childishly and I laughed. I saw the now endangered flamingos as they painted the lake pink.

The other week I visited The London Zoo and I felt sorry for the tigers that saw little of life but a mesh and some gaping observers; I even felt for the spiders, trapped inside a tiny glass box, and I thought: “I sure do hope they’re not claustrophobic.” I watched the children, who were fascinated at the creatures before them and I asked myself why I wasn’t: I love nature; I love wildlife, but in this case why did I feel so bored? I began to lie to myself – to tell myself that I was enjoying it; after all, it is wildlife! And then I realised why I wasn’t enjoying it: because it’s not ‘wildlife;’ because I could barely see these creatures behind a mesh fence, or a glass frame; because I was so far from them, completely detached. It all felt fake, synthetic, like looking at plastic that wiggled and looked back. Yes, these animals were as real as anything else, but after seeing them, or most of them, in the wild, staring at them in this man-made playhouse of theirs just didn’t cut it. There was little exciting or interesting about it, and whilst I felt trapped behind that glass frame, I wondered if they felt trapped, and if so then how trapped. I wondered what they might be thinking of us humans that trap them like this but look after them and keep them alive and safe, with lots of food and playthings. What might they think about the wild should they ever return or go there? Would they not love it? I know I would, if I were an animal in a zoo, I know I would. I am heading to Borneo early next year – I am certain that this viewpoint will only become stronger. Surely they would love it, if they knew how to survive there?

In Kenya our driver pointed out the spot where ‘Born Free’ (the movie) was filmed. I had only recognised the name at the time, but I did not realise how much this charity and its work would stick in my head in the years following that summer. We humans always crave our freedom, well – do animals not crave their own? Born Free protects these animals and returns them to the wild where they have been exploited in circuses and zoos.

We all love to see animals closer to us, whatever the issues – and before watching these animals in the wild no doubt I thought this too. We all love to see what we can of the ‘wild’ at the cheapest price possible, and if they can come to us then that is even better. But perhaps we ought to question our wants. Yes, it is fantastic to watch animals if we cannot get to their wild habitats, and it is important to learn about them and their lives, but if we want all of this then perhaps we ought to look into more cheaper ways (and more environmentally friendly ways) of travelling to the wild to see these animals and to learn about them. We travel to meet friends and for business but we do not expect a friend to travel out of their way to see us, just as we don’t expect an office building to walk its way to our own home, therefore we shouldn’t expect animals to come to us either. Just because we have the power to bring them where we choose, does it mean that we should use it?

‘Keep Wildlife In The Wild’ – Born Free’s motto. Animals are happier there, and it is incredible to see them there.

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Look out for a more formal article about Born Free and its wonderful work in helping to keep wildlife in the wild, coming soon.

TODAY is the day that one of our ideas from the Benefits for Charities page on our site and the related article on this blog, is initiated. Which one? I hear you ask. Well, it is one that can benefit both potential supporters and charities; it is one that can occupy bored or fed up charity choosers, and it is one that can, for free, allow you to be more involved in your favourite cause. Which one? Today begins the first of what I would like to name: The Charity Supplement, what will hopefully be regular articles about a charity or charity-related link that is listed on our site.

You can read all about this in the Charities: We Want To Help You post, but to summarise, we would like to write about all the great things that charities or websites are doing. This includes successes, failures, new projects or a celebration, perhaps even an anniversary.

Speaking of anniversaries, the first charity to be written about in The Charity Supplement on this blog, is celebrating it’s 25th year. This impressive achievement is, as is to no doubt be expected, accompanied with many a celebratory event, including a concert at the Royal Albert Hall (for which I have my tickets booked!). For this charity, it all began way back in 1969 in a country sitting on the Equator, with a few certain roaring (or rather pawing and playing) animals – cubs, to be exact – accompanied by a certain George and Joy, played by actors Virginia and Bill, and it all began with the journey that this beginning ensued.

And the first charity to be featured in The Charity Supplement on this blog is …

Check back for the next article to find out.

WE consider it our job to research as many UK and International charities as we can to add to the site. Of course, it goes without saying that any forward-going anything ought to have something good to offer. We often talk or write about how we want to help charity-givers to choose, and we have made it part of our aims that smaller charities should get equal exposure to the bigger, more well known charities. However, whilst we hope that you think this is mighty fantastic, we rarely talk about why it is so good for charities to be listed on our site. So, because we at Which Charity like to make everything clear and exceptionally simple as per our slogan, I think I ought to show you what benefits we believe our website offers to charities alone.

First off, like any site listing other links, you will have an increased exposure to potential supporters. As Which Charity grows, with more on our site and with a name which is known more widely, this exposure will only increase. Unlike some other sites, ours is free, both to charities and to potential supporters. There is no membership requirement and no minor access to a new user of the site. This means that any user is able to access all the information we have available (except for personal information such as page rankings) about an individual charity, without having to spend any prior time filling in online forms. Your charity will be viewed by any one who wants to know about it, and that, we believe, is very good.

Now it may be so that you visit our site, realise that we are still fairly new, and think that you might just wait until we are bigger and more well known before you allow your charity’s information to be published with us. Well, let me tell you why there is no need to wait. For starters, and no doubt you will hear us repeating this endlessly, we like to think that our system is simple, very simple; in fact, we aim to make it so simple that my mother, computer illiterate asides from emailing, could do it! In this case, not only can the tech-savvy, frequent internet browsers like the majority of my age group, find you, but so can the grandparent who loves giving to charity but has recently become lost in the vast abundance of choices and is looking for a new way to choose. Plus, because the system is so simple, you can be found in seconds.

Under our aims, on our About page, we have put: We aim to be the simple site that puts more detail in your choices. Fulfilling this, we write a detailed, well-researched paragraph about your charity and then ask you to confirm that it’s correct and all okay. We also provide categories and sub categories of who, exactly it is that your charity helps, and our ‘ways to give’ categories mean that people will think about how they really want to give, offering them more choices with less hassle.

But no site is complete without a promise of what will come, and this is where Which Charity is about to get hefty (without undermining simplicity, of course!). Our refurbished blog, sitting right here, is soon going to be hosting some highly informative articles, possibly about your charity. We want to hear about the work that charities, organisations, and other websites are doing, and we want to write about them. So whether you’ve had a brilliant success or a worrying failure which you need help out of; whether you have a thousand extra supporters or a thousand less, if it’s something incredible, or something different, or if it’s just something ordinary but it’s your worthwhile cause, we want to write about it. We will only write about charities or charity-related sites listed on our site, and looking at some of these, here are some examples which may be contacted soon: Born Free is this year celebrating it’s 25th birthday, with many promised celebrations; Grameen Alo has just been added to the site; Doris Banham Dog Rescue have pulled through a financial crisis with many impressive changes; Pandas International were one of the first charities to get back to us when we launched last year and are included in our promotional videos, along with several others – and so on with the examples. We will generally be contacting you asking if you’d like your charity to be written about, and whether you have anything specific you want us to say, but we may contact you about individual stories which we would love to include. We will also be subscribing to your newsletters so that we can keep informed about your work. It would, however, be even better if you could contact us about something that you want written about, and we would absolutely love to do this.

Knowing about the work that charities on our site are doing and writing about them is something which we think makes Which Charity unique, without making it exclusive, and we have been busy thinking of further ways to keep you involved with the facilities of our site, and for us to stay in contact with you about how ‘well’ your charity is doing on our site. One of these ideas which we are going to put into action in the near future is ‘Click & Comment Updates.’ This is something which we will ask you about, and whether you want to opt in or out of it. If you agree to it, we will email you at regular intervals (most probably monthly) with stats about how many times your page on our site has been visited. In addition to this, we will send you updates about comments which have been posted. The comments are a system on every charity’s page on our site, where any one can write a comment about a charity and post such things as: news; experiences of working for it; experiences of fundraising for it; opinions about its work, and so on. Every comment is moderated and so must first be approved by myself or another member of the Which Charity team.

This comments system is a unique way of recieving feedback from supporters. Use this system to your advantage by interacting with supporters and the benefits will show.

We hope that these benefits will make a difference to your charity and that we can continue to provide the most simple and friendly method of charity choices to supporters, and the most beneficial service to charities, organisations, and charity-related websites.

I really hope this article explains everything properly! Feel free to contact me or another member of the Which Charity team if not.

Which Charity – Simplifying Your Charity Choices
…and helping out the charities!