The Charity Supplement #2: Vodafone & The World of Difference

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!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

18 YEAR-OLDS PLEDGE TO MAKE CHARITY-GIVING EASIER
Charity comparison website helps you choose who to give to in these difficult times

‘WHICH CHARITY’ is a new website created by a group of determined eighteen year olds, in order to benefit the vast diversity of charities, and the ever increasing charity-givers. The website features a ‘Find a Charity’ system, where users can complete a short form based on their interests of who they want to donate to and how they wish to pursue this.

Users will find this website easy to use and very friendly, making the often difficult choice of deciding which charity to give to a real breeze. There is a comments system through which anyone can provide more information about a charity’s work, or perhaps about their own experience of giving to that charity. This, combined with a random generator that features on the home page, makes even the most indecisive person decide with ease. Which Charity give no preference to charity, whether big or small, and an important emphasis by the team is the facilities on their site that provide free advertisement for any UK or International charity.

The Which Charity team also believe that the website can help charity-givers during the economic crisis. “For those keen donors, who give to five or so charities throughout the course of a single year, but are now finding that they will have to give to perhaps only two of those, the choice may be devilishly hard,” explains Louise Sopher, Creator of Which Charity. “‘Which Charity’ allows those people to look more specifically at what each of the charities do. They can choose to give to the charity that is the least visited on the site; alternatively, they could give to the most visited, or the one whose categories match most of their preferences. They could even look at the ‘ways to give’ section and trade donating money for volunteering!”

The ‘Which Charity’ team intend the website to provide as much help as is possible to charity-givers confused with so many choices and they are keen to think of new facilities that will benefit more people as the website grows.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The ‘Which Charity’ website was created in 2008 by dedicated 17 and 18 year-olds in order to create a way in which people can give to who they want to give to, in the way that they feel is most fulfilling. The website also aims to allow a space for the smaller, lesser known charities to be found, without undermining the work of bigger charities.

For further information, please visit the ‘Which Charity’ website at: www.whichcharity.org. In addition, the ‘news’ page of the site links to the ‘Which Charity’ blog and the ‘about’ page features more information about the website, as well as a promotional video.

The ‘Which Charity’ team can be contacted on the following:

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Please contact us through the emails placed on our contact page here.

Image via Wikipedia

I HAVE just read an article in The Times, by Leo Lewis, titled ‘Get a bike and save the planet (in 87 years).’ In it, Lewis speaks about Tokyo’s “environmental kicks” where the city has gone “bicycle barmy” and employed the mode of transport in the hope of replacing the recession-biting car.

The first impression of the bicycle, writes Lewis, is a positive one: “a bicycle runs the sales patter, will save on the daily cost of a commute, produces no C02 and is environmentally non-rapacious.” Conversely, we are then led on to believe that the bicycle does not benefit the planet whatsoever because the cost of a thirsty cyclist drinking Ito En green tea, eating bananas from Thailand, washing extra clothing, and finally, the footprint of the production the bike itself has clocked up, means that it’ll be “about 87 years before that bike “saves” an ounce of petrol.” Now, these are all perfectly valid points which evidently question the worldwide bicycle schemes and view of how to correct global warming, however, if we take a more global view and adjust our country-specific focus to say, Kenya, we may result in a completely different conclusion.

In Kenya, people walk or run to work with suit and jacket – and I don’t remember seeing one person with a plastic water bottle in his or her hand, or a water bottle of any type, for that note. Not one. The roads there are what we might call off-road, and hence this is harder on the feet and the whole body than we might find walking on a concrete pavement in the UK. These people walk for miles to work, and they do it every day and have done it everyday for their lives. It is evident to any Western onlooker of the sheer fitness of these well-adjusted walkers and runners. As such, we might notice how a bicycle scheme in Kenya would work much better than in, say, the UK.

Is it not true that a fitter athlete can push his body harder? Is it not true that a fitter, well-practiced athlete’s body, providing he or she is healthy, does not need as much water as an unfit, unpracticed athlete? That a fit, healthy and practiced athlete probably won’t sweat as much as the ordinary person? Therefore, it seems self-explanatory that we might assume that in the long-term – less than 87 years – such bicycle schemes may well benefit our environmental struggles, not to mention our fitness.

To add to this, although I have certainly never been to Tokyo, I can relate to city life in the UK, and can most certainly compare the differences between cycling in quiet, suburban areas, and attempting to survive the length of a busy main road on your bike: the second is, quite frankly, stressful, stinky and noisy. Naturally, then, we are going to need more water in such places, and to top it off, the obnoxiously suffocating heat, and air-blocking fumes of the passing traffic is going to make us more sweaty and hence in need of a change of clothes before we get to work.

The end-result of all of this, quite obviously, is a cyclist who doesn’t need to drink so much Ito En green tea, or to eat so many bananas, or to change so many shirts

Despite the cycling initiatives being introduced into such stuffy places, the aim is that there will be many less – perhaps eventually no – cars on the road in several years time. Any that are still on the road will be replaced by more environmentally friendly ones such as electrical and solar powered cars. Here, then, is the cutting point: no cars means no stress, no stink, and no noise as well as resulting in a wide space for cyclists to lounge in. An entire society that cycles to work every day in an environment which features enough decontaminated oxygen is also going to be a fitter one. The end-result of all of this, quite obviously, is a cyclist who doesn’t need to drink so much Ito En green tea, or to eat so many bananas, or to change so many shirts, and when the car production lines are replaced by cycling-production lines, the bicycle need no longer be shipped through three separate countries before arriving in its distributing country.

So, to the professor who named 87 years as the point at which the bike may begin to save petrol, and to Mr Leo Lewis, whose article I here refer to, well, perhaps I am looking at the long-shot, but I believe that the environmentally-friendly and fit society described above, with a much smaller footprint size than in several decades gone, is actually less than the 87 years suggested. Plus, I would like to think that there may be a chance that Tokyo’s initiative works once its citizens become adjusted to the lifestyle and no longer need to endlessly drink or to eat bananas or change shirts.

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OUR SPENDING has been dramatically reduced, our pockets dried and lightened. Our watchful eye locks tight to our bills and we pull out of our long-term interests and memberships. We reduce our regular giving to charity. Others reduce their giving in our fund-raising initiatives.

But the charities still need our help.

For those of you that give regularly to charity; for those of you that give to many different charities; for those of you who still want to give but can no longer give to all those charities: Which Charity will help you out.

Our Find a Charity system can be used in such a way as to narrow down your choices between charities. If you can no longer afford to donate money to a charity, why not search for a different way to give? If you’ve got more time you can volunteer; you can offer your skills as an engineer on a hospital radio or as a translator for some international charities. If you’re inspired by new ways to give but you can’t find one which suits you quite right, why not wait a few days and then check the site again? We are always adding more charities to our database and some of them offer quite fantastic and original ways to give which are positive alternatives to giving money. Our system is the perfect means of narrowing down choices from perhaps a generous five, to an equally praiseworthy two.

And our search system isn’t the only feature which can aid your choice: our user comments system means that you can hear from others about their views and experiences with the charity. You can use the comments to gain more detailed information about a charity, or you can choose to narrow down your choices according to how well known a charity is.

And if the facilities offered on our site aren’t enough to aid your choice, feel free to drop us an email and suggest a way in which we really can help you out in making your charity choices during this difficult time.

Charities still need our help.

Which Charity will help you out.

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THIS is a time for celebration. This is a time for a breath of fresh air. This is a time for all brains to relax and place the hard work in the hands of our clever site. So go ahead, jump up in the air; take a sigh of relief, feel good; the most difficult decision of your week is about to be made in half the time.

For all those times when your conscience is battling between two life-changing options; for all those times when you simply don’t know what to do; for all those times when the world is oh so confusing; let’s put a full stop to that, right now. We will help you to make the choice of which charity to give to.

The UK Charity Commission currently holds the details of over one hundred and ninety thousand charities on their database. All of these charities will have local, national, or international supporters, and these people may give for varying reasons. Some people give to charity because the cause is close to their heart. Others give for fund-raising reasons, for example, sponsoring a friend who is participating in a run. Others give because a representative knocked on their door and requested it of them; because a leaflet found its way through their letterbox; because a television advert caught their eyes and pleaded with them. Any giving is great. Any giving is helpful.

However, what about the charities that can’t yet afford advertising? What about the hundreds of less known charities out there which offer and fulfil the same services as another, but are just less well known? How many of those one hundred and ninety thousand help in international situations? How many rescue animals? How many help children? The chances are, hundreds, if not thousands. Which one do we give to? How do we choose? Which charity?

The answer is simple. The answer is us.
WhichCharity.org

We do what you really wish the Charity Commission could do: help you to choose and tell you more about how you can get involved in charities. Our system is designed to simplify the process of choosing, so that you can give to who you really want to give to in half the time; so maybe even give to two in the same amount of time!

The Which Charity “Find A Charity” system asks you two basic questions. The first is who do you want to give to? Maybe it’s children you want to help; maybe it’s animals; maybe you want to save an entire country from that volcano that’s just erupted – with charities in our database placed into categories and then sub categories, you can be as specific as you want or as indecisive as you want.

The second question is how do you want to give? Again, there are categories that you can select from, whether you want to give by donating goods; by donating money; fundraising; adopting an animal, or volunteering, our unique system will generate results matching your answers, so that you really feel involved in those you are helping and so that you make an informed decision of what you want to do.

If you really are feeling indecisive, or just fancy giving to someone new, there’s no need to worry about that either, because our charity picker system generates two totally random charities on our home page each time you visit the site!

The time is now for giving. Take a breath of fresh air and make that choice with us, Which Charity.

“Don’t just give to those who knock on your door, give from your heart.”

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