And what an exciting time it is proving to be with three great pieces of news…
Firstly we are delighted to announce that we have been successful with our lottery bid and have been awarded a Big Lottery grant to develop and advance Giving World Online across the nine English regions.
Big Lottery Press Release:
‘The final England-wide project to receive funding today is Konnect9 Worldwide to develop an existing online project matching surplus items to disadvantaged and hard to reach people across the country. These items are donated by companies and include clothing, toiletries, toys, educational materials and computer equipment. Konnect9 aims to benefit children and families, isolated groups including homeless people and vulnerable groups such as people fleeing violence. And an environmental aspect to the project is that it means fewer items being sent to landfill.’
Though it is all very exciting now the work really begins! So we have been busy working on creating new systems and adapting processes to ensure they provide the necessary support for us and effectively measure outcomes. We have started recruiting to a Programme Board, an Advisory Committee and new staff.
Secondly we are really pleased to welcome on board Dr Colin Morgan as an Ambassador for Giving World Online. Colin will work with us to recruit professionals, companies and individuals to spread news about Giving World Online.
Colin has years of Corporate Responsibility experience as Head of Corporate Responsibility & Internal Communications for Gala Coral Group. He has developed and managed a network of relationships with regulatory, government, education and third sectors.
He is currently the Mayor of Daventry and also supervises PhD students at the Greenwich School of Management who are undertaking research on CR in African countries.
And last but not least…
As part of our tenth anniversary celebrations we have produced a special celebratory magazine that records the history of the charity and the road to going on line with Giving World Online.
How time has flown!
It all began ten years ago when we set about distributing the first donation of paper and card to local community groups and charities. The paper did not become yet more landfill but made it into the hands of children to paint, draw and make things with.
Fast forward ten years on and we have helped 300,000 vulnerable people. We have gifted warm clothing to homeless people, toiletries to women fleeing violence, baby clothes to teenage mums and toys and educational materials to disabled children and low income families. Receiving life essentials for free has a high impact in the daily lives of those most in need.
