Eight year old Florrie Legge from Wombourne near Wolverhampton is taking on a 20 mile bike ride to raise money for Children on the Edge on Saturday 12th June. She hopes to raise an incredible £1500. ​

Charity running costs or ‘administration’ costs have been given a lot of negative attention of late, with the implication being that many charities convince kind hearted people to part with their hard earned pounds and pennies, only to pocket most of it for their own UK staff, fundraising systems and glitzy offices.

We really don’t want our current or potential donors worried about this kind of thing. We want you to know that the utmost amount of your donation goes to the great cause that has moved you to give in the first place, but we also need to debunk a few myths about ‘running costs’.

Running costs and administration have been demonised somewhat, when in real terms, charitable organisations need professionalism, best practice and effective management structures just as much as any organisation in the private or public sector. As a charity that values each child as individual and believes that every person should be treated with dignity, our first priority cannot be spending the very least we can on running costs, it has to be providing the very best we can.

This means we won’t skimp on areas like research, planning, delivery, safeguarding, data protection, monitoring and evaluation. We’ll use staff who are up to the task, and work as efficiently as possible. It means we focus on ensuring a regular income, to guarantee stability for those we work for and are able to deliver programmes safely and smoothly.

That said.. we ensure that this part of the cost is as streamlined as possible. We can’t line donation tins with fairy dust that instantly transforms your fiver into the realisation of children’s rights around the world, but we can do the following:

• Work with local partners, local staff and local suppliers rather than flying in people and resources;
• Have the majority of our staff on part time contracts, keep wages modest and get help from our fantastic team of volunteers where-ever we can;
• Invest in genuine relationships with our donors, keeping them informed about where their money is going in the way they prefer, rather than sending them glossy chunks of the rainforest every month;
• Refrain from using expensive (and annoying) cold calling or ‘face to face’ fundraising agencies (chuggers); 
• Avoid huge mail outs with random gifts in them (if you desperately want a floral notelet or a fluffy sticker with googly eyes on it, sorry);
• Just as we value each child as an individual, we value our amazing supporters. You are not robots to be queued in an impersonal ‘donor journey strategy’. If you decide to give us a regular donation, we also won’t write and ask you to ‘up it’. That’s rude.
•  Our office is clean, bright and comfortable, not fancy. Anything that looks wildly expensive has been given to us by someone awesome. When lockdown is over, come and see for yourself, we’ll push the boat out and make you a cup of tea.
  
  

We’re hugely grateful to all our donors and supporters and want to remain approachable and transparent with our actions. Our Annual Report is available on our website and you can see more about how we spend your money here. 

We are always happy to answer any questions you might have about this subject and keen to know your preferences about how much or how little you prefer to be contacted. Just keep in touch. 

Thank you.

It’s been an exciting day joining our partners The Body Shop at Home for their Global Kickstart Conference to launch 2021. 

As well as looking forward it was a moment to say thank you for such an unexpected and record breaking year of fundraising for Children on the Edge. We could never have known just how challenging a year 2020 would be when we last met with thousands of consultants in February, and yet you have risen to every challenge and created incredible moments of change for Children on the Edge. 

After the 2019 Chichester Half Marathon boasted its highest registration numbers to date; co-organisers Children on the Edge will be stepping out on a high, passing full responsibility for the management of the event to their partners, Everyone Active.
 
Chichester based charity Children on the Edge revived the annual running event in 2011 together with Chichester District Council (latterly Everyone Active) and have continued to grow the race ever since, with profits going to their work with marginalised children around the world.
 
Ben Wilkes, the charity’s Executive Director says “It’s been a privilege to revive this much-loved event and to see it become increasingly popular on the Chichester calendar over the last eight years.”
 
Entering its 30th year in 2020, Children on the Edge now supports over 10,000 refugee children with a small staff team based in Chichester. Wilkes says, “We’ve been delighted at the high numbers, but as a small charity we feel that the time is right to pass the baton to Everyone Active, enabling us to focus on recruiting charity runners and invest more time in meeting the growing need we are seeing in the areas where we work”.
 
Having partnered with Children on the Edge to deliver the event for the last few years, Everyone Active is well versed in the organisation of The Chichester Half. The multi terrain event sits comfortably in the collection of large-scale sporting events they deliver in the area throughout the year, including the Midhurst Ramble Sportive and Nature’s Way Foods Chichester Triathlon Series.

Stuart Mills, Contract Manager for Everyone Active says “It has been great to work alongside Children on the Edge for so many years, supporting such a worthy cause and delivering one of the most popular local running events. We are excited for the future of the event and all set to make the 2020 Chichester Half the best race yet. This city and its surrounds offer an incredible backdrop to getting active and the multi terrain Chichester Half event is one of the best ways to enjoy it”.  
 
The 2020 Chichester Half Marathon is set to take place on the 4th October and early bird offers will be launched in the New Year. Runners can find out more and register their interest by clicking this link.