Open Love...

I work at Open Fundraising.

Open Fundraising is a great place to work.

Every year, once the financial year is over, Tim and James who set Open up give every one of the 41 staff £1,000 to donate to the charity or charities that they want to.

So last week, all 41 of us sat in a room and told each other why we had chosen the charities we had. It was an incredibly moving afternoon, there were lots of tears as some of my colleagues gave some very personal reasons for their donations and a lot of pride (and lumps in throat) as others spoke with great passion and clarity about the causes that they had chosen to support.

When we recruit we use the phrase 'hand picked team' a lot. Basically, even though we're growing we want to make sure we're hiring people who give a shit about what we do, who have an opinion, who aren't just here to pick up a paycheck. This week proved that we're doing OK on that front. And has made me super proud to be part of the Open story.

If you're interested, I chose three charities...

First up was Save the Children, I decided to give £250 to their Syria campaign. I also gave £250 to Medical Aid for Palestinians. Two organisations doing amazing work in places that I care a lot about. I gave the remaining £500 to an amazing organisation in Somerset, called Somerset STAR. In their words…

“STAR supports children and young people aged between 5 and 25 designated as “in need” within Somerset.

We focus on the most disadvantaged, particularly those with mental health problems, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, young carers, drug related problems, victims of abuse and crime and those at risk of offending.

A large number of these young people are isolated in rural areas.”

You can find out more about them here.