Last year we received nearly 80,000 requests for help (a record in our history), and we gave out around £2 million in grants to those in need.

The social impact of our work

Over the past 18 months, we've been rolling out a programme to evaluate the lasting impact of the Charity’s work. We've looked at those who applied for our caseworker support – which can range from financial assistance to funding counselling, and support with managing caring responsibilities and work.

Applicants surveyed were less stressed and more confident in the 6 to 11 months after applying for help. We were also able to determine a wider 'social value' from our support, proving that the Charity’s help did have a lasting impact for our applicants.

Your donations make a difference

Social value is all about the tangible, wider impact of an organisation's actions, such as a broader economic or environmental benefit. For this analysis we were looking for a lasting improvement in wellbeing. If our applicants saw a lasting improvement, we could statistically prove our intervention had a social value.

Over the past 18 months, we have found that the Charity's social value was between £36.5million and £71.9million for our applicants. In other words, for every £1 the Charity spent on helping an applicant between January 2018 and June 2019, we created between £6 and £11 in social value.

This means, we can take a donation and deliver a social value of between 6 and 11 times the original investment. If you’d like to read more about our work on social value, read the report of our 2018 analysis.

You can also take a look at some stories, films, animations and podcasts, which focus on the impact our work has on the lives of people in our community.