Getting Involved with Charity

Having employment throughout university has been crucial for me, coming from a single-parent working-class family I’ve had to support myself financially, and I’m sure many people will understand that the student loan doesn’t go as far as we’d like. Although earning money is essential for me, I’ve still tried to find ways to get involved with charity throughout my studies, but it can definitely be difficult to juggle alongside everything else. In this article, I’ll run through some great ways you can give back to charities or the local community.

Volunteering

If you have time to spare in your weeks you could volunteer with a local or national charity. I’ve recently signed up to be an arts & crafts volunteer with St Barnabas over the summer, which is only going to take up an hour of my time but will give people in the local community an outlet to express themselves!

To start your volunteering journey you could:

• Look for local volunteering vacancies on Indeed, Career Linc or any similar website
• Reach out to charities you’re interested in volunteering with and see if they need any help
• Think outside the box – there are many non-profit organisations that you can speak to, consider what kind of volunteering position you’d like to undertake and start from there

Fundraising

Another way to give back to charity is by fundraising for them. There are many different ways you can fundraise, you could undertake a challenge such as the Miles for Moggies run by Cats Protection, or you could even start a birthday fundraiser on your Facebook account. Nothing is too small, and no matter what you fundraise it will all add up alongside everyone else’s donations.

Shopping

This is possibly one of the most fun ways to help charity – shopping. Checking out the local charity shops instead of heading straight to fast fashion will not only support the charities but also the environment.

If you’re wondering whether charity shopping can be fun, check out this video from International Day of Friendship where my best friend and I spent a day going around some of our favourite charity shops in Lincoln. You can also take a look at this article by Tash Etherington about the best charity shops in Lincoln, there’s a lot of variety and you can find anything from clothes to home furniture.

Donating

Recently, George Denver wrote an article about knowing when to donate your clothes, which is always important to assess when the seasons change and so do our wardrobes. Alongside this, it’s not only clothes that you can donate, here are some things you can consider donating.

• Canned food and anything with a decent length expiry date can be donated to food banks before you go home for breaks
• If you’re thinking of buying new homeware items and want to get rid of the old, consider donating them to a charity shop so someone else can get use out of them, while raising money for charity
• Many local charities have stalls at local fayres and are always looking for things to sell at them or offer as tombola prizes! I’ve seen items such as bottles of wine, gift vouchers, chocolates, and even tins of beans!
• If you can knit or crochet, you could always make some little teddies or blankets to be donated to domestic violence shelters (or any charities!). Many women at domestic violence shelters have children and giving them something like a toy can be crucial when they’ve possibly had to leave most of their possessions behind
• Speaking of domestic violence shelters – if you have any lightly-used makeup, sanitary items, clothes, or even jewellery, it can be put to good use. It can help give domestic violence survivors more independence and help them to rebuild after leaving their homes.