WCF and Salisbury Journal launch Put In A Pound appeal

We are teaming up with Wiltshire Community Foundation to ask every reader to donate £1 to help charities and voluntary groups who are seeing unprecedented demand from families and individuals struggling to make ends meet.

Thanks to the generosity of a donor the foundation will be able to increase any donation by 50 per cent through match funding up to the value of £25,000 - meaning each £1 donated becomes £1.50.

Money raised by the appeal will go into the foundation’s Cost of Living Crisis Fund, which was set up last year.

It has already distributed almost £23,000 to groups and charities providing food, mental health support, money advice, help with fuel bills or just offering somewhere warm for them to go.

The community foundation, which was founded in 1975 and supports hundreds of grass roots charities and voluntary groups across the county with grants every year, matches donors with causes they care about and is Wiltshire’s largest  county-based funder.

Joint chief executive Fiona Oliver said regular conversations with groups and charities have highlighted the rising need.

“One group told us that people are feeling broken by the poverty they are experiencing,” she said.

“Charities like Wiltshire Citizens Advice are under severe pressure from the sheer weight of enquiries and calls for help they are receiving. And just at the time they are seeing this surge in demand their own costs are spiralling too.

“Foodbanks are seeing huge numbers of people coming through their doors but donations are falling and fuel, rent and other costs are soaring. Because of this we are absolutely delighted the Salisbury Journal has stepped up and launched this appeal. Any support we get will make a huge difference to people who are facing very tough times.”

Wiltshire Citizens Advice chief executive Suzanne Wigmore said the charity, which works in Salisbury, is seeing calls for help rise each month. “We are seeing five or six people every day who need either emergency charitable support or foodbank support and we think that is going to continue,” she said.

“Increasingly we are seeing a new client group who before this cost of living crisis would never have thought it would be them needing help.

“Two years ago we were helping people because something had changed their circumstances – like losing a job, having to care for someone or a loved one dying. But now it is people who are doing absolutely everything they can to keep their heads above water but their costs are just going up and their income hasn’t matched it.”

Editor of the Salisbury Journal Kimberley Barber said: “I am delighted to get involved with this worthwhile effort and urge all our readers to dip into their pockets to donate whatever they can. I know times are tough for everyone right now, but just £1 really can make all the difference and help support the people in our community who need it most.”

How to donate. 

There are several ways you can donate.

By credit or debit card by calling 01380 715453 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm)

By post, with cheques made payable to Wiltshire Community Foundation, to Sandcliff House, 21 Northgate Street, Devizes, SN10 1JT

Online at bit.ly/putinapound or by scanning this QR code.