We’re proud to be a small charity

We’re agile and flexible.

Without the multiple layers of decision-making that often come with larger charities, we can respond rapidly to changing priorities and needs of our partner schools.

We are embedded within the community we support.

This means not only that we have a better understanding of the needs than large national organisations that don’t have a local presence but also that we are more accountable to our community because we are answerable to, and seek the trust and faith of, friends, neighbours and even family.

We are not driven by targets as larger organisations tend to be. 

Our success and impact is measured in ways that are often intangible: the depth of the relationships we build, our longevity, what people say about us.

In practice this means, for example, that we care not how many toilets we build or boreholes we drill (nor that this number should grow year-on-year) but that classrooms, toilets and tanks are still there and in a safe and useable condition long after they’ve been built.

These are just three ways that being small has a positive impact on our work and our partner schools. There are no doubt others and you may have your own views on what us being small means to/for *you*; we would love to hear these so we can share them publicly (anonymously, of course).

We are proud to be one of the 96% of the UK’s 170,000+ registered charities that are defined as small as measured by income. But being small can mean struggling to get attention and ‘fighting’ for limited resources – despite being in the overwhelming majority, small charities share less than one fifth of total charitable donations!

Thank you to those of you that support *this* small charity. And if you don’t support us or another small charity already, whether in your local community or elsewhere, there’s really no better time to begin than Small Charity Week!