Fundraising

We need your help more than ever.

Over the last financial year the Association has been badly affected by the current economic downturn which has resulted in an almost 20% reduction in generated income. This is despite the best efforts of our hard working and resourceful fundraising team and, of course, our loyal supporters and service users who year on year raise almost £1million.

Unlike many Scottish charities, the Association generates almost all of its income through our own Fundraising Team. It's a bit like starting each year with nothing in the bank and fundraising throughout the year to bring in enough income to provide all of the vital services our service users demand.

The result of the end of year deficit means that we have had to take out £160k from our already dwindling reserves. In real terms, this means that if we did not raise another penny in 2010, we now have just enough reserves to last us 6 months of operating expenditure.

However, the good news is that, despite this drop in income for our core services, we have been successful in securing new ring fenced money for the new year to develop brand new services that will benefit many of our service users who need even more specialist support.

This new money will provide services in the central belt of Scotland for young people between the ages of 12 and 18 who need help and support to develop lasting friendships and encourage independence. It will also develop our Inclusive Fitness Project ( a specialist gym and fitness programme) based at the Centre and will focus on identifying services required for all those in Scotland with Hydrocephalus.

The downside is that these new monies can only be used for these new projects and cannot be used to support our existing work.

We have tried very hard to retain our current level of service provision, but will have to make some adjustments to the way services are delivered in the future which we hope will not have a significant impact on your current level of support.

The Direct Services Team will be meeting with users over the coming months to go into more detail the proposed service redesign and we hope that together we will be able to continue to offer the high level of service which they rightly deserve.

In these days of economic downturn "every penny is a prisoner" so we are making a special appeal to all our supporters to help us fundraise by asking family, friends and colleagues to raise funds on our behalf or nominate us as their company charity. Every penny raised by our supporters stays in Scotland to maintain and develop our services and please do remember that every year we have to raise almost £1million to maintain our core services.

Please navigate the side panel to find the perfect way to help us continue to make a big difference.

Thank you.