Christmas campaign raises over £2 million

The Times and The Sunday Times says a flood of last-minute reader donations helped its Christmas Appeal to raise more than £2 million during this year’s campaign.

According to the publisher, readers who contributed made an average donation of £146.47 — enough to send a girl to school in Afghanistan, help three families gain access to a food club membership, and for two sessions of wheelchair-skills training for young people in need.

Both publications joined forces for the first time in 2020 to run a joint Christmas charity appeal, and since then approximately £10 million has been raised for 12 charities over four campaigns.

This year readers helped to raise £2,039,452 for Whizz Kidz, Feeding Britain and Street Child.

Gifts via the donation website and phoneline totalled £1,078,247, of which £173,269 was in Gift Aid.

Excluding GiftAid, readers pledged £292,609 to Whizz Kidz, £280,879 to Feeding Britain and £331,490 to Street Child throughout the campaign. The Times and The Sunday Times published more than 50 articles about the three chosen charities.

All of the charities had matched funding this year, doubling the donations to £840,000, added the publisher.

The final totals including matched funding pledged came to £1,266,162 for Street Child, £398,633 for Whizz Kidz and £374,657 for Feeding Britain.

More than 75,000 children in the UK need to use a wheelchair to be mobile, and the publisher says with the help of readers’ donations, many more will be able to access the life-changing support Whizz Kidz provides. A powered wheelchair for under-fives costs approximately £1,650, meaning that readers’ donations this Christmas could help more than 180 children in dire need of support to get the equipment they need.

News UK says as much as 7 per cent of the UK population — 4.7 million people — were living in food poverty in 2021-2022. With readers’ donations to Feeding Britain, fewer families will be going hungry. Donations accrued throughout the campaign could cover the costs of 500 food clubs across the country for an entire month.

With the money raised through the appeal, Street Child could construct the equivalent of approximately 800 classrooms in countries such as Sierra Leone. Thanks to The Times' and The Sunday Times' readers generosity, many more children living through conflict will get the support they need to continue to learn.