Charities supported by Exploring Happiness.
The findings from our research help to form the direction of our fundraising events and initiatives. Within a given year we are looking to raise money for charities where we feel that our donations will have the biggest positive impact on peoples wellbeing.
Total money raised for our charities in 2019 and 2020: £2632.25
Fundraising in 2021/22
Within a given year we look to raise money for charities where we feel that our donations will have the biggest positive impact. Fortunately, a wonderful organisation named GiveWell allows us to ensure that we do exactly that. They are produce world leading research on where to give most effectively. From their recommendations we have chosen to raise money for GiveDirectly in 2021/22. They are a fantastic charity that transfers cash to households in developing countries via mobile phone-linked payment services. They target extremely low-income households and people affected by humanitarian crisis.
You can read more about the work GiveDirectly do on our donation page (of course, any donations would also be greatly appreciated).
Please keep an eye out for announcements on our events page for fundraising activities that we will put on in order to raise money and awareness for this fantastic charity. Our fundraising activities for 2021 have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and therefore we are extending these events into 2022.
Fundraising in 2020
At the start of the year we held a poll with our users on social media to select our charity for this year. All of the charities that we selected focussed their fundraising efforts on helping those in developing countries, with some of the charities centred around one particular country or issue and others being bigger and broader in their focus. Action Aid was the charity that was chosen. They do some incredible work looking to improve the lives of the worlds poorest women and girls. Within this, their focus is split into three main areas of work:
Violence against women and girls.
Women’s economic rights and empowerment to ensure they can make a sustainable living.
Women and girls’ rights in humanitarian crises.
The fundraising challenge this year involved our editor, Elliot Jones, getting very cold and wet in Surrey’s finest lakes for swimming (see photo below with all the gear…). The challenge was to complete a 5km open water swim as part of the ‘Swimathon’ challenge. Usually, this is done with lots of others over the course of a weekend event. However, as a result of the pandemic, Elliot completed this swim in a relatively empty lake with only a handful of other swimmers. It took him 1hr and 49 mins to complete the 5km (evidence here). From this event, we raised a total of £766.25, which subsequently been topped up by a further £350 making the total raised for Action Aid this year equal to £1,116.25. Our JustGiving page remains in place for those that would like to make any last minute donations.
Fundraising in 2019
During our first year fundraising we chose to raise money for two UK-based charities that are both close to our hearts and also focus on causes that are incredibly important for advancing sustainable wellbeing. These were Mind - the mental health charity and Surfers Against Sewage.
There were two fundraising challenges across the course of the year. The first was a 100km walking challenge on the south coast of the UK, which was completed by both our editor, Elliot Jones, and our creative director, Jess Golding. In total, it took 19 hours and 41 minutes of walking to complete the challenge. The video above show the final few painful steps. In this challenge, we raised a total of £1216.66 for Mind.
In the second challenge of the year, Elliot took on the indoor triple 5km swimming challenge. This requires three 5km swims within a 24 hour period (that is 200 lengths of a 25m pool three times). Taking all three swims together it took a total 5 hours and 43 minutes to complete the challenge (evidence here). As a result of this, we raised £300 for Surfers Against Sewage and this took the total raised for the charities across the year to more than £1,500.