Despite the Coronavirus outbreak our free 24 hour helpline is still operating as normal - but you won't see us out with our collecting tins
The Government considers that our Helpline is a vital service and has agreed that our volunteers can still travel to our branch office in Coventry to answer calls from people who need our help. We are delighted about this, but we now need to ask for your help in meeting our costs.
All our services are provided by unpaid volunteers but we still need to raise about £50,000 a year for our everyday running expenses. We normally generate most of this through our charity shop, fundraising activities and donations from local people and organisations. However our income has plummeted since we had to close our shop for three months to prevent the spread of infection and we can no longer raise funds in any ways that involve public contact. The pictures on this page were all taken before the current restrictions were introduced.
We are therefore appealing to people in Coventry and Warwickshire to consider making a donation towards our costs. We know that many people are facing financial uncertainty at the moment, but if you are in a position to help, you can donate easily and quickly through Virgin Money Giving. If you are a taxpayer, your donation can be worth an additional 25p for every pound you give to us, just by saying you want to use the Gift Aid scheme. As a guide, a donation of £12.00 will pay for running our service for two hours.
If you would like to organise a fund raising event to support us, we would love to hear from you. Please do get in touch with us by clicking here. In the meantime you can read about some people who Samaritans have helped by jumping to our Real People, Real Stories page.
Local people have organised all sorts of fundraising events for us in the past, but they would not be permitted under the current Coronavirus Regulations
We don’t charge for any of our services and we spend all our money carefully
Click here to find out what we spend it on
Click here to find out what we spend it on
Our regular costs include:
- our telephone bills and internet charges
- the gas and electricity bills for a building we use for almost 24 hours a day, winter and summer
- our water bill and Council Tax
- insurance
- stationery and equipment
We also have to pay for
- repairs and maintenance to our building
- the publicity material we use to ensure that everyone who needs us knows how to contact us.
We also offer to reimburse our 166 volunteers for their travelling expenses. Although they all give their time free of charge, often late at night or very early in the morning, we don’t want anyone to be out of pocket because they volunteer for us.
For more information about where the money goes please see our Annual Report and Accounts