Q&A with Madelaine Jones from Raise Your Hands

Tempest Photography are delighted to be able to bring you a brand new ‘Charity Pack’ product option in collaboration with Raise Your Hands to support charities working with young people across the UK.

This new take delivers the same quality photographs you know and love, but also gives a little help to some of the unsung heroes of charity working tirelessly to improve the quality of life for children and young people.

Raise Your Hands have long been a champion of children’s charities, and by giving a percentage of every charity pack sale to their good cause, we hope to prove a force for good in helping push positive lifelong change for those most in need.

To celebrate this new adventure, we spoke to Madelaine Jones, Partnerships Manager at Raise Your Hands to gain a little more insight into the incredible work being done for the smaller charities too often overlooked by funding resources.

Tempest Photography: How and why does Raise Your Hands exist? What ethos were the foundations built on?

Madelaine Jones: In the corporate world, great ideas are rewarded. Funds quickly flow to the most effective companies.

In the charity sector that isn’t always the case. The big names with big budgets receive the lion’s share of income, irrespective of their efficacy. The big charities crowd out the smaller guys. They use their big marketing budgets to reach lots of people in a way that small charities can’t. That’s why the largest 5% of charities in the UK receive 88% of the income.

Small, well-run charities transform lives every day. They do work that has measurable impact, yet they struggle to compete for funding.

That’s why we support exceptional small charities working with children and young people, sixteen of them to be exact.

This isn’t just about redressing that imbalance. We believe that small charities, at their best, outperform their bigger rivals.

Since RYH was founded nearly 10 years ago, we are proud to share that we’ve raised over £2m for the small charities on our platform. We can’t wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!

Tempest Photography: Why is it critical that organisations such as Raise Your Hands exist?

Madelaine Jones: At Raise Your Hands we seek out exceptional small, local charities. Unsung heroes that deserve more attention.

The funding we provide is a long-term commitment. It creates solid foundations from which our charities can grow, increasing their impact on the lives of young people around the UK.

Our donations are unrestricted too which means that the charities can decide where the funds are most needed, rather than having to shape their work to meet donor priorities. It also means they can build capacity and focus on what they do best – transforming the lives of young people.

We know that trust and lack of expertise can sometimes be a barrier to supporting the smaller charities. That’s why we do the due diligence, so that our supporters don’t have to, and so that we can say hand on heart that we only work with charities doing exceptional and impactful work.

Tempest Photography: What are the challenges that you face day to day in supporting smaller charities?

Madelaine Jones: It’s a tough economic environment out there and many are feeling the pinch. Part of my role is bringing new companies on board which, with so many feeling the economic uncertainty, is definitely proving to be a challenge at the minute.

The more companies that we can bring on board, the more support we can give to the small charities in our portfolio…

So, if you’re reading this and your company is thinking about doing something in the social impact space but are not sure where to start, or if you want to help kids and are looking for an alternative to supporting the big names, then get in touch – madelaine@raiseyourhands.org.uk.

Tempest Photography: Can you tell us about any notable success stories, and paint a picture of what might have been had Raise Your Hands not been able to offer funding support at both a charity level, and a wider community one?

Madelaine Jones: Despite the current climate where many charities have struggled or closed, we’re pleased to say that the charities on our platform saw growth across three key metrics in 2023.

On average, the

• Income of RYH charities increased by 17%
• Number of children worked with increased by 25% which is great news as the need right now around the UK is greater than it’s ever been.
• Staff size increased by 12%

Over the years, we’ve also had several charities outgrow us, meaning that they’ve passed the £2m threshold we use to define a small charity. It’s always bittersweet. One of those charities is Football Beyond Borders; they joined the platform back in 2014 as a small South London start-up and left us last year as a national organisation with significant impact and influence. That’s just one of our success stories.

**********

The support offered by Raise Your Hands plays a key role in smaller charities being able to help younger people through difficult circumstances and achieve lifelong change for the better. Such support not only allows the charities to work their life-changing magic, it also brings light when families find themselves in dark times and can rejuvenate entire communities.

At Tempest Photography, we are proud to be able to offer support in whatever way we can and hope you will find our charity pack a delightful way to celebrate your own family whilst offering support to others.

Madelaine Jones is Partnerships Manager at Raise Your Hands.

Raise your Hands supports 16 small charities working with children and young people. They carry out due diligence, then fundraise to transform young lives across the UK. If you would like to discuss the issues in the article further with the Raise Your Hands team, you can get in touch at madelaine@raiseyourhands.org.uk