Individual Giving
Individual Giving
Platform for life work with a variety of needs and without the service, there would be a huge gap in the mental health support we can offer in school. The counsellors are great and work within school very well.
We are completely reliant on financial support through a range of income streams to continue and grow the work we do. One of the most important and special income streams we receive comes from individuals who kindly choose to support us.
Find out why your support is so important through our Client stories.
How can you and your friends and family help us support families struggling with poor mental health in Chester?
Make A Donation
Support Platform For Life Fundraising Campaigns
Volunteer Your Time
Contact Us
Make a donation
One-off donations
If you would like to make a one-off donation, you can:
- Go to the donation page here on the website. Don’t forget to select Gift Aid (if you are eligible) in order to increase the donation we receive.
- Donate via text message from your phone by texting PLATFORM followed by your donation amount to 70085. For example, if you want to donate £10, just type ‘PLATFORM 10’ into the text message and send to 70085. Texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message.
Regular giving
If you would like to give regularly, you can set this up as a monthly payment of your choice from your bank the via donation page here on our website.
Celebration Giving
You could choose to ask people to donate to Platform For Life instead of receiving or sending gifts or cards. This could be your birthday, Christmas, Easter, weddings or any celebration where rather than opting for the traditional giving you would like to give to support Chester families struggling with their mental health for whom celebration dates can be difficult because of their situation.
Give as you Live
Every time you shop online via Give as you Live at 4,000+ top retailers including Amazon, eBay, John Lewis and Expedia, a FREE donation will be made to us and it won’t cost you a penny.
Plus if you shop through the Give as you Live website, you can access top offers so you can save money and raise money!
Payroll Giving Donations
Payroll Giving Donations, also known as GAYE (Give as you earn) is a way to give a donation directly from your salary each month. Payroll Giving donations are taken from pay after National Insurance but before tax. So if you are employed and your employer is signed up to the Payroll Giving Scheme, you can ask your employer to arrange a donation of your choice to be made to Platform For Life every month. If your employer is not yet signed up to the Payroll Giving Scheme, you could suggest it to them. It is very easy to sign up, just go to Payroll Giving – A better way to give.
Donations in memory of someone special
Losing someone special is so difficult and painful. Our Counsellors and Therapists support a lot of clients impacted by bereavement. Giving donations in memory of someone special to help support others who are struggling is a way of creating a positive legacy to your loved one. If you would like to contact us to talk to us about this, we would be happy to create a special ‘In memory’ message for you on our Supporter’s stories page on our website and in our social media.
Leaving a gift in your Will
If Platform For Life and/or the work that we do to support families impacted by mental health struggles holds a special place in your heart, because of your own experiences or those of someone close to you, you could choose to plan your own legacy ahead of time and leave us a gift in your Will.
Amazon Wishlist
You may want to donate through a gift from our Amazon Wishlist rather than donate money. The items on our Amazon Wishlist are really important to directly support the work we do, so thank you in advance!
Fundraising
Need inspiration to help you choose a fundraising activity?
Creative
Fundraising ideas for creative people
- You could organise an arts and crafts maker’s fair
- You could hold an arty auction
- You could sell your creative skills and face paint for the day
- You could have a crochet competition
Fundraising ideas for active or sporty people
- You could walk the North Wales coast
- You could arrange a fundraising football match
- You could run a marathon
- You could arrange a group dog walk
- You could hold a golfing day
Fundraising ideas for foodies
- You could have a coffee morning and bake sale
- You could arrange a picnic party in the park
- You could hold a bake-off competition
- You could have a culinary activity garden party
- You could grow fruit and vegetables to sell with recipes
Fundraising ideas for Thrill Seekers
- You could organise a parachute jump
- You could abseil off a bridge
- You could bungee jump from a crane
- You could wing walk on a by-plane
- You could organise a ghost hunting event
Fundraising ideas if you have a personal challenge
- You might have a fear you want to overcome, like spiders or heights or flying, and this could provide you with the motivation to challenge your fear
- You might want to make a healthy change in your life, like cutting out unhealthy options, or increasing your fitness, and this could provide you with the motivation you need
- You might want to gain a skill but haven’t had the confidence or opportunity, maybe learn to swim and set a target swim distance to achieve
Fundraising ideas if you are community minded
- You could organise a community litter pick
- You could organise a community tree planting
- You could arrange a best garden in the village competition
- You could hold a street party
What should you do once you have decided on your fundraising activity?
Once you have decided on your fundraising activity and carried out all the checks you need to, to ensure that your activity is achievable and any risk assessments and checks have been carried out, we suggest the following:
- Set up your gofundme or Just Giving page (there are a number of online fundraising platforms to choose from), select Platform For Life (Registered Charity number (1176429) in England and Wales) as your chosen charity, and tell people what you are doing and why.
- Contact us to let us know what you are doing, and we will support and promote you and your fundraiser in any way we can.
- Let us know how you get on so we can thank you, celebrate your achievement with you, and get your fundraising story onto our Supporters story page
- Don’t forget that £10 means as much to us as £10,000 to us and the families we support, so no matter what you do to fundraise, or how much you raise for us, we want to say thank you and celebrate with you!
Join Platform For Life fundraising campaigns/events
At Platform For Life we are a small team focusing our resources on supporting our clients so we don’t currently have a dedicated community fundraising team, which is why your support to raise the funds we need to continue and grow the work we do is so important. However, at certain times of the year we all pitch in to run our own short, focused, fundraising campaigns such as our Christmas Fundraising Marathon. The purpose of our campaigns is to not only raise essential funds for our charity, but also to raise awareness of the work we do and the importance of improving mental health for all of us. During our campaigns we would love you to get involved through either supporting our events or plan your own activities to link in with our campaigns and add to the outcomes of the campaign. To find out more about our forthcoming campaigns, and how you can get involved, go to Our Campaigns page.
Volunteer your time
We know that one of the most precious resources people have is time. We don’t ever under value the gift of time that people choose to give to Platform For Life as Volunteers, whether you choose to support us with ongoing volunteering to support our charity functions, volunteering to support specific projects or campaigns, volunteering as a trustee or volunteering with skills donation. To find out more about volunteering opportunities and how to become a volunteer go to our Volunteer Your Time page.
Our Shop
Platform For Life has an online shop on the website. This may not always be visible, but will appear at certain times as part of our fundraising campaigns. The shop will sell gifts or tickets relating to the campaigns or events we are running. We will let you know when the shop is live, and you may wish to support the work we do by purchasing from our shop.