With a world in crisis, let's stop for a moment to say thank you to every single person who has supported any charity over the last few months.
We’ve all learnt a lot in the last few months.
We’ve learnt about ourselves – how adaptable we are and what we care about most.
We’ve learnt about our colleagues – including what’s on their bookshelves and sometimes too much information about their bathroom habits.
And we’ve learnt about our organisations, how we can pull together and make magic happen when we really need to.
One thing that has come shining out to me over the last few months isn’t something we’ve learnt, but it is something that I think we too often take for granted – just how amazing and truly inspiring our supporters are.
Just think for a minute what’s been going on in their lives.
While they have been worried about their own health, they were giving millions to charities working to provide healthcare to people they will never meet.
While they worried about their elderly parents that they couldn’t even go and visit, they gave to Age UK so that they could be there to help the elderly all across the country.
While they worried about their incomes and their mortgages, they gave to Shelter to help them campaign for people at risk of losing their homes everyday.
And they gave their time and money to so many other causes that they care passionately about. So passionately, that they forgot their own troubles, just for a few seconds, and thought of others.
As a community we’ve thanked the NHS workers, the people who empty our bins, the teachers providing schooling to vulnerable children and all other key workers.
But I think there’s one more group of people we need to thank – our donors.
Charities are facing unprecedented hardship and cuts, but vital work is carrying on across every part of our society because of the generous actions of amazing and inspiring people.
To all those wonderful, inspiring people who, even when facing their own fears and crises, never stopped caring…
Thank you!