Support us
Support us
Blue Smile ensures its services to schools are affordable from subsidies, made possible by you!
Whether you are an individual donor, a community group, a Trust or Foundation or a Corporate, every gift makes a difference.
Here we offer some guidance on how to donate to Blue Smile or how to organise a fundraising event – your way!
Raise money, raise smiles!
To enable Blue Smile to deliver our services, we need to raise nearly £300,000 during the 2018/2019 academic year.
We need your support to help make a lifetime of difference.
would help provide a child’s place in group-work therapy
would enable a child to receive their first one-to-one therapy session
would provide all the therapy art materials we use in a term in a school
For every £1 donated, 79p supports the mental wellbeing of local children. The remaining 21p helps us raise the next £1.
Our appeals
Our nine Partner Schools are each subsidised by £14,000 a year
Our county-wide Outreach school service with its Menu of Services
Expansion of our service into some of the county’s areas of highest need.
There are many ways to donate
Our supporters are helping us to raise nearly £300,000 this academic year towards the cost of our support to local children. Here we help you to find the best ways to support Blue Smile.
One-off donation
You can choose to support a child by making a one-off donation – donate online today.
You can give collection or sponsorship monies through our Local Giving page.
If you are a UK tax payer, you can make your gift worth 25% more by ticking the Gift Aid box. For every £20 donated, we can claim an extra £5 GiftAaid.
Regular giving
You can help us grow by becoming a Regular Giver using our CAF or Local Giving sites, or by paying directly into our bank account:
- Account Name: Blue Smile
- Sort code: 08-92-99
- Account No. 65435021
- Account Bank: The Co-operative Bank
If you would like to discuss making a regular donation, please contact our Finance or Fundraising teams on 01223 314725.
Gifts in memory
Many people prefer that donations are made to a charity instead of giving flowers at a funeral. A really special way to honour a loved one and celebrate their life is to choose to support Blue Smile. Donations given at a sad time such as a funeral can bring joy and happiness to local children through supporting the therapy and care they need be help them become healthier and happier. Your funeral director will be happy to help organise this for you and once all the donations have been received we can let you know exactly how much was given. These special gifts will go on working long after the funeral of your loved one, giving children hope of a much brighter future.
Or you may wish to fundraise in memory of a loved one, to celebrate their life and bring together family and friends. If you would like to discuss this with us, please contact us on 01223 314725.
Give a large gift
You can help us realise our expansion plans by making a Large Gift donation using our CAF page or by making a payment directly into our bank account:
Account Name: Blue Smile
Sort code: 08-92-99
Account No. 65435021
Account Bank: The Co-operative Bank
If you would like to discuss making a large personal gift, please contact our Chief Executive on 01223 314725.
Gifts in wills
Blue Smile aims to enable troubled Cambridgeshire children to be happier and have brighter futures.
When making your will you will firstly want to make sure that those closest to you are provided for. But you may also feel able to help support the future prospects of local children through Blue Smile.
If you have included Blue Smile in your will, we thank you on behalf of our children for your kind generosity.
If you are thinking of leaving a gift in your will to Blue Smile and would like to discuss it in confidence, please contact our Chief Executive on 01223 314725. You can also make a pledge to Blue Smile by contacting us at info@bluesmile.org.uk.
Trusts and Foundations
The support we receive from Trusts and Foundations enables us to commit to providing the long-term therapy that so many of our children desperately need. It also enables us to introduce new initiatives and projects.
We are proud of the ongoing relationships we have with many Trusts and Foundations.
If you would like to discuss supporting our work, please contact our fundraising team on 01223 314725.
If you would like to donate via cheque please make it payable to Blue Smile and post it to 47-51 Norfolk Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LD.
Fundraising Events
Whether you are an individual or a group, you can organise a fundraising event ‘your way’ and raise funds and awareness of Blue Smile.
Head to our Events page for ideas on organising your own fundraising event or download our Fundraising Pack.
Individuals and groups
We need to raise nearly £800 a day, every day, to provide our valued services throughout Cambridgeshire – we couldn’t do this without your help.
Whether you want to hold your own fundraising event, choose us as your charity of the year, or take on a challenge, you will find the guidance you need in our Fundraising Pack.
Blue Smile “Friends Group”
The members of our wonderful “Friends Group” arrange dinners, organise events and sell Christmas cards in aid of Blue Smile.
If you would like to find out more about joining our Friends Group, contact the fundraising team on 01223 314725.
Blue Smile Hero campaign
Blue Smile Heroes are people who face an obstacle, a challenge, a fear or a new adventure to raise money for the little heroes who use our services. They are people who go the extra mile and exhibit courage and commitment to support Blue Smile. It’s a personal journey as well as a fundraising effort.
See our Events page for more information.
Corporates
We greatly value the support and relationships we have had with so many corporates including Astra Zeneca / MedImmune, Mills and Reeve, ARM, Cambridge University Press, TTP, GallifordTry, WSP and so many more.
If you would like to discuss supporting our work or selecting us as your charity of the year, please contact our fundraising team on 01223 314725 or email info@bluesmile.org.uk.
Other ways to help
You can help by buying or donating equipment that Blue Smile use in its art-therapy service.
“Quite often children don’t have the words to articulate thoughts, emotions, perceptions or sensations. Or sometimes they know what to say but find it emotionally painful to speak out loud about specific events or feelings. The use of arts and play based approaches and equipment allows children to convey what might be difficult to express with words, engage in self-exploration and visually show their experiences, perceptions, feelings and imagination in a way that feels safer than just talking.
Blue Smiles’ skilled and experienced therapists use creative expression with children to help enhance their ability to communicate on multiple levels – visual, tactile, kinaesthetic – and make sense of their experiences which can not only be heard by the therapist but seen through art and play.”
Jess Manley, Clinical Director
You shop. Amazon gives.
- Amazon donates 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of eligible purchases to the charitable organisation of your choice.
- AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service.
- Support Blue Smile by starting your shopping at smile.amazon.co.uk
Want to help us raise even more for free? Now you can just by shopping online via Give as you Live!
When you shop at over 4,200 top stores including John Lewis & Partners, Expedia and Amazon via Give as you Live, they’ll turn a percentage of your spend into free funds for us!
Simply sign up, search for the retailer and start shopping. It’s that simple!
Get started today!
Please help support Blue Smile by shopping online.
Use easyfundraising to shop with over 3,600 retailers including Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com, eBay, Boden, and M&S.
Every time you shop, you’ll raise a free donation for Blue Smile every time, it’s that easy!
Find out more: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/bluesmile/
Blue Smile has partnered up with GoRaise. It’s now easier than ever before for our members and other supporters to join us in fundraising.
You can get free donations every time you shop online. It’s simple, it’s safe, and it doesn’t cost a penny.
Once you’ve registered with GoRaise, every time you shop online at thousands of brilliant online retailers – including M&S, John Lewis, Argos, Ebay, Sports Direct, & Expedia – those retailers will donate a portion of what you spend to our cause, for free. So, how do you get started?
Just go to our page at https://www.goraise.co.uk/blue-smile-project/?refid=13278 and register for free today.
Once you’ve done this, just make sure that you visit the GoRaise website and click your chosen retailer, from the list of over 3,000, each time you want to shop online.
Whether you’re an individual or a company, please do sign up today, it will make a huge difference to us and we could raise £1000’s of extra funding every year just from donations generated by ordinary, everyday online shopping.
Volunteer
We can keep our costs to schools low by offering placement and volunteer opportunities.
To find out more, visit our Work with us page.
Where your money goes
‘Our pupil who had complete school refusal in January, was able to settle, learn and successfully take part in SATS, showing immense resilience’. Headteacher
Nearly four children in every UK class are now likely to have a mental health difficulty – and the problem is growing. Fifty percent of lifetime mental illness starts before the age of 14, with potentially half being preventable. It’s also a little-known fact that children’s well-being in parts of Cambridgeshire is among the very worst in the country. At a time of financial crisis, Cambridgeshire schools have some of the lowest budgets.
Blue Smile provides a subsidised whole school approach for mental wellbeing, with both its extensive ‘Menu of Services’ aimed at teachers, heads and groups of school staff, and one-to-one counselling and therapy for children aged three to 13. For children, we work using proven fun, arts-based therapies which engage the child in a non-threatening way, helping them to organise their feelings and process traumatic experiences. So far, our highly skilled therapists and mentors have helped more than 1,000 children to be happier and learn better.
For more information on how we make a difference, click here.
Schools contribute 40%
Our fundraising 60%
From 2010 to 2018
Children were helped
Therapeutic sessions were provided
Clinical staff were trained
