Lighting Up is a small charity based in Bristol and working in the Bristol area. We work with people living with dementia, that is people who have dementia and the people who look after them (often referred to as carers). You can read a description of what we do on other pages of this website.
Our main costs are for materials, training and publicity. Everyone who works with Lighting Up is a volunteer, they are not paid for what they do. In addition to being generous with their time and skills, artists and other volunteers are generous in donating materials.
Our main sources of income are donations from supporters and fund-raising events. We cannot be sure that any funding stream will continue from one year to the next, so our Trustees have the difficult task of keeping this wonderful service running (and extending it to even more people) while not having the confidence that there will be adequate funds from year to year.
We are enormously grateful to people who support us financially – and they have the reward of knowing that they are helping us to continue, to improve and to extend our support to people living with dementia.
How to give financial support to Lighting Up
Here are some ways that individual people can help us financially:
Making a donation: we are grateful to receive any amount, small or larger. This can be a single donation or donations made on a regular basis. A donation can be made in cash or by cheque, and repeated donations can be made by standing order.
A fund-raising event: recent examples include a coffee morning organised by some Lighting Up participants and a poetry presentation by a well-known performance poet. Both made significant contributions to the Lighting Up budget.
In memoriam: following the death of a person who may (or may not) have been a participant in Lighting Up, it is possible to invite people to give a charity donation rather than sending flowers. People attending a funeral or memorial service can make a donation which qualifies for tax relief under Gift Aid (see below).
A sponsored event: we would welcome any suggestion about a sponsored event of any kind where Lighting Up would be a beneficiary charity.
Gift Aid
Gift Aid is the name of the Government supported scheme through which charities are able to increase the value of donations made to them by claiming additional funds from the tax office. The amount that can be claimed is equivalent to 25% of the amount donated, so if the donor (who must be a tax-payer) gives Lighting Up £20.00 this can be made up to £25.00, a donation of £100.00 can be made up to £125.00. The process is simple, the donor only needs to give their details and sign a declaration on a form that Lighting Up will provide. The reference number under which Lighting Up has approval for Gift Aid is XT36772.
How to start
We occasionally receive very welcome donations that we were not expecting, which may be given to express appreciation of the value of our work. If you are considering making a donation or raising funds for Lighting Up in any other way please do get in touch with us. You can do so by post, email or telephone. The addresses and numbers are given on the page of this website called Contact Us.