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Jones Bootmaker 30% offIf you want to empower consumers, put money in their pocket. This site's dedicated to doing just that... but the charity fund does it even more directly. With over a million pounds donated so far, it's MoneySavingExpert.com's way of giving back to users.
Two thirds of the money goes to support The MSE Charity which provides grants to groups to provide education and information about consumer and debt issues; and the rest to five general charities nominated by site users.
In this guide
Also see About the Site & How This Site is Financed
The MSE Charity
Launched in May 2008, The MSE Charity (Registered Charity Number: 1121320) is a grant-giving charity dedicated to improving information and education about debt, money and consumer issues.
What does it do...?
The charity is currently a grant-giving body, rather than engaging in any projects itself, though it's hoped that in time this will change.
Money is available to help any non-commercial group or charity with specific projects. Whether this is working with an individual with a good idea (e.g. educating squaddies leaving the army about cheques, banking and debt) to working with other mainstream money charities.
To apply for a grant visit the The MSE Charity website.
Martin explains why was it set up...
One of my early career ambitions was to be the Money Saving Expert on ITV1's This Morning, as that was the home of TV experts, and my aim was to make saving cash a mainstream subject. After all, the programme had stylists, diet experts, psychologists, designers and chefs, yet much of that isn't possible without cash. So if you really want to help people, you have to help them put cash in their pocket to provide real freedom.
It was around the time I started appearing on This Morning that I set up this site. Now the site is phenomenally successful and for years the charity fund has donated to general charities. Yet the aim's still the same, and I thought it was about time to try and focus the charity contributions back towards the key aim of helping people help themselves.
After all, a company's job is to make money, nothing wrong with that, a consumer's job should be to maximise their cash too. Yet while sales staff get training, we don't get buyers' training. Worse still, the UK is a nation that educates our students into debt when they go to University; but at every level - school, higher education and adult life - fails to educate about debt.
So rather than trying to pay off a few people's debts, this charity aims to educate people into how to deal with their money and tackle financial illiteracy. In other words, to help people help themselves.
Where does the MSE charity cash come from?
The money is generated from two sources:
Donations from well-wishers.
Anyone who wants to support the charity is more than welcome; for the many who've said they'd like to donate to MoneySavingExpert.com as it's saved them money, please donate to the charity instead. You can do this online, by post, PayPal or Google Checkout... Donate to The MSE Charity.An annual donation from this site.
A donation of over £235,000 was made to launch the charity, and it's hoped a substantial donation will continue to be made each year. This includes all of Martin's proceeds from the Thrifty Ways and Three Lessons books.All this cash - less some small administration costs, which aren't expected to exceed 10% of income - will go directly to the grant fund (the cost of the day-to-day operation of the charity is met by a separate personal donation from Martin).
Visit the The MSE Charity website or discuss it in the Forum
MoneySavers' Charity Picks
As well as donating to the MSE charity; there are also five other charities nominated and voted for by site users. For many of these the donation's made a real difference. For example Re-Cycle, which sends old bicycles from the UK to the developing world, which are then fixed up, plus building transport infrastructure, has been included in the site's selected charities for the past four years, and is in constant contact about projects that have been funded.
The current charities
The last vote took place in July '08 and the following five charities were selected:
- Re-cycle: Fighting poverty with affordable transport. Link: Re-Cycle
- Help for Heroes: Direct support for our forces’ wounded. Link: Help for Heroes
- Shelterbox: Providing tools for developing world. Link: Shelterbox
- CAP UK: Debt counselling charity. Link: CAP UK,
- Samaritans: Providing confidential emotional support to the UK. Link: The Samaritans
Donations started 22 July 2008
Total donations so far: £608,379 Including:
£361,702 to the MSE Charity
£183,350 to the nominated charities below
(
that's £36,670 each)
Plus one-off donations
-
Start of Charity Fund donation
£200 each to St. Giles Trust, iT4 Communities, Foal Farm, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, Citizens Advice, NCH. £100 to Sightsavers International - Comic Relief
To celebrate Comic Relief 2010, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly e-mail in the run up meaning a £10,000 donation.
- Haiti earthquake appeal
To help the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly e-mail for a specified period, meaning a £15,322 donation. - Gift of Sight (Sightsavers)
A donation of £1,705 was given to Sightsavers for the Gift of Sight for 100 people. - Financial Education
Donation to APPG, supporting Financial Education in schools £35,000. See Martin's Blog.
How to nominate a charity
Periodically a new round of nominations is opened (one is due soon) and anyone can suggest a charity. Often hundreds of nominations are received. At that point a group of regular Forum users are selected who have the very difficult task of shortlisting twelve charities. The criteria for this are a mix of charity popularity, relevance to consumer/money issues, and how much impact the donation will have. Once this is done the site poll is used to pick the top charities.
Want to nominate a charity?
If you would like to nominate a charity, do ensure you get the free weekly Martins Money Tips email, which will include all details when nominations are re-opened.
How much has been donated?
Here's the MoneySavingExpert.com donation history since the site launched in February 2003. This money comes directly from the site, and doesn't include any donations made by private individuals to the The MSE Charity. If you're asking "how does a free site with no ads make these donations?" read the How This Site is Financed guide.
Donations between 1 September 2006 - 21 July 2008
£404,084
Cancer Research
Tools for
Self Reliance
Usable
websites
Different Strokes
£254,016
To the MSE Charity
£111,918
(£22,383 each)
To the nominated charities
Re-Cycle, Cancer Research, Tools For Self Reliance, Different Strokes, Usable Websites
Plus one-off donations...
Festive Donation: £3,000 went to Children in Crisis as part of the site's Christmas festive donation
Children In Need: In the run up to Children in Need 2007, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly e-mail, meaning an overall donation of £8,200 donation.
Comic Relief: To celebrate Comic Relief, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly e-mail in the run up meaning a £7,700 donation.
Burma Cyclone Appeal: A total of £7,500 was donated as part of the '50p donation for every new recipient of the e-mail tip' appeal.
Charities Aid Foundation: £1,100 was given to this charity which provides low-cost banking, financial and training services to other charities.
Govan Law Centre: received two donations, £9,000 and £1,000, for providing legal support to the Bank Charges campaign.
National Eczema Society: received a donation of £50.
JustGiving-cimaracing: received a donation of £100.
JustGiving-other: received a donation of £1,000.
Oxfam: received a donation of £500.
Donations between 25 June 2005 - 31 August 2006
£87,254
Send-a-cow
Wateraid
CAP
Samaritans
Usable
websites
Different Strokes
Main Charities
- Samaritans receives 26% (£20,344.59)
- Re-Cycle receives 22% (£17,214.65)
- Send-a-cow receives 20% (£15,649.68)
- CAP Debt Counselling receives 18% (£14,084.72)
- Wateraid receives 14% (£10,954.78)
One-off donations
- South-East Asian Earthquake Appeal donation 19.10.05 £2,000.
A total of £2,000 was donated as part of the '50p donation for every new recipient of the e-mail tip' drive.
- World Vision - A MoneySavers' Well donation 20.12.05 £2,000.
£2,000 was donated via World Vision to build a well in a desolate part of Africa, providing clean water for 10 villages.
- World Vision - Solar Panels for Senegal donation 28.02.06 £5,006.
A total of £5,000 was donated as part of the '50p donation for every new recipient of the e-mail tip' drive to fit solar panels for a health clinic in Senegal. So many people signed up cash was spare to fund health centre equipment, sewing machines, school toys and classroom equipment.
Donations between 12 May 2004 - 24 June 2005
£42,067
alzhelmers
Whizz-kidz
kidscape
breast cancer
Main Charities
- Breast Cancer received 26% (£7,540)
- Alzheimer's received 20% (£5,800)
- Whizz-Kidz received 20% (£5,800)
- Re-Cycle received 17% (£4,930)
- Kidscape received 17% (£4,930)
One-off donations
-
Tsunami Appeal Emergency donation 9.1.05 £10,680.
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