MoneySavingExpert charity fund

Grant-giving to grassroots groups and more

Updated Annually

If you want to empower consumers, put money in their pocket. This site is dedicated to doing just that... but our charity fund does it even more directly. With over £2 million donated so far, it's MoneySavingExpert's way of giving back to users.

The money we raise currently goes to support the MSE Charity, which gives grants of up to £7,500 to groups that provide education, information and support to help people learn how to manage their money better.

But that's not all – we also make one-off donations and, in the past, have donated part of our fund to a range of charities nominated by you, MSE users.

The MSE Charity is separate from MSE founder Martin Lewis's charitable fund. For full info on that, see his blog:

'What happened to my £10 million pledge to charity?'

And for more information on MoneySavingExpert, see:

What is the MSE Charity?

Launched in May 2008, the MSE Charity (registered charity number 1121320) is dedicated to helping people help themselves, by funding activities that make a lasting impact on how people think, behave, and manage their money.

Rather than engaging in any projects itself, the charity offers grants of up to £7,500 to support non-profit organisations, such as social enterprises or registered charities, with specific money education projects. Help is given to a range of projects, from small grassroots groups to more mainstream charities, with the maximum annual income level for an organisation set at £750,000.

The MSE Charity has two themed grant-giving rounds a year and four themes that rotate through a two-year cycle. Its themes include life-changing transitions, living with long-term challenges, and raising the next generation.

The most recent round was themed on building and developing resilience, and ran early this year, in June, to get funding out sooner to help with the cost of living crisis. It's now closed, with the winners of grants to be announced in the autumn.

To read about the projects that the MSE Charity funded in its previous grant round, see February 2022 winners below.

And to find out more about applying for a grant, see the MSE Charity website.

MSE founder Martin Lewis on the MSE Charity's history...

The MSE Charity is now over 10 years old. It was my first foray into the third sector and I've learned much. The MSE Charity is still very much the site's baby, a passion play that allows us to help far more than those who just use the site. It enables us to put money into small projects that may otherwise get ignored, but can have a huge impact on people's lives. Its focus remains on educating people on how to deal with their money and to tackle financial illiteracy.

In the early days MSE and I were the same thing. Now the site has its own independent life, alongside me, which is why I'm delighted it continues to fund the MSE Charity. It was the MSE Charity that educated me into what a privilege having money and being able to put it where it is needed really is. Without it I'm not sure I'd have had the confidence to set up the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and the other work I do. Thanks MSE Charity.

See more on Martin's personal charity fund work, including his own donations to the MSE Charity, which are separate from MSE's.

Where does the MSE Charity's money come from?

The cash is generated from two sources:

An annual donation from this site. A donation of over £235,000 was made to launch the charity, and substantial donations have continued to be made each year.

All this cash – less some small administrative costs – goes directly to the grant fund. Martin makes a separate personal donation to cover the majority of the running costs of the charity.

Martin also put money into the Martin Lewis Charitable Fund when MoneySavingExpert joined the MoneySupermarket Group – for more information on this, see Martin's blog.

Donations from well-wishers. Anyone who wants to support the charity is more than welcome; for the many who have said they'd like to donate to MoneySavingExpert as it's saved them money, please donate to the charity instead.

How can I make a donation to the MSE Charity?

You can donate online through the MSE Charity's PayPal Giving Fund page or through its Bacs donation form. To donate by post, contact its treasurer Tony Tesciuba, at Tesciuba Ltd, 72 Cavendish Road, Salford, M7 4WA, and if your donation is eligible for Gift Aid, please complete its Gift Aid declaration form.

Who's the latest to win MSE Charity grants?

Nine organisations won funding in the MSE Charity's last full grant round, which ran throughout February 2022.

They're benefiting from a total of just over £58,000, allowing them to teach vital financial skills to people from all around the country who are facing challenges in their lives.

The February round, themed on 'living with long-term challenges', was aimed at groups that support people with a wide range of conditions and disabilities, including dementia, autism and learning difficulties.

Here's a summary of the nine projects, run by the following groups – for full info, see the MSE Charity website.

The nine winning organisations
BASIC (Brain And Spinal Injury Centre) is a charity based in Salford, established in 1987. It helps people who have undergone treatment for a traumatic head injury, brain haemorrhage, brain tumour, stroke or similar long-term neurological condition.

The MSE Charity is funding a three-part programme of financial-skills support for up to 15 people with brain injury or stroke, and up to seven carers. This will include six weeks of training provided by Salford Citizens Advice, to boost skills including household budgeting, maximising income, understanding financial products, and ways to engage safely with online finances.

Citizens Advice Wokingham offers free, confidential, impartial and independent advice and information to anyone living or working in Wokingham borough. It has been serving its local community for over 45 years.

It will be working in partnership with CLASP, a learning disability charity, to deliver the Making Money Matter project. It will put on basic financial-awareness skills and money-management training, as group sessions and one-to-one sessions, for about 50 people with learning disabilities.

Citizens Advice York is an independent charity, which provides advice and also campaigns on big issues affecting people's lives in York and the surrounding areas. These issues include benefits, debt, housing, employment law and immigration.

MSE Charity funding will enable it to support the delivery of the 'Mind Your Money' project, supporting up to 40 people who have or who care for those with mental health conditions, who are experiencing debt and money-management issues.

Deaf-initely Women is a deaf-led charity based in Belper in Derbyshire, established in 2015. It aims to improve the wellbeing of deaf, deafblind and hard-of-hearing women through raising awareness and health education.

The MSE Charity's grant is financing the 'Managing Money Better' project, which will allow Deaf-initely Women to co-design and deliver accessible training, including four workshops for 40 deaf women with full communication support. As part of the project it will create four signed and captioned vlogs, and four factsheets for its website.

Deepness is a not-for-profit organisation, established in 2020, which is led and governed by people living with dementia and cognitive impairment.

The MSE Charity is funding the 'You are not alone' project which will pilot two eight-week online courses, run by peers for peers who are living with dementia, to support about 48 direct beneficiaries. Topics to be covered include coping at initial diagnosis, money tips, travel, benefits, financial abuse, financial support and council funding.

Disability Sheffield was established in 2003, and it promotes choice, control and independence for disabled people in Sheffield. Sheffield Voices is its learning disability and autism arm which provides user-led self-advocacy, support and training.

The Sheffield Voices team is using its grant to develop a peer-led 'Money Talks' project, led and delivered by staff and volunteers who have autism and learning disabilities. A minimum of 36 people with learning disabilities will benefit directly.

Empowering Deaf Society is a deaf-led charity providing a variety of services across Greater London. It champions equality of opportunity, enabling deaf people to take an active role in society by providing support to access mainstream services, and currently works with about 2,000 British Sign Language (BSL) users in London.

It will use the grant to deliver the Christians Against Poverty (CAP) Money Course in BSL to two groups of 15 deaf people over three sessions, supported by two volunteers and one interpreter. Two BSL videos will be created to support the activities. Three deaf people will then attend the CAP Money Coach Course (supported by two interpreters) to become CAP money coaches, providing ongoing support for the deaf community.

Feeding Coventry is an independent charity, working to end food poverty in Coventry. It supports people by working with them through financial hardship and long-term health inequalities, providing advice, guidance, family support services, and opportunities to engage in health and wellbeing activities.

The MSE Charity is funding a support worker post for 12 hours a week for six months. The support worker, alongside a volunteer support worker, will be trained to better support clients in managing their budgets and help to develop further money-management skills. The project will deliver two Christians Against Poverty Money Courses for 50 members and 20 volunteer befrienders and also provide ongoing mentoring and support.

Roar Pursuits CIC is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2017 and based in the London borough of Greenwich. Its aim is to provide education, training and support to young care leavers to enable them to build stable and successful independent lives.

Its project will deliver financial capability training to about 30 young care leavers who have a diagnosis or who are awaiting a diagnosis of a learning disability in Greenwich and the surrounding boroughs. It will provide money-saving advice, housing support as well as one-to-one training dependent on individuals' support needs.

Visit the MSE Charity website or discuss it in the MSE Forum.

What other donations has MSE made?

Not only has MoneySavingExpert donated towards the MSE Charity's work, over the years we have also gifted cash to charities nominated by MSE users, and made a string of one-off donations, totalling more than £700,000.

The nominated charities include:

While many of MSE's donations have gone towards helping improve people's financial skills, we've also made a number of one-off donations to high-profile fundraising events and a range of charities large and small, including:

Children in Need
Comic Relief
Red Cross
Unicef
Various charities following natural disasters such as the Myanmar cyclone in 2008, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004

How much has MSE donated over the years?

Here's the MSE 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 MSE Charity. If you're asking: "How does a free site with no ads make these donations?", read our How this site is financed guide.

Donations between 1 Sep 2019 and 30 Apr 2021

£157,133

Full info
£153,333
to the MSE Charity
Plus one-off donations...

Tetanus vaccines to Unicef – Dec 2019
A donation of £1,800 was given to Unicef to provide tetanus vaccines for 18,000 children.

Tetanus vaccines to Unicef – Dec 2020
A donation of £2,000 was given to Unicef to provide tetanus vaccines for 20,000 children.

Donations between 22 Jul 2008 and 31 Aug 2019

£1,389,750

Full info
£966,592
to the MSE Charity

Main charities – £319,585 to nominated charities

Re-Cycle received 20% (£63,917)

Help for Heroes received 20% (£63,917)

ShelterBox received 20% (£63,917)

CAP UK received 20% (£63,917)

Samaritans received 20% (£63,917)
Plus one-off donations...

Start of charity fund donation
£200 each to St Giles Trust, iT4Communities, Foal Farm, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, Citizens Advice, NCH (now Action for Children), £100 to Sightsavers International (total: £1,300).

Comic Relief – Mar 2009
To celebrate Comic Relief 2009, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly email for a specified period, meaning a £10,000 donation (once rounded to the nearest £1,000).

Haiti Earthquake Appeal – Feb 2010
To help the Disasters Emergency Committee Haiti Earthquake Appeal, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly email for a specified period, meaning a £15,322 donation.

Gift of Sight (Sightsavers) – Dec 2010
A donation of £1,705 was given to Sightsavers for the Gift of Sight for 100 people.

Financial Education – Jun 2011
Donation of £35,000 to the All Party Parliamentary Group supporting financial education in schools. See Martin's blog.

Gift of Sight (Sightsavers) – Dec 2011
A donation of £1,705 was given to Sightsavers for the Gift of Sight for 100 people.

Polio vaccines to Unicef – Dec 2012
A donation of £1,150 was given to Unicef for 10,000 polio vaccines.

Comic Relief – Mar 2013
To celebrate Comic Relief 2013, £1 was given for every new member of our Cheap Energy Club for a specified period, meaning a donation of £22,000 once rounded to the nearest £1,000.

Tetanus vaccines to Unicef – Dec 2013
A donation of £1,375 was given to Unicef for 30,000 tetanus vaccines.

Polio vaccines to Unicef – Dec 2014
A donation of £1,650 was given to Unicef for 15,000 polio vaccines.

Red Cross – Sep 2015
To help the Europe refugee crisis, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly email for a specified period, which we rounded up to make a £6,000 donation.

Tetanus vaccines to Unicef – Dec 2015
A donation of £2,040 was given to Unicef for 40,000 tetanus vaccines.

UK Athletics – Feb 2016
A donation of £325 was made.

Unicef – Jan 2018
A donation of £2,001 was made.

Unicef – Dec 2018
A donation of £2,000 was made to pay for health checks for 800 Syrian children.

Donations between 1 Sep 2006 and 21 Jul 2008

£404,084

Full info
£254,016
to the MSE Charity

Main charities – £111,918 to nominated charities

Cancer Research UK received 20% (£22,383)

Re-Cycle received 20% (£22,383)

Tools for Self Reliance received 20% (£22,383)

Different Strokes received 20% (£22,383)

Usable Websites received 20% (£22,383)
Plus one-off donations...

Festive donation
£3,000 went to Children in Crisis as part of this 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 email for a specified period, meaning an overall donation of £8,200.

Comic Relief
To celebrate Comic Relief, 50p was donated per new recipient of the weekly email in the run-up, meaning a £7,700 donation.

Myanmar Cyclone Appeal
A total of £7,500 was donated as part of the '50p donation for every new recipient of the weekly email' 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.

Oxfam
Received a donation of £500.

Donations between 25 Jun 2005 and 31 Aug 2006

£87,248

Full info
Main charities – £78,248 to nominated charities

Samaritans received 26% (£20,344.59)

Re-Cycle received 22% (£17,214.65)

Send a Cow (now Ripple Effect) received 20% (£15,649.68)

CAP Debt Counselling received 18% (£14,084.72)

WaterAid received 14% (£10,954.78)
Plus one-off donations...

South-East Asian Earthquake Appeal – 19 Oct 2005

A total of £2,000 was donated as part of the '50p donation for every new recipient of the weekly email' drive.

World Vision – A MoneySavers' Well – 20 Dec 2005
£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 – 28 Feb 2006
A total of £5,000 was donated as part of the '50p donation for every new recipient of the weekly email' drive to fit solar panels for a health clinic in Senegal. So many people signed up that cash was spare to fund health centre equipment, sewing machines, school toys and classroom equipment.

Donations between 12 May 2004 and 24 Jun 2005

£39,680

Full info
Main charities – £29,000 to nominated charities

Breast Cancer Now received 26% (£7,540)

Alzheimer's Society received 20% (£5,800)

Whizz-Kidz received 20% (£5,800)

Re-Cycle received 17% (£4,930)

Kidscape received 17% (£4,930)
Plus a one-off donation...

Tsunami Emergency Appeal donation of £10,680 – 9 Jan 2005

Spotted out of date info/broken links? Email: brokenlink@moneysavingexpert.com

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