Sufra NW London

Sufra NW London was established in 2013 to address the causes and consequences of impoverishment in their North West London community. As Mohammed Mamdani, Sufra NW London’s Director, told us: “We are passionate about alleviating poverty and destitution responding to both people’s immediate and long-term needs.  As a local charity – we are dependent on the support of local people to make this possible and Localgiving provides a platform for us to reach more people”.

 

Sufra London joined Localgiving in 2017 through our partnership with the Foundation for Social Improvement. In the past Sufra have tried alternative online fundraising platforms. However, they were won over both by Localgiving’s ethos (our focus on supporting grassroots organisations) and the benefits of being able to access a range of opportunities to augment their income – from match funds to fundraiser competitions.

“The opportunity to incentivise donations plays a major role in reaching new donors. Sometimes people need more than a cause to donate – they want to feel part of a movement and campaign which prompts them to give to a cause. Localgiving campaigns help to achieve this. The main benefit of joining Localgiving is the opportunity to access new donors through match-funding opportunities. This is fundamental as we try to grow our donor database”

Sufra have raised nearly £9,000 through Localgiving in the last year, including £2,000 in match funding. A key part of their fundraising success has been their ability to generate enthusiasm for their campaigns and activities within their local community. This then enabled them to reach out to extended networks through social media.

This was best seen in April 2018 when their fundraiser, Lamyaa Hanchaoui, topped our annual Local Hero 2018 table. During our Local Hero competition participating fundraisers are ranked on the leaderboard by the number of unique online donors who sponsored their page. Lamyaa, who offered a free download of her poetry as a thank you to donors, raised over £4,000 in addition to the £1,000 Local Hero winner’s prize.

“Recently the charity launched a Refugee Resettlement Programme, following a significant influx of Syrian refugees in the area. We knew that this was an important cause for our local community and it seemed ideal to focus our appeal on this aspect of our work. We were very grateful to Lamyaa who is passionate about supporting refugees to spearhead the campaign and promote it through her social media channels.  Her personal story was deeply moving and we promoted her campaign through our own donors and on social media. This created a ripple effect, with donors forwarding the appeal to their networks via WhatsApp that led to a sudden increase in donations”

Mohammed believes that the benefits of their Local Hero 2018 campaign extended beyond the funding they received – bringing their community together and helping to raise their  profile as an organisation.

“The campaign galvanised our staff, volunteers and donors and was a hot topic for weeks as the numbers of donors increased. We were continually urging people to support – and more broadly, it raised awareness of our work with refugees, which until then had minimal profile”

To find out more about Sufra NW London’s amazing work and donate visit:https://localgiving.org/charity/sufra-nw-london/

Sufra NW London was established in 2013 to address the the causes and consequences of impoverishment in their North West London community. As Mohammed Mamdani, Sufra NW’s London Director, told us: “We are passionate about alleviating poverty and destitution responding to both people’s immediate and long-term needs. As a local charity – we are dependent on the support of local people to make this possible and Localgiving provides a platform for us to reach more people”. Sufra NW London joined Localgiving in 2017 through our partnership with the Foundation for Social Improvement. In the past Sufra have tried alternative online fundraising platforms. However, they were won over both by Localgiving’s ethos (the focus on supporting grassroots organisations) and the benefits of being able to access a range of opportunities to augment their income – from match funds to fundraiser competitions. “The opportunity to incentivise donations plays a major role in reaching new donors. Sometimes people need more than a cause to donate – they want to feel part of a movement and campaign which prompts them to give to a cause. Localgiving campaigns help to achieve this. The main benefit of joining Localgiving is the opportunity to access new donors through match-funding opportunities. This is fundamental as we try to grow our donor database” Sufra have raised nearly £9,000 through Localgiving in the last year, including £2,000 in match funding. A key part of their fundraising success has been their ability to generate enthusiasm for their campaigns and activities within their local community. This then enabled them to reach out to extended networks through social media. This was best seen in April 2018 when their fundraiser, Lamyaa Hanchaoui, topped the Local Hero 2018 table. During our annual ‘Local Hero’ competition participating fundraisers are ranked on the leaderboard according to the number of unique online donors who sponsored their page. Lamyaa, who offered a free download of her poetry as a thank you to donors, raised over £4,000 in addition to the £1,000 Local Hero winner’s prize. “Recently the charity launched a Refugee Resettlement Programme, following a significant influx of Syrian refugees in the area. We knew that this was an important cause for our local community and it seemed ideal to focus our appeal on this aspect of our work. We were very grateful to Lamyaa who is passionate about supporting refugees to spearhead the campaign and promote it through her social media channels. Her personal story was deeply moving and we promoted her campaign through our own donors and on social media. This created a ripple effect, with donors forwarding the appeal to their networks via WhatsApp that led to a sudden increase in donations” Mohammed believes that the benefits of their Local Hero 2018 campaign extended beyond the funding they received – bringing their community together and helping to raise their profile as an organisation. “The campaign galvanised our staff, volunteers and donors and was a hot topic for weeks as the numbers of donors increased. We were continually urging people to support – and more broadly, it raised awareness of our work with refugees, which until then had minimal profile” To find out more about Sufra NW London’s amazing work and donate visit: https://localgiving.org/charity/sufra-nw-london/