How to donate to Barnardo’s
Barnardo’s charity provides specialist services to young people, carers and families across the UK. It is the UK’s largest children’s charity and works to help young people all over the country.
Learn more about how you can donate to Barnardo’s and support their work.
About the charity
The historic charity was founded at a time when British children were living in extremely harsh conditions in Victorian England.
Founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, its aims were to help vulnerable children. Thomas opened a school in the East End of London to care for and educate children in the area who were living in poverty and who were orphaned from a recent cholera outbreak.
The charity has grown from strength to strength, supporting children through the Second World War to the present day. It works to support children and young people facing a wide range of issues, from drug misuse to disability, from sexual abuse to domestic violence.
Working across the UK, Barnardo’s charity supports young people through education, helps care leavers and supports parents and foster carers.
Barnardo’s charity work
Barnardo’s provides a wide range of services for young people and children.
It operates 800+ services in the UK and is accessible all over the country.
A breakdown of the specific services it offers can be found below.
Support for young carers
Barnardo’s offers services to support the 1 in 5 children and young people in the UK who provide care for a family member or relative. This can be anything from organising outings for young carers to helping them get further support from social services. By helping young people with the responsibilities of caring for a loved one, Barnardo’s can alleviate some of the stress that comes with such an important role, and can give young carers more opportunity to play and learn.
Fostering and adoption
In the UK there are currently thousands of children waiting to be adopted or fostered, according to Barnardo’s.
With that in mind, the charity works to help as many children as it can into stable homes.
It is the largest not-for-profit fostering and adoption agency in the UK and it works to find prospective foster families and adoptive families.
The charity works to match individuals to safe and loving placements where they can thrive.
Helping young people
Barnardo’s the charity’s core aim is to make sure every young person can achieve their potential.
In doing so, it offers practical support as well as emotional help.
This can range from helping young people leaving care, helping children in their education and helping people who may be facing homelessness.
It also offers people the chance to get support with their employment, training and skills.
How the charity uses donations
Barnardo’s has helped hundreds of thousands of people and your donation can go a long way in doing this.
According to its annual report, in 2020/21 supported:
- 220,958 people through its children’s centres and family hubs
- 53,876 people through its school-based programmes
- 82,442 people in one-on-one support
- 357,000 children, young people, parents, and carers
How to donate to Barnardo’s
There are several ways you can get involved and support Barnardo’s the charity.
You can do this in a one-off online donation or, if you like, you can set up a monthly donation. This will be a direct debit and you can give directly from your salary to help.
You can also donate by telephone, by post, or online now with GoFundMe.