How to donate to homeless charities in the UK

If you want to donate to help the homeless in the UK but don’t know where to start, we can help out. 

Donating to a homeless charity online couldn’t be easier. You can find causes important to you locally or donate to a national charity that works all over the UK.

GoFundMe is an easy way to contribute to a cause close to you – you can search for fundraisers you care about or even start one for a homeless charity. 

Over 270,000 people in the UK are homeless

More than 270,000 people in the UK are registered as homeless in the UK, in a heartbreaking statistic. 

New research from Shelter says of these 270,000 homeless people, 123,000 are children. 

The number of people living in temporary accommodation has risen by a staggering 74% in the last ten years. According to Shelter, this is driven by the shortage of social homes and other social factors. 

Homelessness can be described as people sleeping rough, sofa-surfing, living in hostels or in temporary supported accommodation.

According to the charity, most of the people living in temporary accommodation are families.

How to pick a homeless charity to support

There are many homeless charities in the UK doing fantastic work to help people without a home. 

From hyper-local charities that work in cities and towns across the UK, there are also many national charities that can work to help people more broadly. 

You can find a charity by searching the charity register on the UK Government website, or by searching on GoFundMe. 

Big, national charities include Shelter and Crisis. But there are some charities that specialise in certain areas, like Centrepoint which works to help young people facing homelessness.

A good starting point when considering who to donate to is by looking at the work charities do, how efficiently they use donations and how easy they are to donate to. 

Ways you can donate

From making a single donation, donating multiple times in a year or setting up a recurring donation there’s plenty of ways for you to donate. 

It doesn’t have to be something you commit to and there are plenty of options. 

Financial donations

You can make a single or recurring donation online safely. 

Making a monetary donation online is an easy way to directly give to a cause you want to donate to. Most charities will offer the option of donating as a one-off through their website, or setting up a repeat donation that comes out monthly. 

Material donations

You can also donate physical items. 

This can include unwanted clothes or books, furniture or items you don’t use any more. 

Unwanted items can be donated to charity shops and clothes can go to clothing banks. 

The recycling and resale of these clothes helps charities to operate and offer support to people. 

Volunteer

Another way you can help is by offering your time. 

You can support homeless charities volunteering for a wide variety of roles. 

This can be physically in shops but can also stretch to volunteering to do administrative services and campaigns. 

Shelter’s Fight for Home Champions is a great example of how you can volunteer your time and deliver talks in local communities. 

Create a fundraiser

You can also take steps to help raise money for charity. 

By starting a fundraising campaign, you can raise money for important causes and spread awareness about the charity. 

You could take on a challenge to encourage people to raise money or detail why the cause is so important to you. 

Funds are delivered automatically and 100% of Gift Aid goes directly to charity.

Next steps if you want to support homeless charities

Now you’re familiar with all the ways you can offer support, the next step is to consider what works best for you. 

A good first step can be to decide what charity you’d like to support. You can research the different charities and see which one suits you best. While looking, you can check out our guide about how to donate to Shelter and how to donate to Crisis.

Next, you can think about how best you can offer support. This can be through your time, physical donations or financially. Anything you can do will help. 

Or you could start your own fundraiser and understand more about how to start a charity fundraiser on GoFundMe.