Hi, my name is Richard Peters. I am running the Richmond Marathon on September 15th, 2024, to raise funds for The Software Charity, where I currently serve as Treasurer.

The Software Charity specialises in developing software solutions for charitable organisations, enabling them to focus on their core missions without the burden of IT complexities.

Our flagship project, SignMeUp, is a robust platform for managing volunteer-run children's holiday clubs. Some of you may know that I have been a volunteer and supporter of the Lighthouse group of holiday clubs for 25 years. This long-term involvement motivated me to help establish The Software Charity and address the need for specialised volunteer management software for such organisations.

Due to the increasing number of clubs, children, and leaders, along with heightened safeguarding and GDPR requirements, specialist, affordable software with unique features was required. SignMeUp is essentially the EventBrite™ for holiday clubs run by charities and other non-profits. It streamlines registrations, references, messaging, check-ins, and check-outs. It even includes built-in DBS (police) checks to ensure the safety of all participants.

Since its launch in January 2024, SignMeUp has already been adopted by 14 volunteer-led holiday clubs, supporting thousands of families and engaging volunteers from teenagers to pensioners.

While The Software Charity has benefited from generous donations of business and development time, the complexity of modern web-based software necessitates employing professional developers to ensure sustainability.

We greatly appreciate your support in enhancing SignMeUp and developing additional software solutions to assist more charities. Supporting a charity focused on software development may not pull on the heartstrings, but we seek to empower those crucial charities to deliver on their missions more effectively by allowing them to concentrate on what they do best. Our first project helps with the heavy lifting of administering holiday clubs and supporting essential safeguarding requirements by automating referencing and DBS checking for volunteers.

Thank you for considering a contribution to our cause.