Commonside Trust depends on charitable grants and donations from individuals and corporate sponsors. With an annual expenditure of between £400,000 and £450,000, we spend a lot of time writing bids and proposals and seeking new sources of funding. We try to be as creative and positive as possible in doing this, which isn’t always easy as often we are supporting people in dire situations who have lost all hope. We are not a glamourous charity, but we are a decent hardworking one.
How your money is used
If you give us £2, we might buy fresh bread and milk for families who come in to use the food bank. Food bank items are canned or dried only so we add these fresh items ourselves. We might use it to top up someone’s Oyster card so that they can attend the health appointment at the hospital that they have been waiting for.
If you give us £250, we could probably squeeze a coach trip to the seaside out of it. We organised a trip to Folkestone in August 2019, for families with children with disabilities or long-term health conditions who would not otherwise have gone away at all during the six weeks of the school holidays, as well as some adults who had not been away on any kind of a break for years.
If we can raise the total of £1,000 from sponsors and supporters, we use this for things like after-school cooking classes for children, cooking utensils for the Lunch Club and seeds, plants and fencing for our outdoor fruit and veg plot.
Christmas pressures and family bereavement are the two most frequent and stressful events for many of the families we support.
Here are just a few words from some of the families we helped at the end of 2025:
A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart, I am going through so much, your support helped lift a weight I didn’t know how to carry on my own. I am deeply grateful for everything you did for me and my family especially the children.
I am beyond grateful for the contributions and kindness. In a time when I felt overwhelmed, your support reminded me that there are still caring people willing to help. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. I honestly didn’t know what I would have done this Christmas after losing my job and my mom. Your kindness gave my family hope when we needed it most.
Haven’t got a penny?
Can you help us as a volunteer? See our volunteer page here. Can you donate good quality children’s clothes or toys, or adult clothes suitable for a job interview? If you can, we can give these to people who need them and/or sell them at a reasonable price on our weekly fundraising stall at our Friday market. Ring 020 8764 9582 x 208 for a chat.
Thank you!
