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National Giving Week kicks off Monday with a whole host of events aimed at encouraging the public, companies, and the government to give more support and commitment to charities, as well as making giving more tax-efficient.

The week runs until the 23 October and will see a variety of charity events held across the country in its honour, including Moorcroft Racehorse Welfare Centre in West Sussex which will hold its annual Charity Raceday on Monday at Plumpton Racecourse.

National Giving Week is organised by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), the not-for-profit organisation committed to making giving as effective as possible by raising the profile of giving, lobbying for tax breaks, and providing services to charities.

This is the second year running for National Giving Week, which will run this year under the theme ‘Make more of a difference’.

Fourteen MPs have pledged their support for National Giving Week, including Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Ruth Kelly MP, and Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry, Alan Michael MP.

Director of National Giving Week, John Turley, said: “We are delighted with the number of responses we have had from all the main political parties. With the commitment from MPs to promote National Giving Week within their local constituencies, we want to give charitable giving in the UK a much needed boost.”
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The MPs were approached to help raise the profile of charitable giving after the results of last year’s National Giving Week found that giving to charity is not a profile for the British public.

An NOP survey commissioned for the 2004 campaign found that 40 per cent of respondents admitted they could afford to double their donations and that on average, households spend three times as much on tobacco, and three and a half times as much on alcohol, than we spend on donations to charity.

Regional and national giving statistics for National Giving Week 2004 revealed that people in Northern Ireland, the most giving region in the United Kingdom at 52.4 per cent, still only gave on average 1.5 per cent of its income.

Charities holding events for the Week include LAM Action, the Imperial War Museum and the British Institute for Brain Injured Children (BIBIC).