We are delighted to announce that this year’s Summer Give campaign has been the most successful yet, raising over £778,000 for London charities in partnership with The Childhood Trust.

Half of the total was raised by generous public donations to 36 local children’s charities, supporting over 5000 disadvantaged children. Donations were doubled by the Childhood Trust, which works to alleviate the impact of childhood poverty, and the charities’ pledge funders.

This year’s campaign focused around research by The Childhood Trust which found that 62% of London’s children were scared of being attacked by gangs or sexually exploited over the summer holidays, meaning that donations this year were more vital than ever. The research with 22 charities providing support to over 3600 children this summer also found that more than a third of children aged under 11 would not have any adult supervision during the summer without the charities’ provision, and almost 90% won’t go away on holiday.

Laurence Guinness, CEO of The Childhood Trust commented: “We’ve had an amazing response to our Summer Give campaign this year. Londoners have rallied to our call and provided a lifeline for children and young people affected by poverty in the capital. I want to thank all our charity partners, they have been heroic in their fundraising efforts because they know better than anyone how much vulnerable children need help during the summer.

We were shocked with our research that found that thousands of children are at high risk of sexual abuse in the holidays. It’s why we run the Summer Give, so that disadvantaged children can have somewhere safe to go to enjoy their childhoods.”

A special effort was made by charity partners, such as The Katherine Low Settlement in Battersea who really engaged donors. As a result of this, every £1 the Childhood Trust put into the campaign generated on average £5 for the charities.