Donate 10am today Thurs 4 Dec to UK ME/CFS biobank to get matching funding!

[Sasha]

If you're going (as I am) to donate to this important UK resource - an ME/CFS biobank at the Royal Free Hospital in London - it's best if you do it at 10am, as Charles explains in his post.

I've set an alarm so I don't forget!

Get those wallets out...

Remember, remember… the 4th of December | start of our Christmas appeal for the UK ME/CFS Biobank

Our Christmas UK ME/CFS Biobank Appeal starts at 10am on Thursday, December 4 – which will be the optimum time to make the most of your donation.

If you can be online to make your donation at the Big Give Christmas Challenge by 10am that morning, it will automatically qualify for matched funding from our sponsors. They have already placed £17,380 in the matched funding pot (which will be available throughout the appeal until it runs out).

And, if you’re already waiting online to donate at 10am on Thursday, you might be pressing even more of the right buttons!

This is because our charity champion, Candis magazine, will be distributing 40% of the extra funds they’ve promised to the Big Give Christmas Challenge at that time of day.

They’ll be giving away another 30% at 10am the following morning – Friday, December 5.

And the remaining 30% of the Candis money will be given out at 10am on Saturday, December 6.

To help donors grab a share of the Candis money, the Big Give have a pledging reservations system is place – pretty much like the system used to book West End theatre tickets. Your donation will be held in place for a few minutes to give time for all the details to be entered on the online form.

The release of the Charity Champion Fund will be staggered over the first three days of the challenge. Matching will pause when the Charity Champion Funds for that day have been exhausted and will resume at 10am the following day.

From Saturday, December 6, until the close of the appeal at 5pm on December 17, donations will continue to be matched until:

a) We’ve reached our overall target or;

b) We’ve matched all of our pledges and the Charity Champion Fund has been exhausted or;

c) The appeal closes at 5pm on Wednesday, December 17.

Donations may continue to be made until the close of the appeal on December 17. With luck, we may even come within sight of our original £100,000 target.

To read more about the biobank project, clickHERE.


To watch a short, 3-minute film about this Christmas appeal, please clickHERE.

 

[aimossy]

Arrrrrrrrgh @Sasha help that hurts my head - so on Thursday 4th if I donate before 10am UK time it will help get them the most matched money? Sorry, rough brain today

 

[Sasha]

Arrrrrrrrgh @Sasha help that hurts my head - so on Thursday 4th if I donate before 10am UK time it will help get them the most matched money? Sorry, rough brain today

Your head can join my head in being boggled! But it's 10am here in 8 minutes. I think you have to do it just before 10am? At 10am?

@charles shepherd, can you clarify?

I'm going to hit the button a minute before 10am and see what I can see!

 

[aimossy]

Ok me too. Thanks!

 

[Sasha]

Done! I clicked the 'donate' thing at 10am and got a message saying I had 10 mins to fill in my credit card details if I wanted my donation to be matched.

That was plenty of time and when I'd finished I got a confirmation that my donation had been matched.

Very rewarding!

@charles shepherd - I'm hoping you can clarify this issue of when precisely to hit the button to get the best matching deal. We did our best!

 

[aimossy]

I missed the cut off, and didn't get that message. Oh well, I was going to donate anyway

 

[Sasha]

I missed the cut off, and didn't get that message. Oh well, I was going to donate anyway

Pity! They're doing it again tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday at 10am.

 

[Sasha]

Our Christmas UK ME/CFS Biobank Appeal began at 10am on Thursday, December 4. For those who have not yet contributed, a second opportunity to secure Matched Funding occurs at 10am tomorrow (Friday).

But you need to have clicked on the link to our online donation page a little bit before 10am and immediately started to fill in the form in order to improve the chances of your donation being doubled.

The link to use is http://new.thebiggive.org.uk/project/21819

Our Charity Champion, Candis Club, will be distributing 30% of the extra funds they’ve promised at 10am tomorrow.

Providing you’ve started to fill in your donation form before 10am, they’ll hold the form in place for a reasonable length of time until you’ve completed it.

And the Big Give will go through the same process on Saturday – until all the Charity Champion’s money is used up.

Matched funding will be paused both tomorrow and on Saturday after that day’s portion of the Champion’s Fund has been exhausted.

Donations will still be most welcome until the appeal closes at 5pm on December 17. Matched Funding will continue until the Matched Funders Pot has been emptied.

Please note that people who have already promised to sponsor the appeal don’t need to do anything further at this stage. We shall be collecting your pledges in the New Year.

And here’s a very important PS:

Not a penny from this appeal will be spent by the ME Association. All the money raised will be handed over to the UK ME/CFS Bank which is run by staff at the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Remember the donation link: http://new.thebiggive.org.uk/project/21819

Today (Thursday) the appeal raised £14,160.53 before 10.40am – when Matched Funding was suspended for the day. It will resume at 10 am tomorrow (Friday) and again at 10am on Saturday. We give a huge thanks to everyone who has supported the appeal so far,