A letter from CLAPA’s Chief Executive

May 23, 2022

A letter from CLAPA’s Chief Executive

People sometimes ask me what keeps me awake at night as the Chief Executive of CLAPA.

Well, the simple answer is that my 2-year-old daughter does! But my other answer is wondering how we will keep funding the services that CLAPA provides.

We were hit hard by covid, as were so many of the people we work with. We saw much of our funding dry up, with our amazing supporters unable to do the kind of fundraising events that raised so much money for us before the pandemic. With the devastating impact on the NHS, we also saw so many of you struggling to access the cleft care you needed, leading to higher pressure on our services. It’s been a double whammy for us.

We’re not a big charity – our turnover is just under £650k, and most of our 15 staff are part-time. We receive no government or NHS funding. We don’t have large salaries. But each month we are now spending around £10,000 more than we bring in.

The good news is that the emergency funding we received in 2020 gave us a buffer to keep us going. But at current rates, those funds will be gone in 6 months or less. 

Our Trustees (all volunteers) met last month and agreed that before we think about making cuts to our already tight budget, we need to do everything we can to raise more money to fund our work. So we are going to start with the people who know exactly how important CLAPA’s services are – people like you.

We have a simple goal. We want 250 of our supporters to sign up for a regular donation to us. If each of these supporters gave an average of £10 a month, along with Gift Aid, we could cover the costs of all of our online events and support groups. We call this scheme CLAPA Champions. People who are willing to invest in the future of the cleft community – invest in our work and what it means to so many families and adults in need each year.

We don’t imagine we are going to do this overnight. Our goal is to reach that target by Christmas. This will provide us with a reliable stream of income to help us make sustainable plans for the future.

Will you be one of the 250? 

Sign up today to become a CLAPA Champion with a regular donation of any amount. You can also make a one-off donation at any time – as a small charity, each one of these really does make a difference to what we’re able to achieve each month.

Please help if you can. We’re doing everything we can to bounce back after the pandemic, but our fundraising just isn’t recovering fast enough. Please help us to ensure we can be there for every family and adult in need for years to come.

Very best wishes,

Claire 

P.S. I am pleased to say five of our trustees have already signed up to become CLAPA Champions. Just 245 sign-ups to go!

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