Celebrating Small Charity Week 2025: Building resilient communities together

As we approach Small Charity Week 2025, running from 23-30 June, there's never been a more important time to celebrate the incredible impact of small charities across the UK.

At Clothing Collective, we're proud to be part of this vibrant sector that transforms lives, strengthens communities, and tackles some of society's most pressing challenges with limited resources but unlimited determination. Through our unique approach of providing Charity Shop Gift Cards to people who cannot afford clothing, we're directly addressing clothing poverty - a hidden crisis affecting thousands across the UK.

What is Small Charity Week?

Small Charity Week is a dedicated campaign that amplifies and supports the amazing work of small charities throughout the United Kingdom. The initiative aims to raise the profile of small charities and highlight the essential contribution they make to the lives of millions of individuals, communities, and causes across the UK and around the world.

Small charities—typically defined as organisations with annual incomes between £5,000 and £1 million—are often the unsung heroes of the charitable sector. While they may not have the resources or recognition of larger national charities, they are deeply embedded in their communities, responding quickly to local needs and creating meaningful, lasting change.

A brief history of Small Charity Week

Small Charity Week has grown from a grassroots recognition that small charities needed their own platform to showcase their vital work. The campaign was born from the understanding that these organisations, despite their significant impact, often struggle for visibility and support in a crowded charitable landscape.

Over the years, the week has evolved into a celebration of the creativity, resilience, and dedication that characterises the small charity sector. It provides a valuable opportunity for these organisations to connect with each other, share best practices, access practical support, and most importantly, raise awareness of their causes among potential supporters and funders.

Small Charity Week 2025: "Resilient Charities for Stronger Communities"

This year's theme, "Resilient Charities for Stronger Communities," couldn't be more timely or relevant. The reality is that small charities are under more pressure than ever before. Costs are rising, demand for services is increasing, and funding is becoming increasingly difficult to secure. Yet despite these challenges, small charities continue to be the heartbeat of communities, tackling social challenges and transforming lives.

How you can support small charities like Clothing Collective

Small Charity Week presents numerous opportunities for individuals, businesses, and communities to support organisations like ours. Here are several meaningful ways you can make a difference:

Direct support for Clothing Collective

Make a financial donation: Your monetary donations directly fund the Charity Shop Gift Cards that we distribute to people in need. Whether you choose to make a regular monthly donation or a one-off gift, every contribution helps someone access essential clothing. Over 5,200 people have already been helped through our work, with more than 7,400 gift cards distributed to homeless individuals, families in poverty or crisis, migrants, and ex-offenders.

Donate through reDonate: Clear out your wardrobe and home while supporting our cause! reDonate will collect your unwanted clothing and household items free of charge, then donate money to Clothing Collective based on what they receive. It's a win-win way to declutter while fighting clothing poverty.

Take on a sponsored challenge: Put your fitness goals to good use by taking part in sponsored running, cycling, walking, or other challenge events. Whether it's a local 5K, a charity bike ride, or a sponsored walk, these events are a great way to raise funds while getting active and raising awareness about clothing poverty.

Shop with Give As You Shop: Transform your regular online shopping into charitable giving without spending extra. When you shop through Give As You Shop, retailers donate a percentage of your purchase to Clothing Collective at no additional cost to you. It's an effortless way to support our work while buying things you need anyway.

Broader support for the small charity sector

Beyond supporting Clothing Collective directly, you can help strengthen the entire small charity ecosystem:

Raise awareness: Use your social media platforms to highlight the work of small charities. Share their stories, celebrate their achievements, and help amplify their voices during Small Charity Week and throughout the year.

Volunteer your skills: Many small charities operate with minimal staff and limited budgets. Consider offering your professional skills—whether in marketing, finance, IT, or any other area—to help a local small charity develop its capacity.

Corporate partnership: If you work for a business, consider proposing a partnership with a local small charity. This could involve employee volunteering days, fundraising challenges, or pro-bono services.

Grant-making and individual giving: Small charities often miss out on larger grants that go to well-known organisations. Research small charities working in causes you care about and consider making them beneficiaries of your charitable giving.

Attend events: Many small charities organise community events during Small Charity Week. Attending these events not only provides direct support but also helps build the community connections that are vital for their ongoing work.

The ripple effect of supporting small charities

When you support a small charity like Clothing Collective, you're not just making a donation or volunteering your time—you're investing in community resilience. Small charities understand local needs intimately and can respond quickly and flexibly to emerging challenges. They often serve as testing grounds for innovative approaches that later scale up to influence policy and practice across the sector.

At Clothing Collective, we see this reality every day. Clothing poverty affects people from all walks of life—from families struggling to clothe their children for school, to individuals experiencing homelessness who need basic items for warmth and dignity, to migrants starting new lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Our Charity Shop Gift Card program provides a dignified way for people to access clothing when they need it most, giving them choice and preserving their self-respect while meeting essential needs.

Looking forward: Building Resilience Together

As Small Charity Week 2025 approaches, we're reminded that resilience isn't built in isolation—it's created through community, partnership, and shared commitment to making a difference. The theme "Resilient Charities for Stronger Communities" encapsulates this beautifully, highlighting how supporting small charities is ultimately about building the kind of society we all want to live in.

At Clothing Collective, we're excited to be part of this celebration and to continue our vital work addressing clothing poverty across the UK. Through our network of partner organisations, we've been able to help over 5,200 people access essential clothing when they couldn't afford it themselves. Each gift card we provide represents not just clothing, but dignity, warmth, and hope for someone facing difficult circumstances. But we can't do it alone. Whether you choose to support us directly, champion other small charities in your community, or simply help spread the word about the incredible work happening in the small charity sector, you're contributing to something much larger than any individual organisation.

Small Charity Week 2025 is more than just seven days in June—it's an opportunity to recognise, celebrate, and strengthen the organisations that are quietly making our communities better, one life at a time. Join us in making this year's Small Charity Week truly impactful.

Together, we can build resilient charities for stronger communities.

To learn more about how you can support Clothing Collective during Small Charity Week and throughout the year, visit our Support Us pages. For more information about Small Charity Week 2025, visit smallcharityweek.org.uk.