How You Can Help

Promoting The Appeal

• What resources can I get to help promote the appeal?

  There are lots of resources in our spread the word pages. We also have appeal posters and other fundraising materials available on request. See the Community Fundraising section for more information.

Offering To Support

• How can I help?

  There are a number of ways to support our appeals such as donating, spreading awareness or arranging a fundraising event.

  Find the best way to donate for you here.

  The more people that hear of our appeal the more people will donate. You can help publicise our appeal in various different ways. To find ideas and information visit http://www.dec.org.uk/spread-the-word.
  

  Ideas, information and materials for setting up a fundraising event or sponsored activity can be found on the DEC website: http://www.dec.org.uk/fundraise-for-us and in the Community Fundraising help section.

• How can I offer my / our services to the appeal?
  It is always great to receive offers of help and support for emergency appeals, during busy appeals the DEC is happy to receive most forms of support although in certain cases we may have to turn some away*. The kind of support the DEC can accept include:

  • Holding a fundraising event / collecting money for the appeal
  • Offering free ad-space
  • Offering corporate support- see corporate pages
  • Offering a % of profits - see corporate pages

  *Be aware the DEC does not accept marketing enquiries for new services and will turn these down.
• Can I volunteer with the DEC?

  The DEC is actually a very small organisation with one small office in London and we do not work abroad, all of the money we raise is passed to our member charities. Because of this volunteer opportunities are limited when we are not running an appeal. However if you are interested in helping when we do launch an appeal please email your details to volunteer@dec.org.uk

  See the Jobs & Volunteering page of our website for more details and for information about volunteering with other organisations overseas.

• Can I go to the disaster zone and volunteer?

  Unfortunately the DEC cannot facilitate arranging volunteers in the field as we are a fundraising only organisation. However, it may be useful to contact someone like VSO or Doctors of the World.

  • VSO - http://www.vso.org.uk/

  VSO is an international development charity that works using volunteers. Experienced professionals share their skills with local colleagues in some of the world's poorest communities, working together to find realistic solutions to the problems they face.  

  • Doctors of the World - https://www.doctorsoftheworld.org.uk/

  Doctors of the World specialise in sending trained medical staff to disaster affected areas. They are compiling a database of qualified medical staff with essential experience for use in emergencies. To be considered for inclusion in this database please email with a current CV including full details of availability. Please include which emergency situation you would like to assist with in the subject line. Unfortunately they are not able to accept applications from individuals with no experience of the complexities of working in emergency situations. Email: recruitment@doctorsoftheworld.org.uk

Corporate Support

• How can our company help?

  For details of how your company can help the appeal, or support the DEC in general, please email corporate@dec.org.uk. For more info see our corporate pages.

  If you have a large amount of goods or items that are particularly relevant to the emergency situation, you can contact DEC partner Global Hand, which matches donated goods with voluntary organisations in need of them. Global Hand can help connect you with a suitable charity to receive your goods to help in disaster areas or other areas in need.

  A second option for businesses wanting to items is In Kind Direct. They provide a single contact point for manufacturers, retailers and brands to donate consumer products to the communities that need them.

  In Kind Direct collect and distribute specific products to UK organisations in their network already working overseas. The most needed products are often laundry supplies, essential toiletries like soap and shower gel, period products, nappies and essential baby care, blankets and toilet paper.

Requests for money/partnership/other help

• I'd like to apply for emergency funding for my project

  The DEC only raises funds for its Member Agencies and can not fund any additional projects. All member agency funding is allocated by an indicator of capacity and is carefully tracked and accounted for. For more details visit the how we work page at http://www.dec.org.uk/how-we-work

• Do you have any materials I can use in my project/research

  Unfortunately we don’t have any documentation/resources that we can send out, everything available from us is already on our website. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has a large database of resources and information which may help (https://www.ifrc.org/en/). It may also be helpful to look at the ACAPS website (http://www.acaps.org/) which has lots of resources on crisis assessment and management.

• Can you put a link to my website on the DEC website?

  We only have information about our 14 member charities and corporate partners on our website. We do not post links to any other charities, companies or events.

• I would like to get a job / internship / work experience placement at the DEC.

  The DEC is actually a very small organisation and in general we do not have the resources or capacity to offer internships or work experience placements. Because we only have 20 permanent members of staff, unfortunately job opportunities do not come up very often either. 

  Please check the Jobs & Volunteering section of our website for current vacancies and information on volunteering.

• How do I request aid to a specific region of the disaster?

  The DEC is a fundraising organisation and does not coordinate work on the ground. Work is coordinated by DEC member agencies, working closely with local partners and the UN coordination system to identify all areas affected by the disaster. As this coordination takes place at the national and local level, unfortunately we cannot forward on specific requests for aid.

Other Ways to Help

• Get sponsored or arrange a fundraising event

  See the Community Fundraising section for inspiration and information on setting up and running a fundraising event.

   

• I want to send clothes/blankets/food/donate goods to the affected area

  The DEC is a fundraising organisation so we do not collect, store, sort or distribute goods as our role is solely to raise money for our member charities' work on the ground. 

  Further to this it is often not cost effective to collect goods in the UK as the costs of sending them to a disaster area are usually more than the goods are worth. Where possible, DEC’s member charities will buy relief items in bulk from countries in the affected region. This stimulates the local economy and helps the country get back on its feet. It also saves time and money as it is quicker and cheaper to transport goods to a nearby country or within a country than fly goods out from the UK. Charities can also exercise quality control in making sure the goods are suitable for the people affected.

  If you have a large amount of goods or items that are particularly relevant to the emergency situation, you can contact DEC partner Global Hand, which matches donated goods with voluntary organisations in need of them. Global Hand can help connect you with a suitable charity to receive your goods to help in disaster areas or other areas in need. Please contact Global Hand and mention that you were directed to them by the DEC.

  A second option for businesses wanting to items is In Kind Direct. They provide a single contact point for manufacturers, retailers and brands to donate consumer products to the communities that need them.

  In Kind Direct collect and distribute specific products to UK organisations in their network already working overseas. The most needed products are often laundry supplies, essential toiletries like soap and shower gel, period products, nappies and essential baby care, blankets and toilet paper.

  Please note that neither of our partners or ourselves at the DEC are able to accept donations of goods from individuals. If you are from a company that can help, contact Global Hand or In Kind Direct.

• I have developed a product for use in disaster zones.

  The DEC is a fundraising organisation only, we do not actually work in the field. We raise funds for work carried out by our 14 UK member charities and it is they, not the DEC, who deliver aid directly, or through trusted partners, to those in need in disaster areas. We do not deliver the aid ourselves or decide which programmes or equipment member agencies should use in the field.

  For a list of our member charities who do work in disaster zones go to http://www.dec.org.uk/member-charities