We tackle homelessness by giving cash directly to those who need it most. Set up a monthly donation so we never run out of funding.
Greater Change partners with existing charities whose support workers are informed about our service. When a person they are working with is in need of a financial boost to overcome homelessness, the support worker refers them to Greater Change.
The person decides exactly what they need to leave homelessness behind for good and works with their support worker on deciding what this will cost. They submit this information and anything they would like to share publicly about themselves.
We start the person’s Greater Change campaign and people donate to help the person achieve their goal. 100% of the donation goes towards this target. Greater Change also uses funding from philanthropy, grants and corporate partnerships to complete campaigns.
When someone completes their campaign, we transfer the money to the partner charity. This partner then purchases the goal for the person.
We believe that Greater Change offers a key and necessary part of the long term solution to homelessness. A lack of financial resilience is an important reason why individuals fall into homelessness or struggle to move out of homelessness.
Greater Change effectively tackles this lack of financial resilience, however we ultimately can’t provide the whole solution. To tackle homelessness for good in the UK, the social care and housing systems also need to be improved.
This is why we place paramount importance on working with other charities and seeking to achieve long term policy change.
Greater Change’s funding comes from a range of sources including philanthropy, grants from trusts and foundations individual donations, local councils and corporate partnerships.
Greater Change supports people who, with some funding, can make a long-term positive change. We support everyone who is homeless, or at immediate risk of becoming homeless.
The charities we partner with refer people to us who would benefit from our help. We then encourage support workers to build up a relationship with individuals who are homeless, ask them what they want, and need to return to a home, and create a clear action plan and a savings target to achieve this. Savings targets are typically for housing deposits, ID, and training courses. However, we do not stipulate what the funding can be used for but take a common-sense approach to fund things which the people we are helping and their support workers demonstrate will help them back into homes and thrive there: people who are homeless have control over the process. Offering this budget shows trust, encourages engagement, and differs from typical offers of generic help. We then fundraise for their savings target. Once the target is reached, the support worker’s charity purchases the saving goal directly, to ensure accountability and transparency.
Greater Change asks all individuals and their social workers whether they would like to be on the platform. People can choose to not be on the platform and receive money from unrestricted funds. Our help is not contingent on people going on the platform.
Some people want to share their stories, and a few details about their future hopes but don't want to be recognisable. In this case, they can use an alias and not share a photo.
It is not compulsory for anyone starting a fundraiser on our platform to share any details — their name, face and story could remain completely anonymised. Yet many are keen to share their stories and are excited by the opportunity to break down stigmas and preconceived judgments that people might have about homelessness. You can read these stories and learn more about the people we work with here.
There are several reasons why profiles are anonymised or not published on our platform. For example, in cases where the person we are supporting is underage or has fled from domestic abuse, it would be inappropriate to publish any identifying details.
Our flexible platform allows you to also give monthly which provides essential funding to our clients who need the money urgently or who need to remain anonymous due to safety concerns and are therefore unable to have a public facing campaign. No matter how you donate, 100% of your money will be used to help our clients.